Everything's looking good in that photo - except the weather. :-(

The janitorial supply building, with the hideous facade, is now for lease and there's a rendering of what it would look like when it's removed: lots of brick.

The janitorial supply building, with the hideous facade, is now for lease and there's a rendering of what it would look like when it's removed: lots of brick.

There is some more about this over at Columbus Underground:

 

From New Stuff on High Street:

 

"Just noticed the Janton building at 6th and High is empty and there are renderings and for lease signs on the building. Looks like the horrible aluminum siding and stucco is being removed to create a retail space facing High."

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=6th+and+High,+Columbus,+OH&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.094886,71.279297&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=N+High+St+%26+E+6th+Ave,+Columbus,+Franklin,+Ohio+43201&ll=39.987511,-83.004177&spn=0,0.017402&z=16&layer=c&cbll=39.988688,-83.005827&panoid=Dp09jFQ4DJPxr-3O6hbMTQ&cbp=12,93,,0,3.88

 

"Here is the leasing information with renderings:  1288 North High Street"

 

"Note the side bullet that mentions "THE PROJECT INCLUDES 8± NEW RESIDENTIAL UNITS" which I presume are the lofts on top."

All I can say is "WOW" to this idea.  If the Janton Building gets renovated, it would transform one of the biggest eyesores on High Street between the Campus and the Short North into a beautiful mixed-use urban building.  Not only that, but its in a key location as well. 

 

The Janton Building is located between the new Kroger store under construction to the north and the recently renovated York Masonic Temple Building (now the York on High Brownstones and Lofts) to the south.  You can see the Janton Building in Keith's photo of the Kroger store under construction a couple of posts above.  The beige siding and stucco of the Janton is to the right of the store - and you can see the top of the York Masonic Temple Building just above the Janton Building.

Weinland Park to sprout houses as Wagenbrenner gets started

By Brian R. Ball, Business First

Date: Friday, May 27, 2011, 6:00am EDT

 

Wagenbrenner Development Co. is moving ahead on building houses this summer in a neighborhood anchored by the former Columbus Coated Fabrics site, a step prompted by the approval of funding for underground utilities in Weinland Park.  Wagenbrenner expects to begin building 37 houses on North Sixth Street and Grant Avenue and three homes on sites scattered north of Eighth Avenue as early as July.

 

The Columbus Coated Fabrics project has advanced in fits and starts over the past seven years.  The plant, which produced wallpaper, closed in 2001, when owner Decorative Surfaces International Inc. filed for bankruptcy.  Columbus scrap dealer James Rame failed to close on a deal to buy the property in 2004 after salvaging metal and materials under a contract with the property owner’s court-appointed trustee.  Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment, the developer affiliated with Ohio State University, gained control of the site two years later and worked to forge a public-private partnership to redevelop it.  By 2007, it had chosen Wagenbrenner for the job.

 

READ MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/print-edition/2011/05/27/weinland-park-to-sprout-houses.html

New urbanism

Kroger designs store to blend with Short North streetscape

 

Sunday, July 24, 2011  03:14 AM

By Tracy Turner

 

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The newest store on N. High Street near the Short North has an entrance just off the sidewalk, big windows and retro signs befitting the neighborhood of art galleries, specialty shops and coffeehouses.

 

Oh, and it's a Kroger.

 

The store, which opens to the public Tuesday, was designed not only to sell area residents milk and bread but to serve visually and commercially as a bridge between the expanding development that is starting to link the Short North and the Ohio State University campus area.

 

 

NEW URL: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2011/07/24/new-urbanism.html

 

Columbus Underground had a really nice piece on the brand new High Street Kroger in Weinland Park.  Walker interviewed a Kroger Manager about the new store and future development on the site.  Beautiful interior photos too.

 

New Kroger Opens in Weinland Park

By: Walker Evans, Columbus Underground

Published on July 26, 2011 - 7:00 am

 

The long awaited grand opening of the new Short North Kroger located at 1350 North High Street takes place today at 9am.  The new store, located in the Weinland Park neighborhood, features a wide variety of new modern grocery amenities.  We spoke yesterday with Beth Wilkin, Advertising Manager at Kroger to find out more.

 

 

READ MORE: http://www.columbusunderground.com/new-kroger-opens-in-weinland-park

Here's a few more exterior photos of the new Kroger in Weinland Park.  Two views from High Street of the building and one view of the streetscape:

 

 

 

 

 

There's seems to be much debate as to what to call the new Kroger.  It was previously referred to as the OSU Kroger Store.  Urban advocates here and at Columbus Underground refer to it as the Weinland Park Kroger Store.  Kroger itself is calling it the Short North Kroger.  Alot of people are surprised by The Short North designation.  But, if you look at the location map of the new High Street Kroger below, it is actually closer to the Short North boundaries then to OSU's boundaries.  So maybe calling it the Short North Kroger isn't too inaccurate.

 

Maybe they can move the arches up to there ;).

^A couple more arches and they would be all the way up to King; it would not be that hard/unrealistic if someone had the desire.

 

I grabbed dinner and bought groceries at the new Kroger tonight. The offerings are very similar to the Brewery District Kroger, my usual grocery stop, but the open windows onto High really make the store feel more inviting inside.

Kroger sometimes names their stores after the more well known brand in an area rather than what is geographically correct. Hyde Park Kroger is in Oakley. There's other examples, but that's all I can think of offhand.

Reports of a new development project on the High Street portion of Weinland Park.  The site address is 1398 N. High Street and it's on the east side of High Street between Seventh Street and Euclid Avenue.  The site is immediately north of the new Kroger store and across the street from a very nice Columbus Branch Library.  The site is currently occupied by a one-story building that contains a Wash & Tan Laundromat and a Dollar Tree store as well as a surface parking lot.  The current building and its arrangement of the site looks alot like the old Kroger store before its was replaced.

 

Here's a pdf of the developer's application to the city BZA:

 

http://bzs.columbus.gov/uploadedFiles/Building_and_Zoning_Services/Boards_and_Commissions/Zoning/Board_of_Zoning_Adjustment/Meetings/2011/Active_Cases/11310-00498%201398-1400%20North%20High%20Street.pdf

 

The proposed development is a five-story mixed-use building, as follows:

- Ground Floor: Walgreens space at Euclid and High; remaining ground floor is first level of a two-level parking garage with 48 spaces

- Second Floor: Parking Garage with 123 spaces (161 total spaces on both levels)

- Third to Fifth Floors: 28 apartment units per floor - 84 units total

 

View from Seventh and High (B&W rendering from the application)

 

 

View from Euclid and High (B&W rendering from the application)

New Kroger store in the background

More about the proposed mixed-use development from Columbus Underground:

 

CU NEWS THREAD:  New Five Story Development Proposed for University District

 

DISCUSSION THREAD: New 5-Story Mixed-Use Development Proposed for High Street

 

---

More about it from The Columbus Dispatch.  Includes a location map and a color version of one of the previously posted b&w renderings:

 

DISPATCH ARTICLE:  Apartments, retail proposed near OSU

Yay!

A cautious "Yay."

 

This is a corner that is wholly appropriate for such density and I like the concept, though I'm not too keen on second-story parking. Of greater concern, though, is the occupancy. What sort of retail? What sort of housing? Weinland Park is a neighborhood of great economic and racial diversity. I do a lot of work on a HUD planning project in the area, and a lot of involved groups and private businesses are hoping to keep a mix of economic diversity. Some gentrification may be inevitable, but the trick is to maintain affordable housing beyond the renovated Section 8 housing already in the area. And with affordable housing comes the need for affordable consumer goods. The dollar store on the site of this proposed development is very important to the residents of Weinland Park. Will this development accommodate that? And will it accommodate the loss of that important store during construction?

Any project is open to legitimate criticism.  Even a project like this - which would transform one of the most anti-urban and anti-pedestrian blocks in this area of High Street into an appropriately dense, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use urban area.  Check out the CU links posted previously for some of that criticism.

 

Most legitimate criticism I've heard:  That the proposed mid-block exit from the parking garage onto High Street should be removed.

 

Least legitimate criticism I've heard:  That the development would displace a Dollar Tree store.

^ I respectfully disagree. Something that is requested and needed by residents in the immediate area is absolutely a legitimate concern.

Even when I solely worked part time and lived on my own, I did not "need" a dollar store, so any possible notion that this is a slight at low-income residents doesn't hold water. In any case, it may reappear on opposite corner where a commercial building is slated to be built between this and the Kroger. The curb cuts for Kroger don't set a good standard for keeping those out mid-block on this block either, but even so this is a big improvement with 28 apartments for a residential tax base where one did not exist previously and in mostly ignored neighborhoods like Weinland Park (until progress in the Short North forced the city to address the neighborhood) where a declining population correlates with less money going to the city and less investment sought by the city, that is much more needed than dollar store. 

^ I respectfully disagree. Something that is requested and needed by residents in the immediate area is absolutely a legitimate concern.

 

I can appreciate and respect your viewpoint and your work for the Weinland Park neighborhood.  But I really do think you’re off-base on this. 

 

I think you’re assuming two things about this development displacing the existing Dollar Tree store and its customers that just don’t seem to be valid.

 

1) You're assuming the existing Dollar Tree would be unable to rent another building in the area.

 

2) You're assuming the existing customers of the Dollar Tree at 1398 N. High Street would be unable to shop at the Family Dollar store located three blocks south at 1101 N. High Street.

^ I'm not assuming anything. I don't have to: You seem to be assuming everything on my behalf.

 

I like this proposed development. All I said is that it is a "legitimate concern" for low-income residents in the area to be worried about the possible loss of a store that is important to them.

I like this proposed development.

 

So do I.  I'm glad we can agree on that.

 

Walker Evans posted an excellent article about the revitalization occurring in the Weinland Park neighborhood of Columbus. 

 

The article looks at the bricks & mortar development in the neighborhood - such as new infill homes being built on Fifth and Sixth Streets and renovated homes in the same area.  Larger-scale development projects are hi-lighted - such as the Columbus Coated Fabrics site, a large corner site at North 4th Street and East 8th Avenue, the formerly abandoned 3M/Auld factory site, and a reconstructed Grant Avenue. 

 

In addition to the physical re-development of the neighborhood, the article looks at concurrent community outreach programs to help existing and future neighborhood residents.  These programs are part of the new Weinland Park Collaborative begun in 2010 and the Godman Guild founded in 1898.

 

 

The Rebirth of Weinland Park

By Walker Evans, Columbus Underground

Published on October 17, 2011 7:00 am

 

Weinland Park is a neighborhood in transition.  Situated between the Ohio State University and The Short North, this largely residential area is on the cusp of a renaissance, thanks largely in part to one of the most ambitious collaborative efforts to ever be planned in Central Ohio.

 

The Weinland Park Collaborative (WPC) was officially launched in August of 2010 as a partnership effort to revitalize the neighborhood.  The collaborative — which is made up of over 20 agencies including The Ohio State University, The City of Columbus, Campus Partners, The Columbus Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, United Way of Central Ohio and others — provides a unique opportunity to redevelop the entire area with a large-scale strategic plan and provide a way to reduce redundancy across the various groups involved.

 

MORE: http://www.columbusunderground.com/the-rebirth-of-weinland-park

Walker Evans posted an excellent article about the revitalization occurring in the Weinland Park neighborhood of Columbus. 

 

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. Took several months worth of meetings, interviews, photo shoots and followups (and a heavy dose of procrastination on my part) before I got that finished and published. Really happy with how it turned out.

 

And even happier with the progress made in Weinland Park. I truly believe that neighborhood will look and feel vastly different in another three years.

 

Set your countdown clocks! ;)

More updates about the ongoing transformation of the Weinland Park neighborhood.

 

Columbus Underground has a photo of the newly rebuilt section of Grant Avenue between 5th Avenue and 11th Avenue in Weinland Park as part of a general update titled - The List: 12 New Apartment Developments Around Columbus.

 

 

This rebuilt section of Grant Avenue is near the former Columbus Coated Fabrics factory site.  The CCF factory was demolished and the brownfield site cleaned up with city and state environmental funds under the direction of local developer, Wagenbrenner Development.  In a recent interviews, Wagenbrenner revealed that they have plans to add 200-300 apartment units at the former CCF site. 

Another Weinland Park neighborhood update comes from the blog Weinland Park - History and hysteria in an urban neighborhood.  The November 15, 2011 update - Riding Around the WP - also had a photo of the rebuilt section of Grant Avenue between 5th Avenue and 11th Avenue.  This one shows the grass and street trees planted and a traffic calming circle that is part of the rebuilt street: (a much larger version of this photo is at the blog site)

 

 

Also included in the Nov. 15 post are photos of the following additional projects in the Weinland Park neighborhood:

• Photo of two of four Habitat houses being built on North Fifth Street.

• Photo of a rehabbed house on North Fifth Street that was converted from a double to single occupancy.  It is one of four rehabs done, four about to start and 32 yet to come by the Weinland Park Collaborative.

• Photo of multiple low income tax credit homes being built on North Sixth Street.  Behind these homes will be matching market rate housing on the Columbus Coated Fabrics site.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS: http://weinlandpark.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/riding-around-the-wp/

Grant looked a bit different the last time I went down that street. I also wonder if those red buildings will still be standing. The eastern part of WP always felt much more like Milo-Grogan: I used to forget it was WP until approaching 4th.

Hmm, I don't think I've ever been through there.

The two new Habitat for Humanity homes in Weinland Park on N. 5th Street are finished.  The City previously removed two condemned houses on side-by-side lots just north of the corner of N. 5th Street and E. 6th Avenue.  Habitat was then given ownership of the two lots and started building new homes on each lot.  This month, Habitat finished their construction and handed off the keys to each home to the new owners.  Below are some reports about this:

 

A Weinland Park blog took a photo of the two homes still under construction in November 2011.  The homes are mostly complete on the outside except for the siding on the upper story facing N. 5th Street.

 

Columbus Dispatch: Families receive keys to Habitat homes in Weinland Park

 

A report about the two new Habitat homes on N. 5th Street from the Columbus Habitat For Humanity homepage.  A link to an NBC 4 piece about the new owners of the home receiving their keys: Two Families Receive Keys to their Chase-Sponsored Homes (WCMH - NBC 4 TV)

Nice to hear a positive story from the Dispatch on an area that's seen some improvement, but still has some issues. I liked the part where a donor gave 2,000+ to replace tools stolen to finish one of the homes.

The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation has purchased the vacant lot at the northeast corner of N. High Street and Fifth Avenue (1230 N. High Street).  This site is just north of the official Fifth Avenue northern border of the Short North and is located within the Weinland Park neighborhood boundaries.  Because it is so close to the Short North (the Short North arches continue past this intersection), the site might logically be referred to as being in the Short North.  But officially, it is a Weinland Park location under the jurisdication of the University District Area Commission.  Much like the new multi-story Kroger that opened one block north of this site is referred to as "The Short North Kroger".

 

The approximately 0.64 acre lot at the northeast corner of High & Fifth was purchased by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation for $1.6 million.  The property previously contained a Shell gas station which was demolished some years ago (with the underground gas tanks presumably removed as well).  Along with the purchase of the property, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) announced plans to construct the following at the northeast corner of High & Fifth:

 

- An AHF operated Healthcare Center

- An AHF operated Pharmacy and HIV testing site

- AHF regional offices

- An AHF operated 'Out of the Closet' retail thrift store

 

AHF bills itself as the largest global AIDS organization.  It has 22 other locations in California and Florida.  The Columbus location would be the second 'Out of the Closet' retail location built from the ground-up, following the format of their location in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

Below are links to articles from Columbus Underground, the Columbus Dispatch and a press release from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation at their website.  No plans or renderings of the proposed AHF development are available yet.  The 'Out of the Closet' store exterior shown in the AHF press release and at Columbus Underground is a photo of their retail location at Ft. Lauderdale. 

 

Columbus Underground: New Short North Development to House AIDS Healthcare Foundation Offices, Thrift Store & Medical Center

 

Columbus Dispatch: AIDS group plans to build pharmacy, thrift store on N. High

 

AIDS Healthcare Foundation: Ohio, Here We Come! AHF to Open “Out of the Closet Thrift Store,” Pharmacy & HIV Testing Site in Columbus

Would never have guessed something was ever going to be built there. It'll be weird to come back and see that big empty lot gone, though I have to agree after looking at other locations that their one-story, ugly pink format needs to go. Hopefully with the overlay they'll maybe have apartments or at the very least go with a better color scheme. It's hard not to consider the area a part of the Short North when the namesake arches welcome you to the neighborhood a couple blocks north of 5th and the businesses there certainly mesh with the rest

Would never have guessed something was ever going to be built there.

 

You never guessed that something would ever be built at the intersection of Columbus' main street and a major east-west arterial?

^ The way Columbus' property tax structure works for vacant land does make it really easy to sit on it. The landowners were only paying $500 a year in property taxes since there were no improvements on the land once the gas station was razed. Nonetheless, something was bound to go in eventually.

Would never have guessed something was ever going to be built there.

 

You never guessed that something would ever be built at the intersection of Columbus' main street and a major east-west arterial?

 

I didn't mean it that literally, but considering how long this lot sat there with no word on any progress in one of the city's signature neighborhoods it seemed like anything going in here was a long ways off. The huge parking lot off of revitalized Gay St brings to mind another long untouched lot that you would think would have succumbed to pressure for development thanks to the new businesses and developments nearby, but sits empty years later or out of nowhere there could be someone announcing tomorrow to build a nice hotel and/or apartment building there. Like GCrites80s says, lots of lots ripe for development are instead being sat on til the very last second and that goes quadruple for less popular neighborhoods where there is much less incentive to build. Actually, this takes care of the largest empty lot in the Short North outside of the former Ibiza lot.

 

It would be nice to see a few new spots help bridge the destinations on this quiet four block stretch of WP between Commonwealth Sandwich Bar (W 8th) and Circus (W 5th), but E 5th could certainly use just a few more businesses to make it stand out. Though I'm wondering whatever happened to the new bar that was supposed to go into Bar L'Etranger.

From OnCampus - Ohio State's Faculty/Staff Newspaper.  A feature story about one of the owner's of a new Habitat for Humanity home built in the Weinland Park neighborhood.  This is not the same home that was reported on earlier in this thread on N. 5th Street.  This home is located on Hamlet Avenue.  Although it looks like this Hamlet Avenue home design is similar, if not the same as the two N. 5th Street homes.

 

 

Giving the neighborhood a lift

By Jeff McCallister, OnCampus Newspaper

Posted on | January 4, 2012

 

It may come as a surprise to some people that Debra Sampson built up a good part of her 100 hours of “sweat equity” in her new Habitat for Humanity house working on the bathrooms.  After all, the six-year employee in OSU’s Facilities Operations and Development spends almost all of her third-shift hours cleaning the bathrooms in Dreese Laboratories.  Seems like she might have wanted to put a little more separation between her work and home lives.  But that’s just not her way of thinking.

(. . .)

Sampson was able to take advantage of Ohio State’s $3,000 downpayment assistance in the form of a no-interest, forgivable loan; she opened an Individual Development Account, in which money set aside by the homeowner is matched 2-to-1 from a fund administered by Campus Partners to provide a rainy-day fund; and she took numerous homeowner classes, ranging from managing a budget to computer literacy to maintenance and home repair.  She put in the required 70 hours of work on the new house (much of it on the bathrooms and on the new one-car garage) as well as 30 more hours working on one of the other five new Habitat houses in Weinland Park.

 

MORE: http://oncampus.osu.edu/2012/01/giving-the-neighborhood-a-lift/

New property taxes staying to fix Weinland Park

Infrastructure in neighborhood will get benefits

By Doug Caruso, The Columbus Dispatch

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 5:19 AM

 

Columbus will set aside new property taxes on developments in the Weinland Park neighborhood to pay for streets and other public improvements there.  The Columbus City Council approved two tax-increment-financing districts last night in an agreement with Wagenbrenner Development, the company that is redeveloping the former Columbus Coated Fabrics site with homes and condominiums.

 

In the districts, taxes on the increased value of the property will go into a special fund.  That fund will reimburse Wagenbrenner for upgrades it makes to public streets, curbs, street lights and other infrastructure.

 

More - including a map of the two TIF areas:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/02/07/taxes-staying-to-fix-district.html

Reports of a new development project on the High Street portion of Weinland Park.  The site address is 1398 N. High Street and it's on the east side of High Street between Seventh Avenue and Euclid Avenue.  The site is immediately north of the new Kroger store and across the street from a very nice Columbus Branch Library.  The site is currently occupied by a one-story building that contains a Wash & Tan Laundromat and a Dollar Tree store as well as a surface parking lot.  The current building and its arrangement of the site looks alot like the old Kroger store before its was replaced.

 

Here's a pdf of the developer's application to the city BZA:

 

http://bzs.columbus.gov/uploadedFiles/Building_and_Zoning_Services/Boards_and_Commissions/Zoning/Board_of_Zoning_Adjustment/Meetings/2011/Active_Cases/11310-00498%201398-1400%20North%20High%20Street.pdf

 

The proposed development is a five-story mixed-use building, as follows:

- Ground Floor: Walgreens space at Euclid and High; remaining ground floor is first level of a two-level parking garage with 48 spaces

- Second Floor: Parking Garage with 123 spaces (161 total spaces on both levels)

- Third to Fifth Floors: 28 apartment units per floor - 84 units total

 

 

View from Seventh and High (B&W rendering from the application)

 

 

View from Euclid and High (B&W rendering from the application)

New Kroger store in the background

Below is a link to a recent Dispatch article about the above quoted five-story development proposed for Seventh Avenue and High Street.  According to the article, the project is more or less ready to go.  The project received a variance from the City's BZA to allow its 75 foot overall height (after the University Area Commission recommended disapproval).  Although it sounds like before the final building permits can be issued by the city, the project still needs architectural approval from the UAC.  The project developer, Kohr Royer Griffith, estimated a possible Fall 2012 groundbreaking.

 

Dispatch: Five-story apartment building proposed for N. High St. in Weinland Park

 

There is also a lively discussion of the project over at Columbus Underground: New Five Story Building at High & Seventh

 

Good to hear it's going forward, but needing to get a variance for a five-story building on the main drag of a city of 800,000 is a waste of time and the UAC claiming it's too tall is confusing.

 

*edit: I actually found myself in 100% agreement with Jon's comment.  :o

Good to hear it's going forward, but needing to get a variance for a five-story building on the main drag of a city of 800,000 is a waste of time and the UAC claiming it's too tall is confusing.

 

*edit: I actually found myself in 100% agreement with Jon's comment.  :o

 

Yeah, it's good that the UAC has little power in this regard and the city basically told them to drop dead.  The comments some of the members made were completely out of touch.  I think, outside of those few people, most understand that is is one of the most important commercial strips in the city, and there's no reason to limit development to 1-2 stories, especially considering there are buildings at 5+ stories mere blocks away. 

A representive of the Wagenbrenner Company posted this Weinland Park neighborhood development update at Columbus Underground:

 

"Just wanted to give the board a a quick update...The first round of our NSP houses (10 total) all but 1 is in contract. We should have have another 4 houses hitting the market by the end of spring. Also construction on the 6 new builds on the corner of N 4th ST and E 8th should be starting in less than a month."

 

Also, there is photo update of these same Weinland Park homes over at SkyscraperCity.

A representive of the Wagenbrenner Company posted this Weinland Park neighborhood development update at Columbus Underground:

 

"Just wanted to give the board a a quick update...The first round of our NSP houses (10 total) all but 1 is in contract. We should have have another 4 houses hitting the market by the end of spring. Also construction on the 6 new builds on the corner of N 4th ST and E 8th should be starting in less than a month."

 

Also, there is photo update of these same Weinland Park homes over at SkyscraperCity.

 

Good to know that they are being sold as they are built. 

More about the former Janton Building at 6th and High (1288 N. High St.) that was previously mentioned in this thread HERE.

 

The project website mentioned there would be ground floor retail space and approximately 8 upper floor residences.  Columbus Underground posted a recent article profiling the business that will be occupying the ground floor retail space:

 

---

BRU is Bringing Brew-on-Premises Concept to Columbus

 

Something is brewing at 1288 North High Street.  Yes, we’re talking about yet another beer-brewing business in the works, but this one has a couple of unique twists.  BRU is the name of the new venture from co-founders Tim Ward and Gavin Meyers, which will become the region’s first “brew-on-premises” concept.

 

“There’s probably 8,000 to 10,000 home brewers in Columbus and many other people who would like to home brew but probably don’t know how,” explains Meyers. “It can be intimidating, expensive, messy, and time consuming.”  This is where BRU comes in.  Their facility will provide eight 15-gallon brew kettles that customers can rent to take their hobby to the next level.  BRU also houses a fermentation room (dubbed “the beer nursery”) where the beer can complete its transformational process before being bottled on-site and sent home with the customer.

 

In addition to the on-site brewing facility, BRU will operate a full service bar and a home brew supply shop in the same space.  The bar will have a full liquor license and will feature 31 beers on tap with half of the handles being beers brewed in-house, and the other half being a collection of favorite beers from around the country. ... BRU aims to be open sometime in July or August of 2012.  To follow along with updates visit www.Facebook.com/YouBRU.  More information will be online soon at www.YouBRU.com.

 

MORE: http://www.columbusunderground.com/bru-is-bringing-brew-on-premises-concept-to-columbus

 

Photos of the Janton Building renovation at 1288 N. High Street:

 

High Street view of the building prior to renovation

 

 

Sixth Avenue view of the building prior to renovation

 

 

High Street rendering of the building

 

 

High Street and Sixth Avenue rendering of the building

 

 

View of the building under renovation in December 2011 from the YouBRU facebook page

 

 

Current view of the building from the Columbus Underground article about the YouBRU business

^Those renderings are obviously off the table now that the cladding has been removed and the new windows installed in the four original openings. I look forward to the finished product--a product of Krogentrification.

They were probably thinking that curved windows would really suck to buy but found the solution that they ended up using.

More photos of the single-family homes being built in the Weinland Park neighborhood by Wagenbrenner in the Construction Roundup - March 2012 from Columbus Underground.

 

 

I was really impressed to see how quickly these Weinland Park homes are sprouting up. There's at least two dozen in a row along two blocks of Sixth. And many more to come.

The Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation has purchased the vacant lot at the northeast corner of N. High Street and Fifth Avenue (1230 N. High Street).  This site is just north of the official Fifth Avenue northern border of the Short North and is located within the Weinland Park neighborhood boundaries.  Because it is so close to the Short North (the Short North arches continue past this intersection), the site might logically be referred to as being in the Short North.  But officially, it is a Weinland Park location under the jurisdication of the University District Area Commission.  Much like the new multi-story Kroger that opened one block north of this site is referred to as "The Short North Kroger".

 

The approximately 0.64 acre lot at the northeast corner of High & Fifth was purchased by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation for $1.6 million.  The property previously contained a Shell gas station which was demolished some years ago (with the underground gas tanks presumably removed as well).  Along with the purchase of the property, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) announced plans to construct the following at the northeast corner of High & Fifth:

 

- An AHF operated Healthcare Center

- An AHF operated Pharmacy and HIV testing site

- AHF regional offices

- An AHF operated 'Out of the Closet' retail thrift store

 

AHF bills itself as the largest global AIDS organization.  It has 22 other locations in California and Florida.  The Columbus location would be the second 'Out of the Closet' retail location built from the ground-up, following the format of their location in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

Below are links to articles from Columbus Underground, the Columbus Dispatch and a press release from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation at their website.  No plans or renderings of the proposed AHF development are available yet.  The 'Out of the Closet' store exterior shown in the AHF press release and at Columbus Underground is a photo of their retail location at Ft. Lauderdale. 

 

Columbus Underground: New Short North Development to House AIDS Healthcare Foundation Offices, Thrift Store & Medical Center

 

Columbus Dispatch: AIDS group plans to build pharmacy, thrift store on N. High

 

AIDS Healthcare Foundation: Ohio, Here We Come! AHF to Open “Out of the Closet Thrift Store,” Pharmacy & HIV Testing Site in Columbus

More about the building plans for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation Offices, Thrift Store & Medical Center proposed at the northeast corner of Fifth and High.  An excellent Weinland Park blog posted the submitted site plan and building elevations for the "Out Of The Closet Thrift Store and Pharmacy at 1230 N. High Street" at "The southwest corner proposal".

 

In the past few weeks, we've seen a plethora of outstanding projects proposed for High Street.  Such as the two 6-story retail/apartment buildings at Columbus Commons in downtown.  And the 6-story Pizzuti office building and 11-story Joseph Hotel in the Short North.  And a 5-story addition to the Fireproof Building a little further north.  Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be adding this Out Of The Closet proposal to the outstanding category.

 

The Out Of The Closet Thrift Store and Pharmacy proposal is a single-story structure.  Their architects have tried to camouflage this by making the High Street and Fifth Street building elevations look like two-stories and by adding a rather penile looking three-story corner entry tower.  It does locate the building along the High Street and Fifth Street property lines in an urban configuration.  However, half of the Fifth Street frontage is open to the rear parking lot.  The High Street frontage has maybe 25% open, as well as a curb cut.  Plus, more than half of the overall site is devoted to surface parking.

 

Basically, it's more or less an urban Walgreens configuration.  Very disappointing for the corner of Fifth and High.  The proposed design is generally not being well received - see the Columbus Underground thread "Old Shell Station at 5th & High - What's going on?". 

 

Now sometimes the original proposal can get improved dramatically (see the 5-story addition to the Fireproof Building which began as a 1-story proposal).  However, the Fireproof Building was under the jurisdiction of the Italian Village Commission - one of the Short North's two historic review commissions.  The Out Of The Closet proposal is located in Weinland Park and it's under the jurisdiction of the University Area Commission (UAC).  Both groups have design review powers.  Unfortunately, the UAC is far less strict than the Short North commissions.  So it will likely be more difficult to dramatically improve this project like the Fireproof project was in the Short North.  But we'll have to see what news comes from this initial proposal.

This is a good example of why Columbus desperately needs a "mixed-use overlay" -- something that does what the insufficient "urban commercial overlay" was intended to do: make the best use of great space with multi-story buildings on major commercial and transportation corridors. (In that sense, a mixed-use overlay is basically "transit-oriented development." Cities all over the country are routinely getting mixed-use, multi-story buildings on such corridors. Yet, despite a few of the examples cited above, Columbus still gets way too many single-story, single use buildings on sites with far greater potential.

NBC4 had a pretty decent item about the on-going revitalization of the Weinland Park neighborhood.  It looked at both the "big project" part of those revitalization efforts (rebuilt streets, new construction and renovated homes) as well as the "grass roots" part of those revitalization efforts (litter pick-up, community gardens and quality-of-life issues).  Below is the link to report and video from NBC4:

 

NBC4: Making A Difference In Weinland Park