Despite the height of the pandemic putting a wrench in new development last year, the Tri-Village area still has major plans in store for the near future.
Upper Arlington
Westmont at the Lane is a new mixed used development on the corner of Lane Avenue and Westmont Boulevard including residential apartments.
Emma Speight, community affairs director for the city of Upper Arlington, says the Arlington Gateway Project will likely be one of the most significant redevelopment projects the city has seen.
The project is estimated to cost around $100 million.
“This is a project that’s been in the making for about five years now,” she says. “It was first brought to the board of zoning and planning in 2016, and it has gone through various iterations over the years, finally reaching approval of the final development plan (in) … 2018, but then they made some amendments to it, and that was approved in 2019.”
The Arlington Gateway Project is being managed by Continental Real Estate and will have a six-story apartment building that wraps around a seven-story parking garage. The ground floor will feature retail, shopping and restaurant space. East of the apartment there will be an additional five-story building with 139,000 square feet meant for office space.
Although the project end date is pending, Speight estimates that it will take roughly two to three years to complete. While the pandemic extended the timeline, the Arlington Gateway couldn’t be halted entirely.
“(COVID-19) may have slowed the start of things down a little bit, but it has not stopped the project,” Speight says. “Upper Arlington is a very desirable part of the Columbus market, the region, and because of our access to OSU to what’s going on (at) west campus, … this is immediately adjacent (to) all of that, so it’s all just going to build on itself, enhancing the vibrancy of the area and the attractiveness of it.”
With such a large-scale project, there are numerous benefits that the surrounding communities will enjoy, such as more housing opportunities.
“It’s going to increase alternate housing options for either existing or prospective residents in the number of apartments that are going to be added. We’re very short on availability of apartments in the community, so that’s a plus,” Speight says.
TownePlace Suites by Marriott on West Lane Avenue opened in September 2020.
Community members will also have more opportunities to patronize businesses and shops that weren’t as easily accessed before.
“The businesses that will be there will obviously continue to build on the vibrancy of the Lane Avenue corridor, having access to restaurants and additional shops, et cetera,” says Speight. “The businesses will obviously drive income tax generation, which will be a boom for the city as well, so it will help boost revenues to help us maintain the services and delivery of things that residents expect. So, all around, just a plus for the community, and it’s going to make quite a statement to people as they drive into our community from Lane Avenue.”
But the excitement doesn’t end with the Arlington Gateway. Speight says a new hotel recently entered phase two of construction, which will bring another mixed-use building to Lane Avenue. Speight says the building should finish up by the end of the summer, with townhomes flanking it to complete the construction. The Kingsdale Mixed-Use Project will contribute to the community center renovations.
Read more about the Upper Arlington Community Center here
Speight says the community center is part of the larger Kingsdale Mixed-Used Project, also with Continental Real Estate, which will feature two “pretty significant” buildings. Speight estimates construction on the community center to begin in about a year, as the team is currently working on detailed design.
According to the city’s website, the Kingsdale Mixed-Use Project will also be comprised of a seven-story older adult living facility, a seven-story apartment building, eight two-story townhouses, two structured parking arrangements, the relocation of the traffic signal on Northwest Boulevard and new traffic signals on Tremont and Ridgecliff roads. Construction began in late spring 2021.
“This is an exciting time for Upper Arlington,” says Speight. “A lot of years of work has gone into planning for the community’s future and its second century, and I think this is starting to show the results of that work.”
Grandview Heights
The city of Grandview Heights is working on some new developments of its own. One project already nearing fruition is the 4-8 building project for Grandview Heights schools.
P’Elizabeth Koelker, director of planning and community development for the city, says that originally, Grandview Heights campus included a 4-8 building, which was the middle school, and a 9-12 building, which was the high school. This project will merge the two buildings into one, each with their own separate entrances, but connected inside.
Read more about the 4-8 building here
Koelker says that plans to prepare the building in July for the upcoming school year in August are already underway. However, Grandview Heights High School students will get to attend classes in the new building first.
“So, they’ll move the high schoolers into the 4-8 building, and then they’ll kind of reconfigure the construction area around the whole school complex there and start construction on the high school, or renovation … immediately thereafter, more or less in August,” Koelker says.
She adds that the city has been holding community meetings to get input on preliminary plans for the infrastructure around the new campus.
Another project in progress is a cross-jurisdictional development at Grandview Crossing, which is two-thirds in the city of Grandview Heights and about one-third in Columbus. Koelker says that the master plan of development was approved through the city’s planning commission but that the city has been focusing mostly on remediating the brownfield – or potential pollutant – issues that the site has had as well as focusing on the infrastructure that they will be building through.
“There are three sites for small commercial developments: three new buildings that will face Grandview Avenue and Route 33, and then facing the new road that will go through that building, east, west, through the site, there are two other substantial construction opportunity sites available. One has been out outlined … to accommodate a new hotel, and the other has been reserved for a new senior living facility,” Koelker says.
Like most developments in the last year, this development has been slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s very much market-driven, and with COVID, there’s been some delays and plans that had frankly been advanced a little further before COVID hit and then they were put on the back burner,” Koelker says.
Due to these delays, the Grandview Crossing project does not have a hard deadline for when it will be complete. However, Koelker is optimistic that there will be some infrastructure and retail buildings reaching completion on the Columbus side by the fall for residents and visitors to start enjoying.
“There’s really no buildings on the Grandview Heights side of Grandview Crossing that are proceeding through approval processes right now,” Koelker says. “There’s some that have been planned, and the types of buildings that are going to be accommodated down there have been reviewed by our planning commission and approved as to type of project, but the actual projects haven’t started their process through city planning processes yet.”
The hope is that the community will enjoy many benefits once the entire project is complete, such as new commercial buildings that will support the tax base and allow for new businesses to move in, the new older adult living facility center that will be the first of its kind within Grandview Heights city limits and even the hotels that support the parks through bed taxes.
As for future developments, the South of Goodale project will entail extending Grandview Yard just south of Goodale and into the Arena District near the Historic Crew Stadium.
The Edington is a mixed-use development which will be on First Avenue.
“We are building new roads in that area that will provide not only new improved access to the area, but also are cleaning up,” says Koelker. “There used to be a recycling plant in that area and so that has now moved out of town, and we’ll have new mixed-use development that has started construction in the area so new retail and business opportunity, new spaces for those things as well as new residences. The location of those sites is really great because they overlook downtown. They really kind of overlook (Lower.com) Field.”
The road construction should begin in about a year or so and should take about 18 months to complete. Closer to the central business district on First Avenue, there will be another mixed-use building called the Edington, which Koelker says will be enclosed over the next few months.
While removing the orange barrels and construction fencing is always a nice sight, these new projects will create plenty of new opportunity for central Ohio and will help to enrich visitors and residents’ lives. Plus, the developments leave possibility for future projects.
“There’s still a lot going on,” says Koelker, “and hopefully coming out of COVID here, we will have new opportunities for new people to undertake new endeavors and kind of build the next generation.”
Helen Widman is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
