Flaherty &Collins has closed on a property deal with the city of Columbus for the mixed-use development project, and construction could start as early as March.
Deron Kintner, general counsel with the developer, confirmed that the city and company closed on the sale and transfer of property for the downtown project on Jan. 26.
Utility relocation is expected to begin in February, with construction starting in March, said Heather Pope, redevelopment director. Kintner said that construction will likely take about 20 months or somewhere in the range of a year and a half to two years.
“We are excited to get started and deliver a great project to the city of Columbus,” he added.
The multifamily urban grocer project will include approximately 200 market rate apartments and an urban grocer facility at the southeast corner of Lafayette Avenue and Second Street.
The estimated cost of the mixed use development is about $40 million and the developer will pay about 71% of the cost.
The city agreed to invest $11.8 million into the development under the project agreement, according to Bruce Donaldson with Barnes &Thornburg. City officials have said in the past that the development’s property tax dollars will reimburse the city for its contribution. The redevelopment commission also committed to selling property for the development at minimal cost to the developer.
The endeavor started out as part of a larger joint project. Originally, when the city was considering developers for its hotel conference center project, companies were told that they could get “bonus points” if they brought a multifamily urban grocer partner to the city as well.
For the hotel conference center development, the city chose Sprague Hotel Developers, who partnered with Flaherty &Collins (with the latter company providing the multifamily urban grocer piece).
However, because of the pandemic, the multifamily urban grocer project and the city’s plans for a hotel conference center were later split off into two separate projects, rather than taking place simultaneously.
