What’s remaining of the former home of the Bartholomew County Highway Garage is set to be demolished in a couple months, and the property is potentially being primed as a suitable site for an affordable housing project, city officials said.
Columbus Redevelopment Commission members on Monday evening approved a proposal from Indianapolis-based Renascent, Inc. to demolish the existing buildings on the six-acre site at 2452 State St. for $155,833.21.
Renascent will demolish the structures on the property, including a now-unused salt barn, and haul the debris away. Director of Redevelopment Heather Pope said that demolition will likely begin in February.
The redevelopment commission in October of 2024 agreed to purchase the property from the Bartholomew County commissioners for $1.075 million, with the council signing off on the buy the next month.
The county highway department relocated to its new address at 10150 E. 25th St. in 2021, but had still been using the salt barn at the State Street site until the beginning of October. Just in the past month, a contractor hired by the county finished up on a new salt barn, located at the highway department’s new facility east of Petersville.
The city had expressed an interest in the State Street property on-and-off since 2018. Redevelopment officials at the time of the purchase emphasized that they hadn’t made a determination yet about what to do with the property, but noted that it could be a potential site of some sort of housing development.
Director of Redevelopment Heather Pope said previously that the property was identified as one “ripe for redevelopment” and added that a number of developers looking to build affordable or workforce housing had been reaching out about it.
That’s because it’s likely to score high if a developer were to apply for federal low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) for a project on the site, increasing the chances they are actually awarded and the reality of an affordable or workforce housing project coming together, according to city officials.
Pope reiterated something similar on Monday, saying there has been “lots of interest for a mixed-use, multi-family development” on site because of its proximity to goods and services, employers and bus stops, “making it an ideal candidate for low income tax credits.”
The process for being awarded LIHTC is based on a scoring matrix and is extremely competitive, however, and there’s no guarantee they would ultimately be awarded.
But in the past year-plus, affordable housing projects that have made they way through the local government process have had a lot of success in obtaining the needed credits.
Thrive Alliance’s Haw Creek Meadows, located at the site of the former Columbus Health and Rehabilitation Center, and TWG Development’s 110-unit Flats on 14th were awarded 9 percent and 4 percent federal LIHTC from the Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority (IHCDA) last November, which made the projects possible.
The two are expected to bring 174 new units of housing to Columbus by the end of 2026. Haw Creek Meadows project is being built over two phases. Phase one encompasses 64 workforce housing units and a child care component, with 64 more units of housing meant for seniors coming later.
Renascent will be recycling about half of the material generated from the demolition, Pope said, adding that the city also enlisted the firm to demolish the former county court services building near Third and Franklin streets in 2023.
After the buildings are demolished and the site cleared, an environmental assessment will also be conducted, city officials said.
