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Midland Atlantic Properties has submitted initial plans to Columbus officials to develop the former site of the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center on the city’s west side.
A developer has submitted initial plans to city officials to develop the former site of the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center on the city’s west side.
Midland Atlantic Properties has submitted a preliminary plat to develop the property, located at 2480 W. Jonathon Moore Pike near Interstate 65, according to city records.
The preliminary plat includes a map with six lots ranging in size from 1.14 acres to 2.03 acres, as well as a 1.58-acre common area. The plans do not include details on what types of facilities would be built on the property.
Midland Atlantic Properties, which has offices in Indianapolis and Cincinnati, did not respond to requests for comment on its plans for the property.
While Columbus Regional Health System Services LLC is listed as the property’s owner, CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue said “CRH’s intent is to sell that entire plot of land with Midland Atlantic as the buyer.”
“To my knowledge, our organization isn’t involved in future plans for that site, over just selling it to a developer,” DeClue said.
On Thursday, the Columbus Plat Committee and the Subdivision Review Committee are expected to consider the proposed plat. The committees are scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. in Conference Room 4 at Columbus City Hall, 123 Washington St.
City officials described it as a “preliminary meeting” to discuss technical aspects of the proposed plat and provide comments to ensure compliance with ordinances before the proposal is placed on the Columbus Plan Commission’s agenda.
Currently, the proposed plat is expected to be on the agenda for the commission’s Nov. 12 meeting.
“This is their initial submittal,” said Andres Nieto. “There will be a round of revisions made before it goes before the Columbus Plan Commission on Nov. 12. It is currently under review by planning department staff.”
Currently it is unclear if Midland Atlantic plans to retain ownership of the individual lots after they are developed or sell them.
The company owns and fully leases Columbus Crossing Shops at 2075 West Jonathon Moore Pike, with tenants including Buffalo Wild Wings, Verizon Wireless, Heartland Dental, among others, according to it website and public real estate records.
However, the company sold the properties now housing McAlister’s Deli and Panda Express on the city’s west side, as well as the properties housing WellNow Urgent Care and Valvoline Instant Oil Change on National Road.
The potential development of the former Clarion site marks the latest turn of events after CRH bought the 20.7-acre property in 2017 for $4.25 million and then demolished the hotel structure.
The Clarion, which had 253 guest rooms and a conference center with a 1,000-person capacity, was sold to CRH during a foreclosure sale after the hotel’s owners defaulted on their debt.
For a while after the demolition, the property contained a pile of rubble with debris from the former building and rubble from the Indiana Department of Transportation’s I-65 Expansion Project.
Contractors then broke down and redistributed the rubble on the site and removed trees in a swampy, flood-prone area of the property as part of efforts to raise the lot above the floodplain.
In 2021, CRH reached an agreement with Clearpath Services of Bloomington, in partnership with architecture, engineering and geospatial firm Woolpert in Indianapolis, to turn the former hotel site into a mixed-used development, The Republic reported at the time.
The plan at that time was to sell the site while still retaining a parcel of land within the mixed-used development for hospital programs and services.
An application filed in January 2022 with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management described the site as a “regional gateway” to the city and showed plans for, among other things, a medical facility, some 220 apartments, a 100-room hotel, a grocery store and an “interpretive welcome center, an architectural monument that evokes the proud tradition of Columbus’ iconic, historic church spires.”
But by March 2022, all of that had been put on hold except for the medical facility after the developer was “unable to finalize its plans” and dropped out. At the time, CRH said it was planning to move ahead with plans to build a medical facility on the site.
The hospital system also said at the time that it was still “open” to forming new partnerships to develop the property.
In early 2024, CRH said it had reached a preliminary agreement to sell the property to Midland Atlantic Properties after the company approached the hospital system and expressed interest in the property.
