Chase Tower Downtown plans to switch from offices to apartments

Jim Weiker, The Columbus Dispatch
Updated ·2 min read
2
Chase Tower would be largely converted into apartments under a new plan submitted to the city.
Chase Tower would be largely converted into apartments under a new plan submitted to the city.

The owners of Chase Tower on East Broad Street Downtown plan to convert all but three of the building's 25 floors into apartments, becoming the third Downtown office tower to switch to residences.

Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners, the Virginia company that bought the tower in 2019, has submitted plans to convert all of the tower except the ground floor and 19th and 20th floors into 253 apartments. The company said it plans to apply for historic tax credits for the renovation.

In addition to the apartment conversions, outdoor amenities would be added such as a low roof on the side of the building and several residential amenities including a fitness center and community room would be added to the interior.

More: Downtown Columbus housing boom: 19-story apartment building, two other complexes planned

The Chase plan follows the conversion now underway of two neighboring office towers into mostly residential use: the 24-story PNC tower, at 155 E. Broad St., and the 26-story Continental Centre tower, at 150 E. Gay St.

Those conversions were prompted by an office market that has yet to recover from COVID's work-from-home shift. According to the commercial real-estate firm CBRE, about 22% of all Downtown offices are empty and about 27% of Downtown "Class A" space is empty.

More than two dozen tenants call the Chase Tower home, and the real-estate firm Colliers reports that 77% of the tower was occupied in the first quarter. A representative of Lingerfelt could not be immediately reached to explain whether those tenants would be relocated, or whether the conversions would happen as leases expire.

Lingerfelt's plan calls for converting floors three through 18, and floors 22 through 24, to apartments. Each floor would contain 13 one- and two-bedroom apartments, ranging from 590 square feet to 1,301 square feet.

The second floor would contain another six apartments, along with amenity spaces including a community room, two lounges (one a "quiet" lounge) and a terrace. The 21st floor would also be devoted to amenity space including co-working space, a game room, a fitness center and a yoga studio.

The 19th and 20th floors would remain offices.

The first floor would remain largely commercial, with the existing Chase bank and Lexi's on Third deli to be augmented by a third retail tenant. The basement would include storage space for tenants and other amenities including a dog station.

Built in 1964, the 308,000-square-foot Chase Tower, at 100 E. Broad St., served for decades as the headquarters of City National Corp., later Banc One, before the bank merged with First Chicago NBD in 1998. Six years later, those combined banks became part of JPMorgan Chase.

The Columbus Downtown Commission is scheduled to hear the Chase plan on Tuesday.

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Third Downtown tower plans to switch from offices to apartments