Six-story apartment building proposed for empty parking lot, former site of Patrick J’s in Old North Columbus
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — An empty, pothole-ridden parking lot straddling the Old North and Clintonville may one day become a six-story apartment building.
The architects behind the Ohio Statehouse renovation, the design of the city’s Michael B. Coleman Government Center and college residence halls across Ohio hope to build an apartment complex on a 1.19-acre of land on North High Street near Ohio State University. The group, Columbus-based Schooley Caldwell, sees a mixed-use apartment complex of mostly one-bedroom units replacing a pair of barren, unused parking lots on the corner of North and North High streets.
Affordable housing development to be built near Columbus State
Schooley Caldwell, which has designed spaces for the city’s parks department, multiple state governments, Ohio State and other colleges, submitted a conceptual plan to the University Area Commission outlining a 92-unit apartment building with 7,200 square feet of retail space on the first floor. The vast majority of units would have one bedroom and fall between 620 and 700 square feet. A handful of studios and two-bedroom units flank the ends of proposed floor plans.
A ground-level floor plan for a proposed apartment building at 2711 N. High St. (Courtesy Photo/Schooley Caldwell) A floor plan for a proposed apartment building at 2711 N. High St. (Courtesy Photo/Schooley Caldwell) A floor plan for a proposed apartment building at 2711 N. High St. (Courtesy Photo/Schooley Caldwell)
The space at 2711 N. High St. was the former site of Patrick J’s, a bar and restaurant that closed in 2016 after its owner, John Raphael, pleaded guilty in the city’s red light camera bribery scheme. Raphael was a longtime city government lobbyist who falsified campaign finance documents to obscure contributions to city officials made by Redflex, a red light camera company hoping to secure contracts with Columbus and Cincinnati.
Multiple developers and architects, including Schooley Caldwell, have pitched apartment plans for the site since Patrick J’s closed. Several plans even secured approval from the University Impact District Review Board before falling through. According to the Franklin County Auditor’s Office, the land is currently owned by Stark Capital Ventures.
Schooley Caldwell submitted its conceptual plan to the University Area Commission on Monday evening. The architecture firm did not respond to a request for comment.
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