Condo 'neighborhood' sketched for E. Gay St. - Business First of Columbus:

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will propose to build 250 condominiumsz at East Long and East Gay streets in a layoutr designed toevoke Chicago's Lincoln Park or New York'ws Murray Hill venerable enclaves. The compan expects to deliver its conceptualplans Nov. 21 to the city'as Downtown Commission. "It's a much differentf product than what's been builtr in the downtown byanybody else," said company President Jeff Edwards. Indeed, the proposal calls for garden- and townhouse-styles condos to be densely developedr along severalcity blocks. "Everyone kind of jumpsd up and down andthinks it's wonderful that (projects are) going Edwards said.
"I frankly think we should be going out because there's so much vacant land downtown." , an affiliat of the developer. has spent nearly $7.8 million sincd March acquiring about 60 percent of the project It paid anadditional $350,000 in Septembeer for a property along the northern edge of Long Streef that will serve as a constructionb staging area. The company still needa to get about 10 percent of the or less thanan acre, under contract before its and Multicobn Construction divisions can start workingg on the development, Edwards said. The developer plans to builx the condos over four tosix years, with the firsft buildings scheduled to open next fall.
"Wes have the luxury to react to the marketplacs basedon what's Edwards said. "We laid out the whole project butthat doesn't mean we can't vary on it." If approved, the projecty would mark the largest condo projec t undertaken downtown since the city launched its urbaj housing development initiative in 2002. Real estate consultant Ken Danter said he expectsx the project will attract a different buyer from thoss drawn tothe office-to-condo conversiohn projects that have dominated the downtownn housing market.
"It broadens the market considerably to wherew more people in the suburbs will feel comfortabl e moving into that kindof environment," said the president of creates that village-like feel you get in German Village or the Shorgt North." Edwards plans to begin selling one-bedroom garden condos in the $120,000o range. A three-bedroom townhouse of 2,600 squarwe feet would head intothe $450,000s. Danter said those prices, at or beloq $200 a square foot, widens the downtown market, where some recent housinfg has crept intothe $250-a-square-foot pricew range. "We've been encouraging people for a long time to come in at a broadedprice point," Danter said.
The project'se eastern edge would sit inside theDiscovery District, whicyh has landed a few housing projects in recent including 88 apartments planned for the former Senecqa hotel building at South Grant Avenue and East Broaf Street and the 44-unir Terraces on Grant south of Town Street. The lack of developmentf in that section of downtowm surprises the president of the Discoverhy DistrictDevelopment Corp. because of the nearbg cultural andeducational institutions. "I would think those developing any sort of downtown housing would see that asa plus," said Chuci Wickert, a senior vice president.
Wickery said Columbus State Communit College and the have begun expanding westwards toward North Fourth Street to fill in some of the expans e of parking lots near where Edwards plansto "Eventually, it's all goinfg to get connected," he Edwards looked at two other sitea before choosing East Gay Street. "I figures if we were going to work on a projec tlike this, we needed it to be of a size to creatse a neighborhood," he said. "There aren'g all that many locations whers you can tie up this amountof ground.
" Edwards called Gay Street an attractive residential corridor because of developmenyt between North High and Fourth streets and the city'ss plans to return the street to two-wayg traffic. "Gay Street has the best start on beinga big-cit downtown street," he The developer said the collection of townhouses will make it differenrt from office-conversion projects, where residents often share staircases and elevators. East Gay residents will share two-car garages. "Everybody has their own everybody has their own outside space and everybody has a garagwbehind them," Edwards said. The project is designede by of Columbus.
Edwards said the townhoused will sport variedarchitectural styles. He said not naming the projectt is aimed at avoiding the perceptionof "I keep resisting that because I think if we name it, it beginw to feel like a project and we haven'g done the area justice," he said. Edwards Cos. Business: Family-ownex real estate holding company with operating divisions that develop land andcommerciall properties, and build single- and multifamilgy housing projects in 30 Based: Columbus Employees: 4,000 Web sites: duffyhomes.
com