Nearly two years ago, the City of Dublin announced their ambitious Bridge Street Corridor plan, which would grow the city denser with 8,000 new residential units in a mixed-use urban environment. Last night, Crawford Hoying announced at a Dublin public meeting that they would be taking the first bite out of the project with a $300-million 25-acre development that includes over 1,100 residential units.
“We’ve been on board with this plan for quite awhile,” explained Stephen Brothers-McGrew, Marketing Manager at Crawford Hoying. “Our organization is Dublin-based and we had been waiting for the right opportunity like this. Our interests and vision were really close to what the City of Dublin had in mind, so we’ve been working together closely since the onset.”
In addition to the 1,026 apartment units and 136 for-sale condo units, the project calls for the development of 140,000 square feet of office space, a 196-room hotel with 30,000 square feet of convention space, 40,000 square feet of restaurant space (with an early commitment from Cameron Mitchell Restaurants to build out two concepts), 30,750 square feet of non-food retail, a 19,000 square foot boutique grocery store, and 32,000 square feet of fitness space. Residents and visitors will be accommodated with 2,875 covered or garage parking spaces, an additional 293 on-street parallel parking spaces, and zero surface parking lots.
“Dublin has always done a great job planning the city’s future, but the layout been broken up in to residential sections and commercial sections with only individual uses,” says Crawford Hoying Principal Brent Crawford. “What we’re now seeing is that there’s a large population of workers in Dublin who are making reverse commutes from Downtown, the Short North, Grandview or Clintonville where they can find an urban lifestyle. That’s what we’re trying to bring to Dublin.”
Despite the aggressive push to retain the transient workforce population within the City of Dublin, Crawford Hoying doesn’t see the development news as being overly competitive with other urban areas in Central Ohio. Their company is also working on smaller similar projects that include The Lane in Upper Arlington and the Worthington Place Apartments next to the newly renovated mall.
“There will certainly be some competition, but we feel that the market is deep enough as to not be detrimental,” says Crawford. “Those other markets like The Short North and Arena District will continue to do very well.”
Brothers-McGrew echoes Crawford’s sentiment.
“I think the research shows that there’s enough of a growing population in the region,” he states. “In addition to the YP demographic, we’ve also had a lot of interest from the empty nester population as well. They’re looking to get out of their bigger houses and get into something smaller. We feel this project will serve them well.”
As with any larger project, Crawford Hoying is planning to build out this new Dublin development in phases. The construction start date is currently planned for September 2014 with a goal of being completed with all phases in the Fall of 2018.
“There’s not a lot of details yet as to which pieces come in which order,” says Brothers-McGrew. “But I imagine that phase one will likely include the corner of 161 and Riverside Drive and the two blocks around it. That includes the hotel and convention space as well as some retail, restaurant and apartments.”
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More info can be found at www.dublinohiousa.gov/bridge-street/ and www.crawfordhoying.com.
Renderings via Elkus Manfredi Architects.
