A prominent Columbus developer’s request to demolish a five-story building without a firm plan for its replacement was denied by the Downtown Commission this week.
Robert Meyers, owner of Lawyers Development Corp, was instrumental in redeveloping the Leveque Tower and has been involved in several other large real estate deals Downtown.
“I’ve developed millions of square feet in various cities, and here in Columbus,” Meyers told the commission at its meeting on January 25. “It’s very uncommon for us to have new construction if we see an opportunity to salvage an existing building, but this is one that we’ve looked at it in a variety of fashions, and, from a practical standpoint, this building will be demolished at some point.”
The building, at 350 E. Broad St., was built in 1950 but renovated in 1986, a process that stripped it of many of its historic features. It also contains a significant amount of asbestos that would need to be remediated, according to Meyers, which he said would make renovation impractical for any developer.
The plan presented called for demolishing the building and its small rear parking area, replacing both with a grass lot. That would give Meyers and his team time, he said, to either sell the property to another developer or to further refine their own plans to build on the site.
“We have a longstanding policy – and it’s in our guidelines – that a building doesn’t come down unless there’s a replacement use,” commission chair Steve Wittmann said. “And then the standard is; is the new building better than what goes away?”
Wittmann added that even if commissioners were certain that Meyers would eventually replace the building with something better for the site, granting him an exception to the rule would establish an unwanted precedent.
The commission did approve a plan to demolish the Main Bar last summer – to be replaced initially with only a parking lot – but in that case, the applicant made the argument that the building was unstable and needed to come down for safety reasons.
“I feel the way Steve does,” said commissioner Jana Maniace, adding that having a building on the site, even an empty one, might be preferable to a vacant lot. “You’re not very far along in the process [for a replacement building], and the existing one is part of the urban fabric and it’s not a safety issue…just wait until you’re a little further down the line.”
The commission voted 7-1 to deny the demolition request.
Fulton Street Project Approved
A plan from Fairfield Homes to build a 65-unit apartment building at 340 E. Fulton St. was approved by the commission at the same meeting.
The new building will replace a two-story office building that was once home to the headquarters of the Ohio Democratic Party. It will have a parking garage with space for 65 cars, and about 1,500 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, facing South Grant Avenue.
In October, when the project was first presented to the commission, a representative of Fairfield Homes told Columbus Underground that 80% of the units in the building would be affordable to households making 60% or less of the area median income.
The proposal was approved unanimously, with the condition that the applicant will need to return with a detailed landscaping and signage plan. A mural proposed for the Fulton Street side of the building would also need to return for approval.
Additional Reading: Here’s What ‘Affordable Housing’ Means in Practice in Columbus