This Wednesday, May 4th, the Columbus Compact Corporation will be cutting the ribbons on their latest development. The Old National Road Condominiums is a set of eight renovated units on East Main Street in Olde Towne East.
We recently spoke with Jonathan Beard, President and CEO of the Columbus Compact Corporation, to find out more about this new development.
Q: First, can you tell us a little bit about your involvement in the project and the role that is played by the Columbus Compact Corporation?
A: Over the past 16 years, the Compact has been the leading resident-led community development corporation working to revitalize Columbus’s central city neighborhoods. Over the past several years, our role has evolved from helping other entities with their projects, to really focusing our development effort of our own, focused primarily in Olde Towne East. One of the things we have done is organize commercial real estate development and other community improvement efforts along E. Main Street â and with the help of many great partners we have had quite a bit of collective success.
Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development made an allocation of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding to the City of Columbus, and we saw a financing stream that made sense for a long-vacant and blighting set of houses that had been a drag on the shoulders of our commercial development.
We approached the City about providing a portion of the financing for the rehab of eight, long-vacant, historic housing units. We suggested, and the City agreed, that the project built on the more than $15M in commercial investment we had spearheaded and/or supported in the area, and it met all the goals of the community with respect to housing. From that, we went forward and purchased the properties, then nailed down financing through State Bank and Trust Company and the City and now are finishing up construction on some real high-quality, market rate housing units.
Q: Can you tell us a bit more about some of those other projects previously completed in Olde Towne East that CCC was involved with, and why Main Street was a prime focus area?
A: What we saw in East Main Street was an underutilized asset, which with a thoughtful approach and a hard push had the potential to be a vibrant shopping district for the neighborhood. We believe this could be, and should be, a place where daily conveniences — goods and services would be offered. What was visible to the eye ten years ago were the vacant lots and abandoned and deteriorated buildings. What was clear to us was that those conditions of disinvestment and blight masked a vibrant and under-served residential market in Olde Towne East, and we set out to see if we could make a difference.
We started about 8 years ago by assembling real estate, then worked with our partner COTA to develop the Near East Transit Center, with a Nationwide Children’s Hospital “Close to Home” Center and Revol wireless dealer. We then helped Central Community House move forward with their new headquarters and daycare, and we asked Salvation Army to relocate from what we viewed to be a very a good potential retail space along the strip, and to relocate to a vacant lot that is now their new regional headquarters three blocks west. We then built the Heritage Square Market Place — a small shopping center on the old Salvation Army site â opening the first new grocery store in the Near East in 26 years.
So we put food into the neighborhood, which is always key, then followed it up with two clothing stores (Our Style Boutique and Simply Fashions Women’s Clothing), a new restaurant opened (Smothered Gravy) and another coming (Sweet Raine’s on Main), a security company, lawn care company, and accountant/tax service. So with the help of many partners, we were building this new, focused, critical mass of new development activity in a 3-block area, and it is going well â I am told by long-time residents that E. Main Street hasn’t looked this good in 30 years.
One of the things we have specialized in, is taking old, decrepit buildings and finding new uses, new activities, and bringing them back to life. And on Main Street â across from our offices in old Engine House No. 11 (our 1999 restoration of a big abandoned, historic building) — sat a block of four vacant doubles sandwiching a blighting carry out beer and wine store. These brick houses dating from the 1890s were innately beautiful — if you could see past the decay — but they had been vacant for more than 30 years and had been the object of an earlier, failed, rehab effort from the 1990s. These units have now become Old National Road Condominiums.
A year earlier, we had worked with two partners to rebuild the Sherman Oak Condominiums, about eight blocks away â a 30-year vacant building with no roofs, deteriorated windows, and rotten wood throughout, and had found a great market for renting those units. We knew if we could put together a critical mass or properties and redevelop these vacant houses, we would find equally strong residents.
So understanding the market and with some experience in completely turning around “old uglies,” we bought out the carry out and rehabbed the building so that quality merchants who would improve the neighborhood could lease there. With the blighting activity out of the way, the rest of the block was opened for residential and we managed to purchase the rest of the block for this condo project.
We’ve also been very involved in improving the perception of the neighborhood flanking East Main Street. What you know when you live here â and I have lived here 11 years and worked here for 15 years â is that these are strong neighborhoods with great residents. There is an unfortunate perception of a lack of safety, however, that is not consistent with the reality â but we realize we have to address this perception.
What I can tell you is that the Compact â sitting right here on E. Main Street — has never had a break-in or any other threat â that I have staffers of both genders that have been in and out of our office all hours of day and night for 15 years, and that we have never had a single issue or problem. At the same time, though, we do recognize that there has been a persistent small group of people who were not a benefit to the greater good of the neighborhood, and whose visibility needed to be minimized.
So working with other community partners, we installed the City’s first networked security camera system, focused on the streets, parking lots and other public place. So we’ve got eight cameras on various private properties in this focused commercial node we’re developing, which transmit video through a wireless mesh net system back to our headquarters. This video is saved, and simultaneously uploaded to the Internet for viewing from anywhere in the world. We have a network of about 20 neighborhood residents and other stakeholders who are trained Camera Control Operators, and they can Pan-Tilt-and Zoom the cameras from their own personal computers.
We put cameras â a standard security measure you will find in any 7-11 or any mall in America â on to our multi-owner commercial corridor in a manner that has empowered local residents to safely get involved in crime prevention. And it has worked. Working closely with the existing Olde Towne East Block Watch who were actively using the camera program, one long-time neighborhood menace who had for years evaded accountability for his actions, is now on an eleven month all-expenses-paid trip to Orient, Ohio â with the case for prosecution strengthened significantly by video evidence. We have also supported the area residents who successfully voted this precinct dry in November, and have testified at a recent liquor control hearing in support of the City’s effort to denial the liquor license of a long-standing problem establishment. We are also co-leading an effort that will benefit every neighborhood in Columbus, through working with Columbus City Council to strengthen an existing City Code related to drug sellers and their networks.
So we are working in an already strong neighborhood that has seen tremendous private reinvestment over the past 30 years in pockets, and really worked to spread this success to E. Main Street.
Q: Why do you see this location as a significant area for investing in a new home?
A: The housing stock in Olde Towne East as a whole, and this particular area specifically, is tremendous â large brick houses with great architectural interest. Everybody knows about Bryden, Oak and Franklin which are recognized for their housing quality, but if you start at Old National Road Condos and walk south of Main on 22nd and Ohio, for instance, the housing stock is incredible â and inexpensive. You get a lot of house for your dollar in Olde Towne.
This project location is convenient to everything â it is on the City’s most heavily-traveled bus line, 5 minutes from downtown, in the shadow of Children’s Hospital, and a short hop to Columbus’s best attractions and amenities. I believe in the area â I moved here after working in the neighborhood four years, and my wife and I are raising our children here â we have great neighbors and love the area’s diversity of people. We believe it is the best choice we could imagine for our family, and we are happy to share in this great neighborhood with many others who feel similarly.
What we’ve tried to do with Old National Road Condos is add another housing option to an area that already has great houses. In Olde Towne East you can now buy a great house that you can do some updating and rehab on — but not everybody wants to have a project every night in their home and/or yard maintenance. So the Old National Road Condos put beautiful, newly rehabbed, historic, maintenance free units on the market.
These condos showcase the most through rehab possible â we have redeveloped these condo units to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards, and we expect to receive a LEED Gold rating â which will be the first LEED Gold ratings in the state of Ohio for individual housing units. By way of comparison, the outstanding new Ohio Union at OSU has a LEED Silver rating â so you see the type of development quality in our project for the benefit of the homeowners.
Obviously E. Main Street is on a serious upswing after a 40 year period of disinvestment, and Olde Towne East as a whole has been appealing for years. People are recognizing the positive changes in the area, and looking now at a place of great opportunity. City living is where it is now â the suburban model of the last generations is not as appealing to people who want to live in a more vibrant, diverse, and enriching environment.
What you see in Olde Towne are newer amenities like Black Creek Bistro, Yellow Brick Pizza, Angry Baker, L’Appetit Bistro (coming soon), Smothered Gravy, Our Style Boutique, Save-A-Lot Food Stores (the 5th largest grocer in America) â there is a growing wave of new, private investment that has been contributing to the area, and that is bringing new vitality and new life to this historic central city neighborhood, and that bodes well for those who invest wisely and in quality development like Old National Road Condos.
Q: Can you tell us about the units themselves and what sort of amenities they offer?
A: These are, I would say, the highest value properties on the market in Columbus. The eight units are each “half of a double” â so there are four buildings, and eight units. The units range in size from 1,211 to 1,496 finished square feet, each on two finished floors. Then you have unfinished basements and third floors, which can be built out for additional space at the owner’s convenience.
Here is what you see when you walk in: all-brick construction outside, hardwood floors downstairs, ceramic tile in kitchens and baths, stainless steel appliances (gas range, fridge, microwave, dishwasher included), washer/dryer units supplied with an option for living area or basement installation, all wood (birch or maple) cabinetry, and granite countertops. New Pella Architect series all-wood windows â the series used in historic rehabs, all wood five panel historic doors (no hollow core doors here), 10″ historic baseboards and woodwork, 9’6″ ceilings, and historic pocket doors in all units.
What you don’t see is evidenced in the U.S. Green Building Council LEED Gold standard to which we built: the quality of these units is unsurpassed. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an internationally-recognized green building certification system. LEED uses a third party rating system to certify a building is designed and built to using strategies that save energy, efficiently use water, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve environmental quality. LEED is the industry standard, across the world. The best new developments are LEED development.
These units are highly energy efficient, with 92% efficient natural gas furnaces, 14 SEER central air conditioning, R-20 insulated walls, and R-40 ceilings. They are sealed tight and have no air leakage or drafts, with an impressive 65 HERS rating. All appliances and light fixtures are EnergyStar-certified by the U.S. Department of Energy. Where you notice this quality as homeowner is in reduced utility bills, which we expect to be half of what you would pay in a conventional development. Not only will the units be comfortable and look nice, but the building itself will perform at an exceptional level over time.
Then, for those of us who are interested in sustainable development, this is an historic-approved rehab using the latest available technology and construction practices. We use Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood, local and native plants in the landscaping, reduced construction waste, dual flush toilets to save water â sustainable development practices that leave a low footprint on our environment. Our carpets are Carpet and Rug Institute certified, and we used low/non-VOC adhesives and paints throughout for high quality indoor air.
One of the benefits of buying from a nonprofit developer is that we have priced these units to sell: we are at $71 per square foot (large units for around $100K), which is a great price and leaves a lot of room for an owner to benefit from appreciation in the short-term. In addition, we have $5,000 in downpayment assistance for contracts signed by June 30th â DPA will still be available beginning July 1st, but in lesser amounts.
Other incentives include homeowner mortgage programs through Huntington National Bank and 5/3rd Bank, that have low downpayment requirements and no PMI required (saving about $70 a month), and a 100% tax abatement that saves about $20,000 over 12 years. These programs, coupled with our downpayment assistance, means that a buyer could put as little as $500 towards downpayment/closing costs and purchase a great unit.
Finally, if a buyer is not quite ready to purchase, we have a Lease-Purchase program that allows a person to lease the house they will buy in two years. The way the numbers work out is that whether a resident leases-to-purchase, or purchases outright, rent or mortgage payment (including principle, interest, taxes, insurance, and condo fees) will be somewhere between $650 and $800 per month (with low utilities) â an unparalleled value for the high quality of the unit.
Q: What do you have planned for the ribbon cutting event on Wednesday?
A: We are coordinating our Ribbon-Cutting with the Ohio National Road Association, as May marks the 200th anniversary of America’s National Road â our nation’s first federally-funded interstate highway, which runs down E. Main through Columbus. So a 200th year celebration caravan is coming through Columbus on May 4th â our ribbon cutting date.
City Auditor Hugh Dorrian, Franklin County Engineer Dean Ringle, and others (all are invited) will be meeting this group at Tommy’s Diner (914 W. Broad Street), in Franklinton at 9:30 on Wednesday the 4th, and welcoming them to Columbus. We will then board a horse-drawn wagon, and travel through downtown with CTV-3, with local historians talking about historic neighborhoods of Columbus and the impact of the National Road on our city’s growth through the 1800’s and into the mid 1900’s.
We have a special guest coming to the Ribbon-Cutting — an 85 year old woman — whose immigrant Grandfather from Germany built one of the units back in 1890, who lived in the house as a child, and whose brother lived there with his wife through the 1950’s. She tells us that over the years she has periodically driven through this, her old neighborhood, and as her childhood home had been vacant for 30 years, she had expected every trip through the neighborhood would be the last time she would see the house standing. Last fall, she rode through and saw construction fencing, and thought sadly “this is it (demolition), I’ll never see my home again.” Well she drove back through in the Spring and saw the units almost complete and contacted our Realtor, Alex Macke (Carriage Trade Realty), and has shared her stories and some childhood pictures from the 1920’s with us. She is thrilled with the redevelopment, and to my great delight, she will be riding the wagon and attending the Ribbon-Cutting as our special guest and making herself available to talk about life in the early 1900’s here in Olde Towne East.
When the wagon gets to the units at 11:15AM, we will start the ribbon-cutting, with the Fort Hayes Jazz Ensemble playing period ragtime, jazz and blues, and Mayor Coleman, half of city council, and a variety of other elected and appointed officials and neighborhood stakeholders attending. We will cut ribbons, give the opportunity to tour homes, and have some finger foods as we mix and mingle. Also, we will dedicate the Old National Road Heritage Park in recognition of the 200th anniversary of the road, which will be a small outdoor pavilion in the development. As indication of the level of interest in, and recognition of the significance of, this development, we now have about 150 RSVP’s for the event, and encourage all to come out to see this new development.
Q: Does the ribbon cutting signal the completion of the units themselves?
A: We are wrapping up construction. We have certificates of occupancy for two units, and will have four more in a week or two. The final two units will be completed in mid-June. The new carryout restaurant in the development (Sweet Raine’s on Main) will open in early June. We’re finishing the outside work — site paving and landscaping went in over the weekend, and an adjacent parking lot will be done by July 1st. Finally, we have wrought iron fencing to go up by July 15th, which will complete the development.
Q: Anything else we should know about the new development?
A: If you are thinking about buying a home in the next two years, I would say that you owe it to yourself to check out this development. We are in a great neighborhood (my neighborhood), you won’t find a better quality or value unit anywhere, at about $71 per square foot the pricing is below anything comparable on the market, there is a 100% tax abatement for 12 years, we have $5,000 in downpayment assistance for contracts placed by June 30th, and we have a lease purchase program available for those who will be ready to buy in two years. The units received HUD financing, so you can’t be too rich and qualify for these units. These units are available to people of slightly higher-than-average incomes (120% of Area Median Income, based on household size â up to $57,000 for a single person, or $82,300 for a family of four). More information is available on our website at www.OldNationalRoadCondos.com, and of course feel free to call our realtor Alex Macke of Carriage Trade Realty, at 228-1939.