A new plan to develop the long-vacant site that once held Patrick J’s bar and a White Castle restaurant will be heard by the University Impact District Review Board this week.
The proposal – which calls for a six-story, 80-unit building with ground floor retail – was first presented to the board in May. At that meeting, no detailed design was presented but commissioners said that they were generally supportive of the proposed density and height of the project.
Located at 2711 N. High St., the 1.2-acre site was bought by Stark Capital Ventures LLC in March. A previous plan for the site, from Borror Properties, called for a three-story, 56-unit apartment building with first floor retail. That plan was approved in 2018 but never built, and the site was later put up for sale.
Manav Singh, president of Stark Capital Ventures and Sintel Hotels, said that the project represents a new opportunity for him and his father, who own about 40,000 square feet of retail space in the Polaris area and two hotels on Olentangy Boulevard (they once had a larger portfolio, but sold five area hotels between 2016 and 2018).
“We are hoteliers, we’re retail owners, and we thought, the only thing we don’t have is multi-family at this point, so we’re bringing all three concepts together in this one building,” he said, explaining that up to 20 of the units will be developed as an “upscale extended-stay hotel” geared toward visiting nurses, family of patients at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital or OSU Wexner Medical Center, and other guests that he’s observed over the years are not always well-served by either the apartment market or by existing hotels in the area.
The apartments in the building will likely appeal more to graduate or medical students than undergrads, he added.
The site straddles the border between the University District and Clintonville. The proposed building will sit entirely within the University District portion of the site, while a 70-space parking lot will sit behind the building and to its north, in the Clintonville portion. That placement is no accident – Singh said that the neighborhood’s reputation for opposing dense new development shaped the proposal.
“Unfortunately the general outlook in Clintonville is…three stories max – maybe four – but three stories is kind of where they want everything, and that’s not conducive to where development is today and where Columbus is headed with Intel and all the other new investment,” he said. “We were very strategic; on the Clintonville side, which is 20 percent of the site, all we put there was parking, so I’m happy to hear what color blacktop Clintonville wants us to use on that side.”
The proposal will be reviewed conceptually, meaning it will need to return to a future meeting of the board for a vote of approval.
The University Impact District Review Board is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. on Thursday, August 25. For more information, see see www.columbus.gov.
