The redevelopment of the Golden Bear shopping center in Upper Arlington is officially moving forward, with the initial demolition scheduled to take place in April.
The first building to be taken down will be the former FC Bank branch, which is set apart from the main shopping center. The larger building – which is located at 3700 Riverside Dr. and was home to variety of restaurants and businesses over the years, including Figlio Wood Fired Pizza, Colin’s Coffee and Basil, among others – will be demolished this summer, according to Scott Patton, Managing Partner of Arcadia Development.
Built in its place will be a five-story, 76-unit mixed-use development featuring 25,000 square feet of ground floor retail and 37,000 square feet of office space on the second floor. The building will also have a 217-space parking garage, in addition to 92 parking spots in a surface lot.
Residential units in the building span from one to three bedrooms and are priced from $330,000 to $1.2 million.
In January, the project was one of five Franklin County developments that were awarded funding from the state’s Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program.
Patton said that marketing efforts began shortly after the award announcement, and have already begun to bear fruit – six condominium units are currently under contract.
“I have also been meeting with prospective office and retail tenants,” he added. “Interested parties include medical, restaurant and financial end users.”
Buyout agreements have been executed and lease termination notices delivered to the last few tenants remaining in the building, according to Patton.
Demolition of the main building is scheduled to start this summer, along with all the required utility work. Early fall will see the first vertical construction, and with a roughly two-year construction timeline, the building is projected to be finished by the summer of 2025.
The Gale & Willcut Groups at Keller Williams Consultants Realty are handling sales and marketing for the project.
First proposed in the fall of 2018, plans for the development were revised several times before gaining an initial approval from Upper Arlington’s Board of Zoning and Planning in 2019. A subsequent proposal to replace the office space in the building with more residential units was not approved by the board.
For more information, see theresidenceua.com. All renderings by MA Design.