More details of the 20-acre mixed-use development proposed for Harrison West are emerging. Over 500 apartment units would be spread over four separate buildings, all clustered toward the Fifth Avenue side of the project and in close proximity to a three-story parking garage with enough room to accommodate 721 cars.
A 128-key hotel with a parking lot behind it would front Fifth Avenue on the far western edge of the site. Also proposed for Fifth is a 40,000 square foot building that could hold either a grocery store or offices. Single family housing is planned for the southernmost portion of the site as well as for a rectangle of land that is currently green space at the southeast corner of Fifth and Perry Street.
A 6,500 square foot restaurant would gets its own building, overlooking new park space along the Olentangy River.
“The park will be the centerpiece of the development anchored by what we hope to be a dynamic, locally-run restaurant,” said Mark Wagenbrenner, president of Wagenbrenner Development.
The new details were provided by Wagnebrenner, with the caveat that plenty could still change as the project makes its way through the approval process.
The plan was presented to the Harrison West Society last night. The meeting went well, according to Tim Price, the group’s president; “no surprises in the plan thus far, and we are fairly pleased with the overall vision and the retention of the existing and expanded green space.”
As for an overall timeline for the project, Wagenbrenner said that the intention is to “close late this year and start (construction) in the spring of 2018.”
“We want to move all at once and move as fast as the market will allow,” he added, clarifying that the build-out would not be broken up into phases. “We built our team around the expertise in each class of real estate with the intention of all going at once…we are always reliant on market forces but are bullish on what we have proposed.”
Wagenbrenner is taking the lead on the project, along with Fortress Real Estate. Other partners include Continental Real Estate, the Daimler Group and M/I Homes.