Construction could start as soon as this summer on two new buildings at 901 North Fourth Street in Italian Village. The project, which had gone through significant revisions over the course of the last six months, was approved by the Italian Village Commission last week.
A 20-unit apartment building with about 1,000 square feet of first-floor commercial space will sit on the southern portion of the site, incorporating the existing store front of the Exile Bar. A second building on the northern portion of the site will contain seven townhomes, with a 30-space rear parking lot serving both the apartments and the townhomes.
Chad Seiber, President and CEO of the developer, Mulberry, said he was glad to have worked out a plan that the commission could support.
“The commission takes changes to historic structures very seriously,” he said, “and (we) demonstrated a commitment to assuring that all requirements were met to maximize benefits to the neighborhood and its residents.”
A two story building will be demolished to make way for the project. The building sits back from the street – behind the one-story, brick building that is being preserved – and had been stripped of many of its original features. Seiber told Columbus Underground in August that he was working with Exile owners to find a new location for the bar.
Meanwhile, construction continues on another Mulberry project, Jeffrey 25, which sits on the other side of Fourth Street a couple of blocks to the south.