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Grange Insurance is officially holding the dedication ceremony of their completed $100-million headquarters expansion project in the Brewery District today. Their new development includes 250,000 square feet of additional office space that will accommodate 700 new jobs to be added gradually over the next 15-20 years. They’ve also added a new 1,000-space parking garage next door that features 15,000 square feet of new retail space along South Front Street.
The renovations also include several new “green” features. The outside of the building has seen the installation of new high-efficiency glass with sun shade systems that work in tandem with new interior lights to adjust automatically and utilize natural light as much as possible. Rooftop gardens have also been added to better insulate the building.
More photos of the new development below (provided by Grange):
I live about a block away.
We miss the park
I’ll take 700 new jobs in the neighborhood over a small park. Schiller is awful close, you know.
I like what the Grange is doing over there. I hope they get some shops filled into that parking garage.
I really like this building. Nothing bad to say about it at all. :) I like that the employees will get a nice view of that green roof though from the pictures, I can’t tell where it is. Does that two story piece wrap around the south side of the building? I haven’t been by here in a few weeks, I’m looking forward to seeing what the landscaping looks like.
Now if the city could only pave Front Street. It’s like driving offroad.
love the addition to the building, hate the new parking garage with a passion. not sure how that got through the historical commission….. no retail or commercial component on the street level. hideous exterior. the salvation army was def an eyesore but this is worse in my opinion.
I actually work out here, they have a great gym. My mother in law works for Grange, so I get the hookup.
Also, the park will be back Tenzo, it’s just not finished yet.
I agree with CDS, that parking garage is butt-ugly. Not that parking garages are typically architectural wonders of the world, but come on. Apparently they couldn’t make up their mind on the exterior material. Concrete panels, metal panels, no panels, a lil’ brick thrown in, a half open walkway/half closed walkway.
The office expansion and landscape looks really nice though, especially since they replaced the bronze windows in the original building to match the expansion.
CDS sherman Says: hate the new parking garage with a passion. no retail or commercial component on the street level.
Yes there is. 15,000 square feet of retail space. I mentioned it up top.
The new addition looks great…the gym looks amazing from the outside. The ability to relocate and grow more jobs to downtown/brewery district is also a plus. The article from the dispatch mentioned that Grange was already able to relocate about 100 underwriters from one of the suburbs(Gahanna I think).
Correct Redsfaithful, they are building a new park to the south of the addition, bordered by High St. , Front St. and Frankfort St…..not sure what it will look like though. The new plaza in front looks awesome too. As for the garage, it’s ok. It has kind of a modern look to it, which I’m always in favor of. I do agree, they could do better with the parking structures around here.
I was actually about to post about this. I didn’t know they were going to add the jobs that slowly….little disappointed about that…still, it looks nice, they did a good job.
Edit: 15-20 years is right, right? It’s not supposed to say months or something?
ok then tell me why all that “retail space” was filled with cubical’s and file cabinets the last time i drove by? and the garage is still ugly as sin.
honavery Says: I didn’t know they were going to add the jobs that slowly….little disappointed about that…15-20 years is right, right? It’s not supposed to say months or something?
I guess the whole point of building the expansion is because they were out of room. This new space gives them room to grow. If they completely filled the space immediately then they’d be right back in the same situation again… out of room. ;)
CDS sherman Says: ok then tell me why all that “retail space†was filled with cubical’s and file cabinets the last time i drove by?
Actually, looking at the press release again makes it look like they ended up filling the retail space themselves: “Grange Central Claims and House Counsel are scheduled to occupy the space.” So it will still serve as a retail purpose. Just not a new bar or clothing store… business service retail.
As one of the designers of said ugly garage–we tried very hard to get street level retail. It just didn’t make sense for Grange or the neighborhood. I think you’ll all like the garage better once they install the art on the bridge and the ivy wall grows in.
As for the design of the garage, we were trying to play with the brick in the district by making a giant graphic brick pattern out of non-brick materials.
BTW, the building and garage were designed by the Columbus office of NBBJ. Since so many things in town get designed by out of town firms, it would be nice to get a little credit for the local designers who worked to make this project happen.
drove over and walked around the parking garage last night. its def full of grange offices….. im not sure what business service retail means? im assuming there open for customers to meet with claims reps? at any rate at 1st i thought what a crock of shit but then i looked around and realized that the area couldnt possibly sustain another sqft of retail. theres plenty of empty across the street. maybe one large outfit but def not 15,000 sqft divided up. so in my mind it makes sense to have more office space for grange and at least its filled and not papered over windows. maybe one day it could be converted into shops and what not. cleverboyjack i think the building addition is wonderful but i really think the garage was an epic fail on its location and design. rather than this weird attempt at “working with the brick in the area” it could have gone a complete different direction and been uber modern though im sure it had to be done within certain design review guidlines or it could have been made to match other historical surrounding buildings. i think the new garage on front and rich st is a good example of that. with the metal and brick and concrete it looks 90′s funky sheek and at this point why not add a bunch of LED lights….. the development of another garage on that corner has truly under served the intersection of sycamore and front st. why they simply couldnt have just added more garage to the existing one on the SW corner is obviously beyond me. behind to the west of the old garage are acres of parking lots that are owned by grange.
I guess that’s why they pulled out of a building here in Gahanna on Taylor Rd. They now have enough space to house all their people under one roof.
I have to say, I do like the look of the expansion, but is there a reason that every single light on every single floor needs to be on all night? Just seems like a needless waste for a company that seems interested in the environment. i.e. the sizable donation they made to the “Grange Insurance” Audubon Center.