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I attended the Italian Village Society’s regular monthly meeting to hear about Rajesh Lahoti’s (developer of The Dakota) latest project which is proposed for the north east corner of E. Hubbard St. and N. High St. directly to the north of Haiku in the Short North, currently home to AAA Rental.
The project as presented, temporarily named “Urban Oasis”, is to be 170+, 10 story until of 1 and 2 bedroom condominiums. The main building which fronts High Street will also have a 2 level underground garage. At street level there will be retail (16 foot ceiling) along High and Hubbard Street, with residential on the 2 floors immediately above it with I believe approximately 10 foot ceiling. The facade design will be masonry to match much of existing architecture in the Short North with levels 4-10 being mostly glass and metal with balconies for every unit with about 9 foot ceilings.
To the east of the main building will be an above ground parking structure which has 10(?) 3 story live/work townhomes planned that will face the Italian Village Park.
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New project proposed for Short North/Italian Village
By: Walker
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I can’t see 10 stories getting approved in that area. I’ve heard about projects there getting crapped on for being 4 stories!
Good news though!
The Dakota is five. I don’t know why they shouldn’t be allowed to make this 10. The fact that the upper floors are recessed and they’re building ample parking should keep it from being a problem. 8)
I agree that 10 story buildings are good for this town, but even the Dakota had a hard time getting approval. I think the developer had to push back the 5th floor so it would make it less “imposing on the street”. It sounds like they’re planning on doing the same thing with this one, but it’s gonna be more difficult to hide floors 5-10.
Am I the only one who finds it funny that a 10 story building is “too high” in a city of 700,000? It’s actually the perfect size for this city and we should have plenty more (I’m looking at you, eastern downtown). And what’s the deal with that Bollinger tower on the southern end of the Short North? Why is that OK, but anything else isn’t? I’m sure there will be public meetings, so if you live in the area give your support.
It’s not too tall for Columbus, it’s too tall for the Short North committee/associations/etc. I think Bollinger was built when the Short North was a slum.
That makes sense, it certainly doesn’t have that Short North look to it.
I’m completely with Columbusite here; 10 stories doesn’t seem unreasonable at all (never mind that the only way that many of these neighborhoods will become more affordable for middle-class residents is if supply is allowed to increase … supply goes up, price goes down, ceteris paribus). Assuming that the physical infrastructure of the city (roads/water/sewer/electricity) can handle it, they should be allowed to build however high they want. Village associations could have important roles to play in developing a successful urban neighborhood, but no one should have the authority to play Skyline Police.
I dunno. I could see the point of not allowing a 10-story tower in the middle of German Village, since it’s a historic area… but the Short North… along High… it’s already been pretty modernized as is. There’s a lot of newer construction mixed with old, which makes it look unique. Plus the building that this tower will replace is FUGLY and needs to be ripped down regardless of what they want to build there.
I toured the Yukon condo’s and the builder was talking about the zoning restriction and how it effected their construction.
One example was the windows. They had to use old windows with none of new efficiency types. You buy a new condo and get “old and busted.” What seemed odd is that he was saying they were under the jurisdiction of the Victorian Village standards.
I didnt think it reached into Short North?
Per the Victorian Village Handbook, which sets out all the rules:
The principal boundaries of Victorian Village are West Fifth Avenue on the north, Goodale Avenue on the south, High Street on the east, and Harrison Avenue on the west.
If High is the “boundary,” I guess that means High is included in the area subject to the rules? Or at least the west side of High?
The Victorian Village Commision controls the west side of High Street, and the Italian Village Commission controls the East side. The same rules apply to the High Street structures, as they would to any home in the historic district. The Dakota and the Jackson both had to get approval through the VVC, just as Mona Lisa Lofts, Kramer Place and Jeffery Place had to with the IVC.
I would love to see 10 stories on High Street, but it does set a bad precedence. Every land owner would gladly tear down their historic structure (not that this building is) to build a 10 story tower.
And this would be a bad precedent how, exactly?
“Historic” is hardly synonymous with “good.” Only a small minority of historic properties are really worth preserving, and even then, preventing people from renovating and upgrading as they wish drags down their value and quality.
I’ve always believed that we should have no more allegiance to 50- or 100-year-old buildings than 5-year-old nightclubs. Very few were really built with permanence in mind, particularly garden-variety residential and commercial structures. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be letting people replace old 3-story places with newer, higher-quality 10-story (or higher) places; if the market is there for them, then the more, the merrier. The Yukon Studio Lofts windows are just one example.
Neighborhood associations are no more immune than any other institution with political power to getting too fond of using that power.
Keep in mind that every time you force someone to only build 3 stories where 10 would fill, you’re contributing to suburban sprawl, because builders will simply build out, not up, and not by their own free choice.
I think we’ll see more higher density development in the future when we have a streetcar line along Broad, mostly because poorer neighborhoods tend to get ignored, so whether they want a bunch of 10 story buildings or not they ‘d get built.
Maybe. There’s some truth to the fact that poorer neighborhoods tend to be less politically powerful, even within their own borders. However, there’s also the more basic issue of supply and demand to consider. The reason these developers want to put up 10 stories of residential along High St. in the Short North is that there are that many people that really want to live along High St. in the Short North. That corner is a very marketable address. Streetcar or no streetcar, random corners on the East and West side don’t have the same potential.
Supporters of neighborhood governments on these issues can tell euphonic stories about “preserving neighborhood character,” etc., but there’s usually a darker side: by creating government-mandated supply shortages (forcing there to be 3 stories where there’s demand for 10), insiders (those who’ve already bought in) can artificially increase the value of their own properties in elections where they wield all the power because the interests of prospective residents are unrepresented. It’s the same principle underlying exclusionary zoning. You get to effectively soak the “outsiders,” those on the outside looking in, by making sure there’s not enough housing for everyone who wants in, forcing them to bid up prices to buy into the neighborhood … at which time, they become the next “insiders” because they paid the supply-shortage premium to get in, and will want everyone else to have to do so, too (and will need to keep that premium in place to recover the price they paid, ceteris paribus), perpetuating the cycle. It’s a hard cycle to break, and often requires action by a higher authority (i.e., state government, which represents a broader sphere, placing limits on exclusionary zoning by local authorities), but this is very difficult to accomplish.
Thanks for the insight. And you’re right about streets going east/west vs Highh St, but if/when shops/retail/etc are vying for locations on the streetcar route on those streets the residential demand will be there too, though not necessarily for 10 story buildings. It will certainly be quite some time before that happens if it does, but it looks like a streetcar route would speed up gentrification. Sure, the area may not offer much in the way of interesting things nearby, but just being on the route to places that do have a lot to offer is quite an incentive.
Here’s a rendering from CRM:
http://columbusretrometro.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/urbanoasis.jpg
In the words of Borat: “NIIICE!”
8)
I do not know this Borat.
But he seems to me to be a wise man.
NIIICE indeed.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Mike Pramik
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Public parking is in short supply in the Short North. But a central Ohio development team plans to address that need as part of a residential proposal.
Arms Properties is floating an idea to build a 250-space public-parking garage as part of a project that would include a 10-story, 179-unit condominium building. Ibiza Urban Oasis would rise in the place of a nondescript office building in the 800 block of N. High Street.
The classic urban-infill project is across the street from Arms Properties’ Dakota condo building, which is expected to be occupied in February. Rajesh Lahoti, a co-owner of the development company, said he thinks Ibiza’s biggest asset could be a three-level, publicparking garage.
“The lack of public parking in the Short North has held us back, especially the business district,” Lahoti said. “It’s hurt merchants a lot. This would solve that problem.”
Lahoti, who with his partners owns three Short North nightclubs and three residential projects including the Dakota, said Arms Properties would operate the garage through a third-party company. He said they’re still working out financial details, but he thinks the condos and garage could be built by the end of 2008.
Condominium owners would have access to underground parking between the building and the garage. The plans also call for a row of townhouses running along Hubbard Street.
READ MORE
Certainly looks like a good spot to me … from the diagram in that Dispatch article, it looked like it was set about a half-block back from High St., enough to be nearly completely hidden from view by the tower but close enough to be an effortless walk.
I was lucky while I was at OSU; COTA was free and it was an easy ride down the #2 to get to the Short North. Most folks who wanted to go to Gallery Hop (or, heaven forbid, just to shop or grab an overpriced cup of coffee) didn’t have it so well; the few times I drove down there with others, it often took a darn long while to find a parking spot.