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Plaza’s Places
Developer Laurence Ruben has jumped into the area’s blossoming housing market
Business First of Columbus – March 17, 2006
by Brian R. Ball
Business First
Developer Laurence Ruben and his family’s Plaza Properties Inc. have built a portfolio of 4,400 apartments and nearly 3 million square feet of commercial development in nearly a half-century.
The well-known apartment developer has now become a key contributor in the push to develop living options in downtown Columbus.
“We’ve been redefining what we’re doing,” said Plaza Properties’ president. “We’re building a new assembly line of condos and mixed-use development.”
The most visible example of Ruben’s renewed passion for residential development is rising along East Main Street at the western entrance to Bexley. The $25 million Bexley Gateway will include 34 condominiums and townhouses, as well as 24,600 square feet of retail and office space when it’s completed this year. Plaza has already begun preparing for a $25 million expansion of the complex, with 48 more condos and 19,000 square feet of commercial space.
Comments
- cheap: i highly recommend the Millersport sweet corn festival of course,the cor
- Jimmy Mak: Thanks for the write-up! Just to clarify - this is the third year we've do
- Briana Henry: Well, eventually they plan to add more bands from the region...gotta start
- bucki12: I like the business model, but the internet sales part seems like something
- racheltb: I don't see the Ohio Shrimp Fest on the list. It is truly a good time. h
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Plaza’s Places
By: Walker
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An even bigger gem was hidding on p. 2 of the article:
He said he expects planning to start this year on a residential community at Jaeger Commerce Park, off Nationwide Boulevard, not far from Katz Interests Inc.’s Buggyworks condo project and the site of Huntington Park, the planned stadium for the Columbus Clippers baseball team.
Plaza has owned the 22-acre Jaeger site since 1988.
“It’s primarily a housing site that could support 1,000 units,” Ruben said. “We feel we can put together a true, themed community downtown.”
Emphasis added, obviously.
The Jaeger site is a major bookend site for the Arena District. Not only is it large (22 acres, as mentioned), but it’s the last stretch of ground before the Olentangy. I’ve been waiting for something to happen there for years. I had no idea that Plaza had acquired it. (The Columbus zoning board map still lists Jaeger as the owner.) It’s an easy walk from there to the new North Bank Park, and into the heart of the Arena District, yet it’s still a little separate from the lights and bustle of the heart of the district. The one major obstacle they’ll have to deal with is the railroad bridge; I remember it looking like a somewhat cold and industrial visual barrier to the west when I went to go check out the Buggyworks.
A thousand residential units on 22 acres is close to 50 an acre, meaning a good deal of vertical building (which makes a lot of sense, considering that the views from 3+ floors up there will give you a panorama of the Olentangy-Scioto confluence and the bend in the river to the south around COSI … has to have potential). I’m excited already!
Awesome. I didn’t even read that page (most news articles feature all the major info in the first few paragraphs) but that’s great news. It sounds like between Jeffrey Place to the North East, this development to the West, and the Whittier Penn. Project to the Southwest, there will be plenty of new “communities” around downtown with tons of new residents…
It’s amazing how much difference a few years can make. With the new Hall of Justice and the Jaeger park, two of the biggest dead zones in the heart of the city will be taken out. Hopefully Jaeger, Buggyworks, and Huntington Park going in will attract some new development to the remaining dirty industrial properties in the Fletcher-Neil trapezoid, and the Hall of Justice attracts some new life to the Front St. corridor. (I think Paul over at CRM hinted that LeylandAlliance of Boston might have been looking at some land in that corridor even though they backed out of the bidding on the Whittier contract … maybe the county’s move will convince them to jump in.) Downtown Columbus is still incredibly land-rich for a city our size, which should help keep land prices reasonable and thus keep the threshold for jumping into our market reasonable for a while longer yet.