Renderings and a site plan have been submitted to the University Area Review Board (UARB) for a six-story, mixed-use building on the site of the south campus Taco Bell at 1525 North High Street. The building would hold 120 apartment units, a 119-space parking garage, and 7,150 square feet of ground floor retail space, with a new Taco Bell taking up about 2,800 square feet of that.
The new proposal is a more fleshed-out version of one that the developers (Skip Weiler of the Robert Weiler Company and David Ruma of Virginia Homes) brought last March to the University Area Commission for a conceptual review.
Dan Ferdelman, urban designer for the City of Columbus and staff to the UARB, said that the proposal is “generally in conformance” with guidelines laid out in the new University District Plan, adding that it matches very closely the scale of the South Campus Gateway buildings across High Street and to the north.
Also on the agenda for the July 16th UARB meeting is a scaled-back proposal for the three-story building just south of the Taco Bell site at 1509 North High. Buckeye Real Estate received approval last winter to renovate that building – as well as a row house around the corner on West Ninth Avenue – and build a significant modern addition behind both buildings with structured parking and additional apartments. Unforeseen costs related to replacing water and sewer lines apparently has led to the scaling-down of the project. The new proposal calls for a straight renovation of the two buildings, eliminating the new addition from the plans.
Meanwhile, east of High, Edwards Communities is wrapping up demolition and about to begin construction on their seven-acre mixed-use development between Eighth and Ninth avenues.
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All renderings via Berardi + Partners.
