Homeport now has the green light to move forward with its plan to build 50 units of affordable housing at 79 McDowell St. in Franklinton.
The East Franklinton Review Board (EFRB) approved the latest plan for the four-story building at its meeting on June 24. The board had previously cleared the way for the project to proceed by giving its conditional approval to a plan to demolish the former West Side Spiritualist Church, which has stood on the site since 1912.
With funding for the project now secured and the approval in hand, Homeport is looking forward to the building “becoming a part of the community,” said Leah Evans, Real Estate Development Vice President at Homeport.
“We will be finalizing and moving forward with plans for rest of summer, submitting documentation to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency in September, and will look at probably starting on this project next spring,” she told the board.
The latest plan for the building calls for community space and an entrance at the corner of McDowell and State streets, with a small parking lot and meditation garden behind the building. Residents of the building will have access to 60 parking spaces in the Gravity II garage, which will be located directly across the street.
Architect Karrick Sherrill said that the goal for the design of the building was to find “a middle ground between what is existing in the area and what’s coming up…you have the juxtaposition of styles between the existing warehouses and low-rise residential buildings, and the more modern designs of the Gravity project.”
