Hamilton Quarter is the name of a new large scale development proposed for the intersection of State Route 161 and Hamilton Road, just outside of New Albany in Northeast Columbus. The development will replace farmland and woodland with 320 acres of surface parking lots, 700,000 square feet of office space, one million square feet of retail, 800 multi-family residences and 130 senior living residences. The project is a collaboration between CASTO, The Daimler Group and The New Albany Company.
Daimler Chairman Bob White, Sr. described the project as “one of the most well positioned office sites in Columbus in terms of visibility, accessibility, and proximity to on-site and nearby amenities” in a press release issued this morning.
The development partnership is working with the City of Columbus on infrastructure updates, which includes a major rerouting of Hamilton Road at the highway interchange, and creating a “Central Boulevard” through the middle of the project’s site, which includes medians and roundabout intersections.
The press release describes Hamilton Quarter’s Central Boulevard as “a walkable, destination space that will feature ‘Main Street’ style restaurants and retail spaces”. The site map provided paints a different picture though, where the Central Boulevard is lined with traditional suburban strip mall outparcel properties with parking access oriented to the rear of the building.
Additionally, the site map for Hamilton Quarter reveals a complete separation of uses between the individual components of the project. The multi-family housing units are located north of State Route 161, while office and retail are south of the highway. Future residents interested in walking to amenities would be tasked with navigating two highway on/off ramps and traveling under a highway overpass to reach the closest amenity destination approximately a half mile away. Each of the three retail strip malls contain hundreds of dedicated parking spaces in individualized lots, separated from the office buildings with their own parking lots, incentivizing workers, shoppers and residents to drive to every destination within Hamilton Quarter.
The roadway infrastructure updates will be completed in phases starting this year, while the first phase of development is planned for a ground breaking in late 2016 or early 2017.
For more information, visit www.hamiltonquarter.net.
