A new developer is now attached to the former Shell Station at the corner of East Lane Avenue and North High Street. Schiff Properties has signed a 99-year ground lease for the property, and plans to bring a proposal for a mixed-use development to the University Area Commission next month.
That proposal will feature ground-floor retail along both the Lane Avenue and High Street frontage, an unspecified number of apartments on the upper floors, and enough parking to serve both the retail and the residential tenants, according to Zach Schiff of Schiff Properties.
“It’s a critical piece for the university area and will be a great project,” said Schiff. “We want to do something that really makes a statement there.”
Columbus Underground reported last month that Schiff Properties was interested in building a seven-story garage with apartments above it behind the row of retail storefronts just south of the Shell Station parcel at 2120 – 2124 North High Street.
Schiff said that their control of that adjacent land means they can provide parking for whatever is built at Lane and High. Elford Development had previously proposed a four-story building for the site with 27 apartment units and 12 parking spaces, a proposal that stalled after the University Area Commission expressed concern about the lack of parking.
Although some of the newer retail storefronts along High Street in the University District remain vacant, Schiff is confident that they will have no problem filling space at Lane and High.
“We’ve never had a problem leasing commercial space on campus,” he said, pointing out that Schiff Properties has developed and leased many storefronts along this stretch of High Street, with a current roster that includes Waffle House, Starbucks, Urban Outfitters, Key Bank and Blaze Pizza.
As for the existing businesses in the storefronts south of Lane – Noodles and Company, Radio Shack, and locally-owned Korean restaurant Diaspora, among others – the hope is that they can stay put during and after construction, as that building would remain untouched by any development to the north and west.
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