2012 has proven to be a pivotal year for apartment development in Columbus. Approximately 3,000 new rental units in two dozen new developments have either been announced recently or are already under construction, primarily located in the central part of the city.
And nearly 400 of those new residents will soon call Neighborhood Launch home, as the Gay Street residential community begins construction on the first of three new buildings within the next few weeks.
“I think by the end of the July we should be on site and digging,” said Jeff Edwards, President of Edwards Companies. “We’ll start with the apartment building to the east first, which should take roughly 11 to 12 months to complete.”
The first apartment building will face Long Street between Sixth Street and Normandy Street. Edwards anticipates that the second apartment building, located on Long between Normandy and Fifth, would start within 60-90 days of the finish of the first building.
A new five-story condo building to be located at the corner of Sixth Street and Gay Street could also soon begin construction.
“We want to start construction on that before the end of year,” said Edwards. “We’ve had a capacity issue due to a lot of things being log jammed with the economy and within the real estate business.”
The new condo building is slightly larger than originally announced, adding eight more units for a total of 33. The units are primarily one bedroom, as those have been selling the best for the previous phases of Neighborhood Launch.
“We have two more condos close to contract at Bishops Walk, which would leave us with only six remaining units there,” said Edwards. “And we’ve already had at least 15 reservations made for the new five-story condo building.”
After the new condo building is completed, the next phase of Neighborhood Launch would be the development of a second Bishop’s Walk building that would mirror the first and extend down Gay Street. Once fully completed, Neighborhood Launch will house approximately 700 Downtown residents.
“The will end up being a pretty active area,” said Edwards. “The apartments we’re building are denser, and we’ll also soon see the opening of The Grass Skirt tiki bar and the Hills Market Downtown grocery store, as well as the new long term plans that CCAD announced.”
More information can be found online at www.NeighborhoodLaunch.com.