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    Plans Unveiled for Final Phases of Jeffrey Park

    The latest plans for the future of Jeffrey Park were unveiled today by Wagenbrenner Development. Along with new residential buildings and a reconfigured park space, the plans call for a large parking garage with office space above it that would be the tallest building constructed so far in the 41-acre development at the edge of Italian Village.

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    Containing anywhere from 100,000 to 140,000 square feet of office space, the building would also hold enough parking to meet the needs of the final three phases of Jeffrey Park. Apartments would wrap around the parking garage, and an amenity deck would offer outdoor space for both residents and office tenants.

    “The (Italian Village) Commission has been wanting to see our best guess for how the site is going to fill out,” said company president Mark Wagenbrenner. “The problem is, every time we show a plan that’s this far out, the world changes…we’re now getting close enough to the end, though, that it is in everybody’s interest to (share the plans).”

    The large office building/parking garage would sit on the southern edge of the site, and is currently being thought of as phase nine of the development, Wagenbrenner explained. It would be built after phases six and seven (for-sale residential buildings that would ring the new park), and phase eight (an apartment building in the southeast corner of the project that has been given the name Dickinson Square for now). A for-rent product is planned for phase 10, which would fill in the last remaining space along North Fourth Street.

    “With the success of office in the Short North, the city has strongly encouraged us to do office, and it is probably the right time to do it,” said Wagenbrenner. “There’s a real need to bring new, modern office space into areas where people want to work.”

    Although renderings show the office and parking concept as a ten-story building, the company is exploring adding for-sale residential units on top of the office that could add another two-to-four stories to its height.

    A team from Wagenbrenner Development will present the plans to the Italian Village Commission this afternoon, and an email was recently sent out to current Jeffrey Park residents alerting them to the changes and soliciting feedback.

    Courtney Ingersoll of Wagenbrenner Development said that they hope to hold a community meeting soon to further engage with residents and get their responses to the concept. The plan is still very preliminary, she stressed, and will likely change as they hear more from residents and the commission.

    “We are continuing to respond to our residents and to the community and to the needs of the city, like we’ve always done in all of our projects,” she said.

    The biggest expected concern from residents is the potential for the proposed office building to block views to the south. Wagenbrenner said they worked to preserve what he called the “meaty part of the Downtown view” by stepping down the height of the western portion of the building.

    “We are sensitive to the neighborhood and committed to figuring it out with them,” said Wagenbrenner, who added that the commission has, in previous meetings, expressed a desire to see something taller proposed for the final phases of the project.

    The original vision for Jeffrey Park, which was first unveiled in 2012, called for nearly 1,500 residential units on the former Jeffrey Manufacturing Company land. As of today, about 800 units – both apartments and for-sale townhomes – have been completed, according to Wagenbrenner.

    For more information, visit jeffreyparkcolumbus.com.

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    Brent Warren
    Brent Warrenhttps://columbusunderground.com/author/brent-warren
    Brent Warren is a staff reporter for Columbus Underground covering urban development, transportation, city planning, neighborhoods, and other related topics. He grew up in Grandview Heights, lives in the University District and studied City and Regional Planning at OSU.
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