A plan to convert a 1960s-era Downtown warehouse into a new restaurant, bar and entertainment venue was presented to the Downtown Commission this week.
The 33,000-square-foot building, located at 225 Neilston Street, has been occupied by the Ohio Department of Health’s Bureau of Vital Statistics for years. The agency, which uses the building for the storage of birth and death certificates, is in the process of moving.
The proposal calls for adding windows, color and greenery to the building’s exterior walls, which are now largely featureless.
An alley that runs along the north side of the building would be converted into outdoor patio space, and the inside would be filled with a “community-based bar and restaurant and entertainment space,” according to Brad Parish of ArchAll Architects, who presented the design to the commission on August 24.
Parish said that his clients – who have developed similar concepts in Buffalo and Boston – are leasing the building from Hackman Capital Partners, a California-based company that owns a total of ten buildings spread across 24 parcels in the immediate vicinity.
In a follow-up email exchange with Columbus Underground, Parish declined to provide more details on what type of venue would occupy the space, saying that more information would be shared “in the coming weeks.”
Hackman Capital Partners’ holdings include the entire block bounded by East Naghten Street, North Fifth Street, Neilston Street, and East Spring Street, as well as several properties on the west side of North Fifth Street.
The company bought the properties in early 2018, according to property records, and is marketing them on its website as the Columbus Warehouse District.
Since the proposal was only reviewed conceptually, it will need to be brought back to a future commission meeting for a vote of approval.
For more information on the Downtown Commission, see www.columbus.gov.