In August, local developer Kyle Katz announced plans to replace their family-owned property in Clintonville that formerly housed the now-closed Olympic Pool with a four-story 152-unit mixed-use apartment project. The plan faced some neighborhood opposition that thought that the development would cause a negative impact to the area, and it was officially placed “on hold” in October.
Today, Katz has unveiled an updated design for the development, that would reduce the number of apartment units to 115, the amount of commercial retail space from 19,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet and would increase the number of parking spaces to meet 93% of the recommended allotment based on site use.
“Both the community and the City of Columbus Development office offered some very good points on the project, and their thoughts have really driven this evolution,” said Katz. “What we’ve done diminishes the intensity of use of the site. That’s what concerned the community the most as it relates to parking and traffic.”
The Olympic will remain a four-story building with the top floor stepped back, giving it more of a three-story presence from Indianola. Katz said that the architecture will retain a “midwestern deco look” while reducing the amount of embellishment from the original design.
Additional courtyard-style greenspace in the front of the building has been added to help break up some of the massing of the building. Apartment units will contain a mix of smaller one-bedroom units, larger one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units.
“We’ve heard from a lot of people who own homes in Clintonville who don’t want to own any longer, but want to stay in Clintonville,” explained Katz. “So this is an opportunity for new construction in the neighborhood, and an opportunity to build a community at The Olympic.”
Katz said that ideally, a restaurant and a coffee shop would fit into the retail space, though an office tenant could also work well.
“A restaurant is what the community wants, and we want to deliver it for them,” he said. “One reason we’d love to include a coffee shop is because it will become people’s living room who live there.”
The updated proposal is scheduled to go in front of the zoning commission in May for review, though Katz said that outreach to the neighborhood has already begun with over 280 immediate neighbors being invited to open house events and a community event hosted by Positively Clintonville planned for April 21st.
“We want to listen, just as we did in the past,” said Katz. “The response so far has been incredibly positive.”
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For more information, visit www.livetheolympic.com.
Site plan via m+a architects.