A four-story office building is the latest addition to the Reach on Goodale project to go before the Downtown Commission.
It was a conceptual review, meaning no vote was taken, but the plan was received favorably by the commission, according to Daniel Thomas, Urban Design Manager for the City of Columbus.
Jonathan Grubb, Lead Designer at Architectural Alliance, said that the hope is to start construction on the building this summer, assuming that the final approvals and permits are obtained.
The project, at 555 W. Goodale St., has been before the commission many times over the course of the last two years. The first of several planned residential buildings on the site were approved in August, with other elements reviewed conceptually in October.
Construction work started last spring on the new White Castle headquarters building that will anchor the 15-acre development, and Two Caterers recently announced plans to operate an events space at the site.
Also presented for conceptual review to the commission yesterday were the latest plans for a 28-story hotel that would connect to the existing Hilton Downtown Columbus across North High Street. The design is similar to the one that was first submitted to the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority and then later revised to include more floors.
Finally, yesterday’s meeting also saw the approval of the latest plan for the redevelopment of the Grant Oak Apartments across from the Main Library.
The approved plan, submitted by the Pizutti Companies, will preserve four of the existing apartment buildings while replacing three of them with a new, five-story building. Lupton Rausch designed the new building while Sullivan Bruck handled the renovation portion of the project.
After a surprise appearance at last month’s commission meeting, local developer David Bishoff returned to reiterate his concerns about the proposal and to offer again to buy the buildings and renovate them all.
The commission voted 6-1 to approve the proposal, which was more detailed than the one submitted in December but featured a similar overall design. The lone dissenting vote came from commissioner Jana Maniace, who agreed with Bischoff’s contention that painting the existing buildings in order to match the new structure was the wrong approach.