The Joseph, Pizzuti’s much-anticipated hotel, office and retail project, officially broke ground today in a ceremony on a former parking lot at the corner of High Street and Milay Alley.
Soon to rise on that lot is a six-story office building with an attached parking garage, an Anthropologie store, and space for additional ground-floor retail. Across High on the Italian Village side of the street, a metered lot that was closed last week by the City of Columbus will see a 135-room boutique hotel.
Company President Joel Pizzuti explained that the plan is to work on both lots simultaneously, although there may be more activity initially on the Victorian Village side as utility work by the city is wrapped up across the street. He expects construction to be completed on the office building by Labor Day of next year, with work wrapping up on the hotel before the end of 2014.
That will mark an end to a long journey for the project, which was first presented to the Victorian Village Commission in early 2008.
“You don’t draw it up this way, but to be fair the market was probably not ready for this project at that point anyway – the economy is better now, and our city is definitely heading in the right direction,” said Pizzuti, adding that, “it’s the right time for this project, and we’re very excited to get it open.”
With Anthropologie opting to utilize two floors for their store (at 5,00o square feet per floor), about 2,500 square feet of retail space remains available on the ground floor of the commercial building. Pizutti said they are currently in negotiations with a number of retailers to fill that space. As for the office space, he described initial discussions as being very positive, with good feedback coming in from prospective tenants about the location and the attached parking garage.
More information is available on the project’s website.
Renderings via Pizzuti.
