Wagenbrenner Development is hoping to break ground this fall on five new single-family homes on Grant Avenue in Weinland Park, the first of what they hope will be 38 market-rate houses overlooking the former Columbus Coated Fabric site across the street.
“Interest has exceeded my expectations,” said Michael Amicon of Wagenbrenner, adding that potential buyers seem to like the idea of a new home (with modern amenities like walk-in closets and full basements), in a central-city neighborhood that is within easy walking distance to Italian Village and the Short North.
The new Grant Park Homes will range from 1,300 to 1,600 square feet and will be priced around $200,000. The first five houses, which will include one model unit, will back up to recently built rent-to-own houses on North 6th Street. Wagenbrenner also plans to offer buyers the choice of putting the same housing product on any of the scattered parcels they control throughout the neighborhood.
As for the empty field across the street where the factory once was – Wagenbrenner cleaned up the site with the help of a Clean Ohio grant – plans call for a park on the southern portion of the site (closer to East 5th Avenue), townhomes in the middle, and a larger multifamily building at the northern end.
Amicon said that construction could start on the townhomes as soon as next summer; there would be about 100 units, depending on market demand, and they would be sold as fee-simple homes similar to the ones in Wagenbrenner’s Jeffrey Park development.
More information can be found online at www.wagdev.com.