NEWS

Suburban condo and apartment developer Lifestyle Communities Ltd. plans to bring its headquarters to downtown Columbus as the anchor of a 125,000-square-foot office building proposed in the Arena District.

The builder plans to move its 164 employees into 40,000 square feet of the seven-story building planned for 230 West St. The project is contingent on an incentive deal before City Council, which calls for the developer to create 74 jobs over the next several years.

Lifestyle Communities CEO Michael DeAscentis Jr. said moving downtown – likely in the second quarter of 2008 – would let the company’s employees have some fun while working in the mixed-use district developed by Nationwide Realty Investors Ltd.

“Locating a work environment within an entertainment district is appealing to us,” DeAscentis said. “We really saw a lot of dynamics with what Nationwide Realty has created.”

Lifestyle Communities last year paid an undisclosed sum for naming rights to the former PromoWest Pavilion concert venue in the Arena District.

DeAscentis said the Arena District offices, which would be partially owned by Lifestyle’s principals, also would feature a bar dubbed Goat on the ground floor. The developer put Goat bars in two condominium communities it built near New Albany and Gahanna, and a third Goat bar is planned for a Hilliard community under construction.