NEWS

Article by: Brent Warren, Columbus Underground

Dorchester East Photo: Walker Evans, Columbus Underground

Two new buildings are under construction at Grandview Yard that will bring the total number of apartments at the mixed-use development to 800. The previously unannounced project – dubbed the Dorchester – consists of two four-story buildings.

The first building of the pair has already been topped out and will be ready for the first residents to move in by July. Located at the northwest corner of Yard Street and Williams Avenue, it will contain 86 apartments.

The units will range from 700 to 1,200 square feet. Pricing starts at $1,250 a month for a one-bedroom unit and climbs to $2,500 for a larger three-bedroom.

Work began in March on the second building, Dorchester West, which sits directly behind the first one. It will hold 150 units and is scheduled to be completed by next summer.

Both buildings will be connected via tunnel to an existing four-story parking garage, which is also utilized by Nationwide employees working in one of the four office buildings clustered on either side of Yard Street (with a final group of office workers moving in last week, the total count of Nationwide employees at Grandview Yard is now up to 4,000).

The new apartments mark the fifth phase of development at Grandview Yard. The first phase was completed in 2010, when Hyatt Place Columbus, Planet Fitness and other businesses opened on the southern edge of the site.

“The demand is there for this product,” said Emily Garvey, Senior Marketing Manager at Nationwide Realty Investors (NRI), on a recent tour of the development. “It’s suburban yet urban, with great walkability and great amenities.”

Carli Lanfersiek, Marketing Director at NRI, said that occupancy rates across all of the company’s multifamily offerings – which includes multiple Arena District properties in addition to the Grandview Yard apartments – has consistently remained above 90 percent.

In addition to the 800 apartment units, Grandview Yard is also nearing a milestone on the for-sale side, with nearly 200 condos, townhomes and single family homes now completed.

Wagenbrenner Development and M/I Homes are set to begin the second phase of the Homes on Pullman Way, and NRI recently opened a model unit in its five-story condo building, 828 at the Yard. About 20 percent of the condos in the 35-unit building are already sold or in contract, according to Erin Uritus, Director of Residential Sales at NRI.

Lanfersiek declined to provide any details about NRI’s plans for filling out the remainder of the 90-acre site, saying that the market will determine whether more apartments or for-sale units are built. She did, however, offer that the goal is to have a total of 1,500 residential units at Grandview Yard by the time the final phases are completed.