Columbus Compact putting Old National Trail condos for sale in Olde Towne East

Business First - by Brian Ball

Date: Friday, March 18, 2011, 9:54am EDT - Last Modified: Friday, March 18, 2011, 3:31pm EDT

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The renovation of four Victorian-era homes into two-unit condominiums could boost the nonprofit Columbus Compact Corp.’s effort to re-enter the business of market-rate housing three years after the housing bubble burst.

Columbus Compact CEO Jonathan Beard said the first two units of the developer’s Old National Road Condominiums project – from 1023 to 1051 E. Main St. and 379-81 S. Ohio Ave. – have occupancy permits and are set for sale through Carriage Trade Realty.

The remaining six units should be completed between early April and mid-May.

The homes, built in the 1890s, have stood vacant for about 30 years.

“They’re beautiful buildings that had fallen into neglect and blighted the neighborhood,” Beard said.

Columbus Compact’s Olde Towne East Restorations LLC affiliate in August received $800,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants through the city of Columbus to help pay for half of the $1.6 million renovation project.

The three-level properties will go on the market for $89,900 for 1,200-square-foot units and $105,400 for 1,500-square-foot units. Beard said the properties could be leased with a purchase option. Those interested in the Old National Road condos also may be swayed by a 12-year, 100-percent tax abatement on real estate improvements, and a $5,000 incentive for those who sign purchase contracts by June 1.

Near East Side projects sidelined

Columbus Compact had put for-sale housing development on the sidelines on the Near East Side in recent years amid the recession. It switched plans for turning apartments on Sherman Avenue at Oak Street into condos and opted instead to keep them as rentals. Thirteen of the 15 are occupied.

Columbus Compact’s City Heritage LLC affiliate also had begun marketing a 52-unit market-rate condo project near Franklin Park in early 2008, but the project secured only four of the necessary nine contracts it needed to qualify for bank financing on its first 18-unit section.

“We got into the (preparation of) construction documents and the housing market dropped out,” Beard said about the project’s demise. (Beard talked in more detail about Columbus Compact’s Main Street efforts in an interview with Columbus Business First in 2008.)

Revival of that project, he said, will not be looked at until the nonprofit can figure out how to spur the nearby redevelopment of a former “trolley barn” that awaits a commercial redevelopment plan.

“We’re taking our time,” he said, “slogging through it.”