City officials on Wednesday gave approval for the developer that built The Taylor to move forward with another market-rate downtown apartment building that will be located in front of Cummins Inc.’s parking garage along Washington Street.
Columbus Plan Commission members approved a site development plan, along with two modifications to the zoning ordinance related to what will be a five-story, 52 unit apartment building by Flaherty & Collins Properties, referred to in city documents as “Taylor Uptown.” The development’s address will be 600 Washington St., located between Sixth and Seventh streets on what is currently a section of green space.
The units will be located on the second, third, fourth, and fifth floors, with 8,741 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor.
Columbus-based architect Louis Joyner, who was part of the architecture team on the project with New-York-based TenBerke Architects, said the commercial space could be divided up or serve as one large tenant space.
Flaherty & Collins sought, and was granted, two modifications from the zoning ordinance. One is to have the building be 62 feet, 7 inches tall, which is 2 feet, 7 inches taller than the 60 foot maximum allowed in the Commercial: Downtown (CD) zoning district. The other is to allow a building setback to be 25 feet on Seventh Street, where a 0-foot build-to-line is required.
The latter modification is to provide space for an electric transformer with screening on Washington and Seventh streets. The setback adjustment is also intended to provide an area for trash service because of a lack of an alley and for the loading and unloading of resident’s belongings.
The project in 2023 received $5.8 million in central tax-increment financing (TIF) dollars after receiving approval from the Columbus Redevelopment Commission and Columbus City Council members in a split vote. Director of Redevelopment Heather Pope told The Republic that it is not anticipated that the developer will seek any additional TIF funding.
City officials described the loan as a “forgivable loan” that the developer will pay back over time through property taxes. A TIF district is a mechanism that allows the redevelopment commission to retain increasing property taxes in a selected area to fund projects intended to benefit the community.
When the TIF contribution towards the project was being considered, some city council members and members of the public expressed concerns about the project, such as the possible price point of the apartments, the level of subsidy, and whether the concept is the best use of the space.
On the other hand, those in support said an influx of residents would benefit downtown and pointed out that investing in the project does not preclude redevelopment from also pursuing affordable housing projects. Some also noted how they believed multiple housing types are needed in Columbus, something that was born out of the housing study the city completed last year that showed a need for 3,600 units by 2035, spread across all price points.
Cummins owns the 0.38 acre property that will be developed and hired Flaherty & Collins to develop the site. Flaherty & Collins’ construction arm will serve as the general contractor.
A report from planning staff states that when Cummins developed the block— bounded by Jackson and Washington streets on the east and west and Sixth and Seventh Streets on the north and south sides— the company intentionally left a 66-foot area along the Washington Street frontage for a development like Taylor Uptown to serve as a visual screen for the parking garage.
Flaherty & Collins’ Sarah Al-Droubi said the developer has a letter of intent (LOI) as part of the purchase agreement with Cummins where Taylor Uptown’s residents and employees would have access to 75 spaces in the Cummins parking garage. The CD zoning district technically has no parking requirements, Planning Director Jeff Bergman noted.
While the building won’t be structurally connected to the Cummins parking garage, there will be an access point on the fourth floor.
Each of the units will have their own washer and dryer. About half will have access to a balcony.
Al-Droubi pointed out that part of Cummins’ motivation for developing the site is to provide nearby housing for their employees, particularly for those who are coming from outside the United States where they wouldn’t have to worry about transportation to work and could walk. Flaherty & Collins’ target demographic for the project is generally young professionals, couples without children and empty nesters, a representative said when the project proposal was first discussed in 2023.
Also of note, there are currently seven street trees along the project’s street frontage that will be removed during construction, with only the tree on Seventh Street to be replaced. That’s because the engineering department said the city is planning on a full streetscape renovation along Washington Street sometime in the next five to six years.
Commissioner Laura Garrett initially advocated for Flaherty & Collins to replace all seven trees, but City Engineer Andrew Beckort said the extent of the streetscape renovation would mean that any trees planted prior to wouldn’t survive anyways because of how much the area will be ripped up.
Al-Droubi said the plan is to break ground on Taylor Uptown in March at the latest and that construction will take 20 months at most.
During public comment, Beth Stroh, owner of Viewpoint Books, expressed concern about the impact that construction of Taylor Uptown could have on nearby businesses, pleading that the city give business owners ample notice of any closures that could negatively affect their operations.
“I can’t imagine how the streets and parking around my store won’t be affected for an extended period of time,” Stroh said, noting the staging of materials and construction workers taking up parking. “As you consider this project going forward, I would just ask that you take that into account. We’ve been on that corner not as long as we’ve been in existence, but we’re the second oldest independent book store in Indiana. We will not survive unless you take our concerns, our means, into consideration.”
Viewpoint has been in its current location at the corner of Sixth and Washington streets since August 2007, moving there when the former Commons Mall was closing.
The Columbus Board of Public Works and Safety is ultimately responsible for finalizing any road closures as part of construction, and city officials indicated they would indeed notify business owners of any impending closure.
In trying to seek a resolution to Stroh’s concerns, Councilman Chris Bartels, R-District 1, and the council’s liaison to the plan commission, suggested that Flaherty & Collins ask to stage some construction materials within the Cummins parking garage to minimize the impact on nearby business owners.
Since the TIF funding was finalized for Taylor Uptown in December 2023, a 120-unit mixed-use development at 11th and Washington streets received city approval, along with a $6.4 million TIF subsidy to bankroll it.
Also, 174-units of affordable housing received approval from the city after two projects— Haw Creek Meadows at 2100 Midway and the Flats on 14th at 1520 14th St.— were awarded federal low-income housing tax credits. Haw Creek Meadows is being supported by up to $4.65 million in TIF funding through redevelopment.
The Taylor at 725 Second St., was supported with $11.8 million in TIF funding and is made up of 200 units. It was supposed to include a 10,000 square-foot urban grocer, but plans on that have fallen through. Flaherty & Collins did have a letter of intent with Bloomingfoods Co-op Market to operate a grocery store at the location, but the company backed out.
The letter of intent, which the developer had with Bloomingfoods at the time the city executed the agreement on the Taylor, stated that Flaherty & Collins would finish the interior of the space, purchase the first round of stock inventory and provide Bloomingfoods with one year of free rent.
The developer has worked to attract another grocer at the location but has been unsuccessful, according to city officials. City officials said Flaherty & Collins has also looked into other tenants for the space, such as a potential cafe, but nothing concrete has come about yet.