Lifestyle Communities is planning a second tower in its Downtown apartment complex, adding another building to a stretch of new apartments that is transforming High Street.
The Columbus-based developer plans to add an eight-floor tower on the southwest corner of Rich and High streets, a mirror image of a tower it has planned for the northwest corner, which was announced earlier.
“Essentially the view you’ll get coming into Downtown on Rich Street from the bridge will be a corridor of buildings,” said Lifestyle spokesman Russell Boiarsky.
Each U-shaped building will house 106 apartments, including 10 two-story penthouse apartments on the top floors.
“Those will be spectacular,” Boiarsky said. “They’ll have views of the river on one side and Columbus Commons park on the other.”
The first floors of both towers will be occupied by commercial tenants. Lifestyle plans to build one of its Goat bar and restaurants on the ground floor of the north tower, which will also include Lifestyle’s Om fitness center. Other commercial tenants have not been identified.
The buildings will add to a dramatic transformation underway on High Street south of Broad Street.
On the east side of High Street, where Columbus City Center mall once stood, Highpoint on Columbus Commons apartments recently opened. The two six-floor buildings next to Columbus Commons park will have 301 apartments.
South of that, across Rich Street, the 12-story 250 High building is planned, with five floors of commercial space topped by 164 apartments.
A block west, at Main and Front streets, a 92-year-old shoe factory is being converted into the 89-unit Julian lofts.
Altogether, the projects will add about 800 apartments to the four-block area and further cement the image of High Street as the city’s commercial thoroughfare.
“We’ve already proven (residential development can work) north of Broad, and I’m seeing the effort going south, which is exactly what we need to do, connecting the whole area from German Village through Downtown all the way up north through campus,” said Susan Ungar, president of the Downtown Residents’ Association of Columbus.
“It was bound to happen, but it’s happened so much more quickly than we expected.”
Lifestyle plans to start work on the north tower next month and finish it in early 2015. It still needs final city approval for the second tower, but hopes to start work on that one “close behind” the first tower, Boiarsky said.
Buildings must be demolished for both towers.
The towers are next to Lifestyle’s Annex at RiverSouth complex. The entire Lifestyle complex will be called LC RiverSouth.
“When we came into RiverSouth with the Annex, our goal was to create a neighborhood,” Boiarsky said. “We didn’t want to be one and done. We wanted to establish a destination in the city.”