Poindexter gives way for new apartments
Once home to a 70-yearold public housing complex, the Poindexter Village site on the Near East Side is now home to a senior housing tower and a flurry of construction with new apartments rising from what was once a crime-ridden area.
But the activity comes with worries, specifically that longtime residents will be forced out one day by higher rents and home prices as the area slowly redevelops.
“It’s an economic thing. If you can’t afford it, what are you going to do?” said Calvin Hairston, a longtime Linwood Avenue resident who was a critic of the demolition of Poindexter Village, built in 1940 as Columbus’ first public housing project.
“People out here feel it’s
their community.”
So far, the 104-unit Poindexter Place tower for seniors, and 87 more apartments at the Legacy Pointe at Poindexter project, have been finished. Twenty-nine of the Legacy Pointe apartments are occupied, with the remaining 58 leased, said David Cofer, the executive director of Partners Achieving Community Transformation.
PACT is the group the city of Columbus, Ohio State University and the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority formed to redevelop the Near East Side around Ohio State University Hospital East. Each of the three contributes $250,000 a year for PACT’s operating expenses.
PACT released an annual report in July to update residents on progress.
Another 87 apartments are under construction, with 150 more to be started next year, Cofer said. Meanwhile, the former Columbus Early Learning Center on North Ohio Avenue will be converted into 10 market-rate apartments.
The 106-year-old former Hotel St. Clair on St. Clair Avenue is being converted into 32 market-rate apartments, and the Columbus Urban League is working with Huntington Bancshares to convert a vacant building on Mount Vernon Avenue into a workforce development center.
“There’s a lot going on on the Near East Side today,” Cofer said.
The blueprint for the largely poor and AfricanAmerican neighborhood calls for mixed-income housing. But some worry that as more people move in and others renovate homes that the current residents will be pushed out.
That includes Hairston, who said residents “honestly feel the East Side is being gentrified.” He pointed to the nonprofit Homeport’s project of 68 new and renovated homes that have brought new residents to the area.
Kathleen Bailey, who leads the Near East Area Commission, said she hasn’t been clear on what PACT’s vision is.
Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a $29.7 million Choice Neighborhood Initiative Grant to leverage $225.4 million in neighborhood projects. The money is being used to build hundreds of apartments and pay for education, health and job-training initiatives. So far, the 438 apartments, including the senior housing, represent more than $120 million in investment, including $20 million from the grant and $50 million in private equity, Cofer said.
PACT also used $1 million in Job Creation Tax Incentive funds to buy four commercial properties, including two on Mount Vernon Avenue and two on Taylor Avenue. One on Taylor is the Jerusalem Tabernacle Baptist Church. Another is a long-vacant and boardedup three-story building at Mount Vernon and Taylor.
Meanwhile, the housing authority board voted to transfer the two remaining Poindexter Village buildings to the Ohio History Connection, which in December designated them as the state’s 59th historic site, which could lead to the buildings becoming a museum.
And on Tuesday, the nonprofit Columbus Next Generation Corp. said it had selected Borror Development of Columbus and Kingsley and Co. of Cincinnati to redevelop the McNabb Funeral Home site. Boyce Safford, Columbus Next Generation’s executive director, said the plan is to build offices, retail space and apartments on the site at 818 E. Long St. and on an adjoining city-owned parcel, a total of two acres.
There are still no definite plans for the former Pilgrim Elementary School building on Taylor Avenue. Cofer suggested it could be converted into more residential units or even business incubator space.
And while there are no immediate plans to bring a grocery store to the area, it remains a priority, Cofer said.
The highest priorities continue to be housing, safety and education, he said.
“The vision has not changed,” Cofer said.