Owner takes over plans for Castings site
The owner of the former Columbus Castings site on the South Side is looking to develop the massive property itself after a planned buyer backed out.
Reich Brothers Holdings, the New York-based real estate firm that owns the 76-acre property, has developed plans to construct warehouse or industrial buildings on the site, said Jonathan Reich, CO-CEO of the company.
“In effect, we would start to get part of the property pad ready for a potential tenant, for either sale or lease,” Reich said Monday.
“If we go the route of doing it ourselves, most likely it will encompass two or three different distribution/ light manufacturing facilities between 200,000 and 300,000 square feet each.”
Reich said the Parsons Avenue property would still be available for either sale or lease. It remains listed by the commercial real estate company CBRE.
Reich said his company also is working with the city to explore additional city or state incentives available to develop the property.
Reich Brothers, which acquired the property out of bankruptcy in 2016, is moving ahead after the St. Louis company CRG backed out of plans to build warehouses on the site.
“We are not pursuing the castings site any further at this time,” company spokesman Glenn Lafollette told The Dispatch.
CRG presented plans in March 2019 to build two warehouses on the site: one 902,889 square feet on 56 acres, and the other 185,600 square feet on 13 acres.
CRG sought a 15-year, 100% property tax abatement for the project, which officials estimated could generate 700 jobs.
Lafollette said he did not have additional details on CRG’S decision to back away. CRG is, however, moving forward on two other large Columbus projects it is developing with Lexington Realty Trust:
· The Cubes at Etna East: two warehouses totaling 1.6 million square feet on 127 acres south of Interstate 70 and State Route 310 in Etna Township. The project is the second phase of an industrial park that also includes CRG’S The Cubes at Etna 70.
· The Cubes at Rickenbacker: a 320,000-square-foot warehouse on 24 acres near Rickenbacker International Airport. Construction is underway.
Reich said that while some companies have changed their plans because of the coronavirus pandemic, interest remains high in the property for industrial and manufacturing use.
“Obviously, COVID put a wrench into the momentum,” Reich said. “But with manufacturing coming back into the country, as well as the growth of online sales that require distribution sites, especially last-mile sites, overall interest has been positive.”
Columbus Castings, formerly known as Buckeye Steel Castings, closed in 2016 after operating for more than a century at 2211 Parsons Ave. The factory made steel castings for rail cars and at its peak in the 1950s employed more than 2,000 workers.
The buildings have been torn down in preparation for redevelopment.
Reich said he hopes to see construction on the site by the end of this year or early next year. jweiker@dispatch.com @Jimweiker
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