Year in Preview: Development continues to take center stage in Reynoldsburg
Plans for the new Reynoldsburg headquarters of the Christian and Missionary Alliance will be revealed in the new year as the city looks to show more progress on development in 2023.
“We’re seeing what that’s looking like, and it’s unlike anything in Reynoldsburg currently,” Mayor Joe Begeny said.
Alliance representatives are expected to appear before Reynoldsburg Planning and Zoning Board during its Jan. 5 meeting and will hold an open house the following day, according to Robert Childs, the denomination’s relocation assistant to the president.
“After two years of background work purchasing property, renovating our transitional office building and working with our architectural design team, the Alliance is finally ready to unveil our plans for the Alliance Place mixed-use development project that will be constructed at Brice Road and East Main Street in Reynoldsburg,” Childs said in an email.
The evangelical Christian denomination, which was headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, purchased four parcels of land totaling about 15 acres at the corner of Brice and Main.
The former Kmart at Main Street and Brice Road was demolished last August to make way for a mixed-use development anchored by the Alliance’s national headquarters.
The $200 million plan was announced in February 2021.
City leaders have envisioned the development as a mix of retail, restaurants, a hotel, an event center, green space and apartments ‒ something similar to the way Bridge Park and Grandview Yard bring people to Dublin and Grandview Heights, respectively.
Primary-care project
Construction could begin in “late February or early March” on a three-story facility at East Main Street and Carlyle Drive, where Central Ohio Primary Care intends to be a partner in a multimillion-dollar youth athletics facility, Begeny said.
The city closed a deal in December with The Daimler Group, which paid $190,000 per acre.
In August, the Reynoldsburg Planning Commission approved a major site plan for a 60,000-square-foot facility on 5.3 acres of the 14 acres the city purchased for $1.15 million. The property is across from Glen Rest Memorial Estate.
The facility will bring 180 to 200 jobs to the city, Begeny has said.
The medical facility would be on the same site where the Center Ice Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, intends to build a $20 million youth sports complex.
Main Street makeover
Work to improve the streetscape along Main Street in Olde Reynoldsburg is winding down, with telecommunications companies in the process of relocated lines, Begeny said.
Main Street’s multimillion dollar makeover is aimed at increasing walkability and improving landscaping, lighting and parking between Davidson Drive and Jackson Street in the first of the project’s two phases.
In 2021, City Council awarded a $3.61 million contract to Complete General Construction for streetscape improvements.
The city plans to use $4 million in grants and zero-interest loans from the Ohio Public Works Commission to pay for the project, which is estimated to cost nearly $8 million in total.
The second phase will complete the streetscape from Jackson Street east to the Waggoner/Graham intersection.
PNC Bank options
The city hopes to find a project partner next year for the former PNC Bank location at 7221 E. Main St., which Reynoldsburg purchased for $2 million in 2021.
“(If) I wanted to just sell it, to sell it and it get off our books, that could’ve easily been done by now,” Begeny said. “But what the community is looking for and what we’re looking for is very specific in that area, and we did not want to just jump at the first offer. We hope to make specific progress next year.”
Those options could include a restaurant that is unique to Reynoldsburg or “something that will bring people to that entryway in the Olde Town area,” Begeny said.
Reynoldsburg spent more than $3.4 million to buy the commercially zoned PNC Bank, $620,000 for the former Happy Dragon restaurant, 7332 E. Main St., and more than $825,000 for the former Moyer auto repair shop, 7277 E. Main St.
A two-story development in the works for the former Happy Dragon location includes a coffee shop, ice cream shop, dentist office and restaurant, with additional room for office space on the second floor.
The city has been working with Trivium Development as its "preferred developer” to bring restaurants, office space and retail to the former Happy Dragon site and the nearby PNC Bank.
Begeny said they’ve been “kicking around a couple of ideas” for the former auto repair shop location, including a partnership with Rapid 5 to “make a little bit of green space.”
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Year in Preview: Development continues to take center stage in Reynoldsburg
