As mentioned quite often by just about everyone, we’re in a national affordable housing shortage and a Columbus developer is looking to remedy that situation in the Ohio area on the site of the vacant Value City complex on Westerville and Innis roads on the Northeast Side.
The site includes two connected buildings including about 480,000 square feet. When a second story in one of the buildings is counted, the square footage rises to about 670,000 square feet.
Brad DeHays, owner of Connect Realty, has applied to annex the 27-acre Clinton Township site into the city of Columbus in anticipation of the development.
“We’ve had a plan we’ve been looking at, something we’ve wanted to do once we found the right property,” DeHays said. “We’re excited about the prospect of making this property productive again for central Ohio.”
The proposed modular home factory is called Connect Housing Blocks, LLC. (no website found yet)
The buildings housed Value City’s former office and warehouse and a Value City Department Store, which had replaced a Schottenstein’s Department Store on the site. Value City closed that store and others at the end of 2008, a few months after the chain filed bankruptcy.
DeHays is working on plans that would include two apartment buildings on the north side of the site, now occupied by a parking lot. The complexes would include about 150 affordable apartments.
Now it looks like plans for converting this former warehouse/office complex into a new modular factory ready to serve DeHays and other developers provide affordable housing.
Brad Hayes, we all wish you the very best and hope you “hit it out of da park!”
Related Articles:
- Is This The Year For Modular Builders To Start Their Own Factory?
- 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a New Modular Home Factory
- Why A Developer Shouldn’t Own A Modular Factory
Gary Fleisher is Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and the Offsite Builder. Email at [email protected]
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