Apartment Choice

Jim Weiker The Columbus Dispatch @JimWeiker Developers propose two new Downtown apartment complexes , one of which would include the renovation of three century-old buildings. The most complex of the two projects would transform almost a block of property into a multi-building residential and retail complex on the north side of E. Long Street east of N. 3rd Street. The proposal includes the renovation of three buildings: a two-story retail and office building at 118 E. Long St.; a four- story empty retail building at 134 E. Long St.; and a five- story empty office building at 134 N. 3rd St. All were built around 1900, according to the Franklin County auditor 's office. A five- story apartment building would be added to the N. 3rd Street building . Two parking garages would be added with rooftop decks between the buildings.  In all, the project would include 65,680 square feet of residential space  — about 80 apartments — plus 13,680 square feet of retail space and 38 pa...

When it was first built in the early 70s, Reston’s Tall Oaks Village Center faced little retail competition, but its fortunes changed when the Reston Town Center ’s shops and restaurants opened in 1990. It was dealt another blow when its anchor tenant, grocer Giant, closed its doors in 2007. Today, the 70, 000 square foot shopping center is 86 percent empty. However, the languishing center is set to take rebirth as a vibrant mixed use development with housing, retail, office and open space . The Board of Supervisors recently approved Jefferson Apartment Group ’s redevelopment plans for the village center . This has been a very difficult center to remodel or upgrade, and I hope Jefferson is able to provide what is needed to start that Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, Hunter Mill District Located at the corner of Wiehle Avenue and North Shore Drive , the village center is one of five in Reston, although it’s the smallest at about 18 acres. It’s the first to be redeveloped though si...

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...

UConn’s place in the Hartford skyline . Hartford — For nearly a half-century, the University of Connecticut has had no place to call its own in the state’s capital city. Today that changes as Connecticut’s flagship university opens the doors of its new $140- million downtown branch campus on Prospect Street . The arrival of the campus, which comes after five years of false starts and setbacks, is a milestone for the university and the city of Hartford. Hundreds attended the grand opening ceremony downtown Wednesday morning . For UConn, it marks the institution’s return from the suburbs into the heart of the city – where the school first opened its Greater Hartford branch in 1939. It moved to West Hartford in 1970. The university, in the years since, had been able to continue to claim a “presence” downtown. Some of UConn’s graduate business programs are housed in a space it leases in 100 Constitution Plaza, and the university’s basketball and ice hockey teams play games in the XL ...