Photo provided An artist’s rendition of the proposed Rubicon Investment Group, which is planning to develop a five-story, 120-unit apartment building with a parking garage and commercial area in downtown Columbus off Washington Street.
A developer looking to build a five-story, 120-apartment building that would cause the demolition of a drive-thru bank and house with historical ties is asking the city for a $6.4 million subsidy towards the project.
Rubicon Investment Group is looking to build a mixed-use development with apartments, commercial space and a parking garage on three parcels at 921 Jackson St. and 1008 and 1020 Washington streets.
The total cost of the project is $30.9 million, according to Rubicon’s Matt Nolley. Redevelopment next month will consider a resolution to authorize the use of $6.4 million in central TIF funds to cover a financing gap, with the expense being subject to approval by the Columbus City Council.
As the city has done for other mixed-use developments in recent years including The Taylor and the development at 6th and Washington streets, officials will look to create a separate TIF bounded by the project site which redevelopment financial consultant Andrew Lanam said will recoup the $6.4 million in 18 years.
The city previously agreed to pay $11.8 million towards development of The Taylor, located at 725 2nd St., and provided a $5.8 million subsidy for the mixed-use development on Sixth and Washington streets in 2023. Both were developed by Flaherty & Collins.
As the matter has made its way through the city government process, members of the public have been critical of the proposed development, including its price-point, size, look and its perceived encroachment on the city’s architectural identity. There’s also been concern about the amount of parking that would be available, how it would impact the already busy intersection at 11th and Washington streets, along with the fact that there is an environmental covenant placed on the site, meaning groundwater there is contaminated.
Although not a part of this request, Rubicon has also submitted plans for a restaurant at 1034 Washington St., also known as the former Joe Willy’s and Overstreet Home, currently owned by the Columbus Capital Foundation. Renderings of the restaurant had been consistently included in city meetings over the last few months when the Rubicon development had been discussed.
According to site plans, the development would include a ground floor with 61,000 square feet for parking, 2,700 square feet of entry space and 2,600 square feet for office/commercial space.
Floors two through five will be 32,000 square feet each for residential space, including eight three-bedroom units, 40 two-bedroom units, 48 one-bedroom units and 24 studio units.
Nolley said the studio units would be $1,320 per month, one-bedroom units $1,435 per month, two-bedroom $1,970 per month and three-bedroom units $2,176 per month.
Rubicon will designate 10% of the building to be reserved for workforce housing, Nolley said, “and we will be factoring that at 20% discount applied, and we’ll just be using the traditional federal guidelines for that decision tree process when people come in and they apply.”
“We have received from the Indiana Economic Development Corp. redevelopment taxes already and that tax award is $3.2 million, and so that will be applied upon stabilization of the building,” Nolley told the redevelopment commission. “Our equity amount is about $2.92 million, we have a deferred fee of $1.4 million and then our ask of contribution is $6.4 million. And the rest of the balance, the $17 (million), is construction work.”
Redevelopment will look to create a new TIF because the central TIF is set to retire in 2035, according to Lanam.
“To get the full life out of the project and to be able to recoup the investment by the redevelopment commission, you would create a new allocation area for the residential project, which we’ve done for a couple of different projects now,” Lanam said.
The financial consultant said the current assessed value of the three parcels as of this year was $464,000 and projected assessments will reach as high as $15 million if and when the project is built.
“The TIF is derived from the increase in assessed value,” Lanam said. “The taxes that are derived from that, the base-assessed value, all the overlapping taxing units that would be receiving property taxes from that would keep those revenues, and then in addition to the TIF revenue that would be generated, (BCSC) has a referendum operating fund and referendum rates, they would also benefit to some degree from this.”
When asked if redevelopment knew that Rubicon would request a subsidy like this, Director of Redevelopment Heather Pope said the city “knew that there may be some type of ask, but they hadn’t finalized all the details yet. You have to get to this level to even know what that ask is.”
Mike Mullett, a representative on behalf of the Historic Downtown Alliance who has attended meetings regarding the project throughout the year, reiterated a sentiment he said is shared by his neighbors.
“The whole idea that the city would subsidize this project with this special tax treatment is the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Mullet said. “… We’re facing a real social cohesion problem these days, when we have a market-rate project that’s developer-driven, not community-driven.”
“As far as this project is concerned, we’ve got zero setbacks, we’ve got 100% lot coverage,” Mullet continued. “Because of the drainage problems, they’re coming up with this huge, very expensive drainage system to deal with it. In doing so, they’re going to be doing some excavating into an area of known groundwater contamination, the sources of which are still murky.”
Mullet asserted that projects like the one Rubicon is proposing are not what TIF funds are intended for.
“You were looking at manufacturing projects that brought a lot of jobs, that had very high ratios with regard to the supply chain, that’s what this was for. You’re not doing that here,” Mullet said. “… We’re talking about something basically driven by rate of return considerations for a project that, from my perspective, is very marginal. And as far as the community is concerned, it’s going to have some very adverse consequences.”
Council Member Grace Kestler, D-at-large, who also serves as the council liaison to the redevelopment commission, asked for more information about what nearby road improvements could be happening as a result of the project, and how the Rubicon development and proposed affordable housing developments including Thrive Alliance’s Haw Creek Meadows project and TWG Development’s Flats on 14th would fill gaps identified in the city’s recently released housing study.
The latter two projects are awaiting word in November whether they are to receive federal low-income tax credits, city officials said.
Council Member Tom Dell, D-at-large, also attended the meeting and asked Lanam, who works with other Indiana cities on similar projects, how many housing projects he’s worked on that don’t involve some sort of gap in financing.
“I’m not involved in any. That’s not to say that doesn’t happen, but if you’re talking about particularly downtown, in an urbanized type-area, every single one that I work on has some sort of subsidy,” Lanam said.
The house at 1008 Washington St. was built by F.T. Crump for his daughter Minnie and her husband, Joseph Weller, at the end of the 19th century. The houses at 1008 Washington and 1034 Washington were listed at “outstanding” examples of the Queen Anne residential style in the 1980 Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory for Bartholomew County, Tricia Gilson, with the Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives, said.
“The Outstanding rating indicated that the property is ‘recommended as potential nominations to the National Register of Historic Places,’” Gilson told The Republic last December. “In the 2012 inventory, the Overstreet House has no ranking. The 1008 house has dropped to Notable which indicates that with further research the property might be eligible for a National Register listing.”
The house at 1008 Washington St. was converted into multiple apartments in the mid-to-late 20th century and sold to Old National Bank in 2013 and Sprague Rentals in 2019.
As for 1020 Washington St., the property was the site of the first Crump home built in the early 1860s by F.T. Crump (then known as 1016 Washington St.), Bartholomew County historian Tami Stone Iorio previously told The Republic.
Dr. Cecil Harrod bought the home in 1927 and used it both as a residence and as a home for his medical offices. The American Legion moved into the building in 1953 and it was later demolished in 1973 by the Benzol Cleaning Company, which had used it as a laundromat. The property is now home to a vacant drive-thru bank building, owned by Sprague Rentals.
Chemicals used by the cleaning business seeped underground and an environmentally restrictive covenant is in effect on all three parcels included in the Rubicon project, according to documentation filed with the Bartholomew County Recorder’s office in 2019.
The environmentally restrictive covenant is why a proposed parking garage for the development is not underground. In addition, Rubicon will look to build what Banning Engineering’s Steve Brehob previously described as an “underground detention system” that’s “basically building a concrete bathtub under the parking deck” to combat drainage issues in the area.
“The detention system now has to be all encapsulated concrete, like a culvert box, if you will,” Nolley said on Monday night. “All of our storm water runs from the top of the building into the detention system and it will hold it and retain it, and then slowly it will go out.”
The property at 921 Jackson St. also belonged to F.T. Crump in the late 1800’s, Iorio said. County records indicate that the property later belonged to the Price family and was sold to Old National Bank in 2013.
The Republic reported in December of 2018 that the city approved a condemnation and demolition order for a vacant home owned by Old National Bank at the site. It was torn down in early 2019, and county records show that the property was sold to Sprague Rentals in November of that same year.
