Photos courtesy of Crawford Hoying
The Bridge Street District of Dublin is getting a facelift.
Crawford Hoying Development has taken on more than 30 acres of land with a plan to create a new kind of lifestyle for Dublin residents.
“The hottest office market in the city right now is the Short North, and there’s a reason: because it’s close to everything. So that’s what we’re creating here,” says Brent Crawford of Crawford Hoying.
To attract businesses to Dublin, Bridge Park is designed as a dense, mixed-use space. This means the buildings will have more vertical height and the use of the spaces will be a combination of residential apartments or condos, retail, restaurants and offices. This creates a walkable environment.
“When you’re there (in Bridge Park), you can have a coffee meeting downstairs at one of the shops. You can meet somebody for lunch; you don’t have to get in the car and drive 10 minutes. You can meet somebody for drinks after work,” says Bob Hoying of Crawford Hoying. “There’s just the ability to have that walkability to amenities that you don’t have in a (business) park.”
This walkable, mixed-use space is a unique change of direction for Dublin.
“It doesn’t exist anywhere else in Dublin,” says Crawford. “There’s really not any example of where you could live and work and shop and eat and all those things in a single location.”
Crawford Hoying is able to create such an innovative environment largely because it’s already in line with the city’s goals to rejuvenate the area. In the past, zoning laws did not allow this kind of mixed-use space.
“I think there’s this misconception that we decided to do what we were going to do and that the City did what they did,” says Crawford. “That was actually not the case. They had already planned to redo the intersection with a roundabout and to relocate 33 and to do some of those infrastructure changes. It’s just that our development helped spur that along a little faster.”
Bridge Park’s location is ideal for a number of reasons. For example, it’s located right along the river and is neighboring Historic Dublin.
This Crawford Hoying rendering shows the views of the City of Dublin that the Bridge Park development will offer
“There’s some fear, I think, that it’s going to hurt Old Dublin,” says Crawford. “It should really only enhance it. You’re going to have many new visitors coming to Bridge Park because it’s an actual destination now,” says Crawford.
Previously, Historic Dublin did not have enough restaurant choices to draw a large dinner crowd from other Columbus suburbs. Bridge Park will have this capacity, and visitors will be able to walk over the pedestrian bridge into Historic Dublin to support businesses there as well.
Moreover, Bridge Park will spur further development in the surrounding areas, says Hoying.
The sheer breadth of this project can create the misconception that it will take decades to complete.
“One of the most common things that I read is, ‘This’ll be awesome when it’s done in 20 years.’ But that’s not the case,” says Crawford. “I would think that within 36 months, it will be 100 percent completed, if not sooner.”
This rapid development of the area is crucial to the mixed-use environment, says Crawford. Only building one block at a time would have created an awkward landscape with sporadic tall buildings instead of the urban streetscape that Bridge Park achieves.
A Crawford Hoying rendering of a rooftop bar that will overlook the walking bridge to Historic Dublin
A broad spectrum of tenants are already itching to move into the swanky new neighborhood. The area is appealing to millennials and new businesses, as well as empty-nesters.
“A good contingent of the people who’ve already signed leases and are moving into the development are empty-nesters. They’re leaving their current Dublin homes. In a lot of cases kids are gone,” says Crawford. “They don’t need the space anymore, but, as much as that, they’re looking for the lifestyle.”
Even the amenities of Bridge Park will be unique within their niche. For example, the AC Hotel by Marriott will feature an eighth floor rooftop bar with indoor and outdoor components; the building that is pegged for a grocery store will have residential apartments available on the upper floors; even the parking garages have a high-end vibe and will be “wrapped” with residential and business spaces to enhance the appearance of the street.
“I think this will be an iconic project in the sense that people are going to come from all over to see it when it’s finished,” says Crawford.
Hailey Stangebye is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at hbealer@cityscenecolumbus.com.
