The Wall Street Journal - 08.11.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, November 8, 2019 |M9

KEEPING OSU STUDENTS IN TOWN

Brady Konya, 47, co-founder of the Middle West Spirits distillery, turned a two-story former buggy-storage building into two residential units

above a ground-floor commercial space. ’I sold my condo in Seattle and said, “Wow, we could buy a building.” ’ he says.

AARON M. CONWAY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (3)

Susan McManus and her partner, Ashley Lawson, right, holding pets Jack and Max in their
RYAN KURTZ FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (4) 1890s German Village home. They preserved the original wood paneling and stained glass.

When stu-

dents start at

Ohio State Uni-

versity, they find

their resident ad-

visers—all 400 of

them—are

trained to tell

them about the

attractions and suggest activities in the

city. The students also get discounted tick-

ets to entertainment venues and special

events in the capital.

The initiative, launched in 2014, is part

of a broader effort to keep university stu-

dents in town well after graduation. For

one of the largest universities in the na-

tion—enrollment is up to 68,262 this year—

keeping talent within Columbus is increas-

ingly important, says Tracy Stuck, assistant

vice president of student life at OSU. After

graduation, the students become an impor-

tant source of talent for filling area jobs,

says Ms. Stuck, and possible future con-

tacts themselves for future job-seekers.

About 40% of students say they plan

to live in Columbus after graduation, a

number that has stayed steady since the

university began tracking figures in 2014,

she says. KERRY HYNDMAN (ILLUSTRATION)

JASON LEE (MAP)

Renovations cost $100,000

Renovations cost $1 million

COLUMBUS

Dublin

Bexley

German

Village

Short North

Arena

District

Victorian

Village

OHIO

Columbus

270

270

downstairs. Rent payments from the property

fully cover the mortgage, Mr. Konya adds.

The Short North, an area of about 20

blocks, plus the Italian Village, Victorian Vil-

lage and Harrison West neighborhoods, has

seen $1.6 billion in new construction since

2000, says Betsy Pandora, executive di-

rector at the Short North Alliance.

Several two-bedroom pent-

houses in the area are on the

market for more than $1

million, according to Red-

fin. This fall, two boutique

hotels opened, the Gradu-

ate and the Moxy, that

target younger visitors.

Empty-nesters are

leaving their single-fam-

ily suburban homes to

find low-maintenance op-

tions closer to entertain-

ment in the area, says Mr.

Wagenbrenner, the developer.

“Roof decks are the rage,” he

adds.

Mr. Wagenbrenner is com-

pleting Jeffrey Park, a complex

on a 41-acre former factory site

in Italian Village, a former im-

migrant neighborhood. It will

have about 1,000 rental apart-

ments plus about 500 units that

will be a mix of single-family

homes, condos and townhouses.

To appeal to older buyers, he

offers elevators in some units.

House hunters are also

heading to the city’s Arena

district, where a $230 million

soccer stadium for the Colum-

bus Crew Soccer Club is under

way. Parks Edge condomini-

ums, completed last year by

Nationwide Realty Investors,

offers 151 condo and town-

house units for $700,000 to

$900,000.

Mr. Wagenbrenner points to

the banks of the city’s five ma-

jor rivers as possible future de-

velopment targets. He is work-

ing on Quarry Trails, a 600-

acre mixed-use riverside

project that is to include homes

and public parks.

Nearby, the suburbs, includ-

ing Dublin and New Albany,

have big luxury homes and

prices that often exceed those

in the city proper, says Ms. Cantwell. The

most expensive home in the Columbus area

was a 7,387-square-foot Georgian-style five-

bedroom that sold for $3.7 million in New Al-

bany last year, according to MLS data pro-

vided by Ms. Cantwell. The largest home sold

last year was a 10,200-square-foot home in

Dublin that went for $2.2 million.

Families with school-age children tend to

buy in the first-ring suburbs within interstate

270 in Bexley, Upper Arlington, Worthington

and Grandview Heights, says developer Brett

Kaufman, whose Gravity development in the

growing Franklinton neighborhood includes

rentals and a co-working space opened this

year.

Last year, Mr. Kaufman, 44, re-

modeled his own 12,000-

square-foot home in Bexley

that he bought for his fam-

ily for $1.85 million in

2014, public records

show. The 1-acre prop-

erty has tennis and bas-

ketball courts, a pool and

a pool house—all invisible

from the street. “You pull

in and it’s not some wide

ostentatious home—it is a lit-

tle bit more subtle,” he says.

Inside, he added nearly

4,000 square feet to the origi-

nal 1928 layout, including a re-

cording studio and a gym built

over a garage.

“It was a beautiful home,

but very dated; it needed a lot

of work,” says Mr. Kaufman

who declined to share renova-

tion costs. A similar updated

home in the area would be

valued at about $4 million,

based on square-footage data

on the Redfin site.

Near downtown, an afford-

able stock of historical Victo-

rian homes again are becoming

a draw, following decades of

disrepair.

Catherine and Bryan Wil-

liamson, both 34 and both in-

terior designers, bought a vin-

tage home in the Olde Towne

East neighborhood for

$152,000. They relocated to

Columbus from New York in

2013 and purchased the home

in 2017 after its previous

owner contacted them via In-

stagram. He had been follow-

ing them, says Ms. William-

son, and was looking for

buyers who would keep the

home’s original Victorian

splendor.

The couple spent $200,000

on an interior and exterior ren-

ovation. They did most of the

work themselves, keeping the original floors

and layout, and using classic molding to create

the feel of a Parisian apartment.

The renovation was completed this fall af-

ter nearly three years. “Seeing the momen-

tum of this neighborhood,” Ms. Williamson

says, “made us feel comfortable with going

higher-end on our finishes and taking the ex-

tra time.”

MARKET SNAPSHOT

TO OCTOBER 2019

$279,950

Median list price

6%

Increase in list price from

the year-earlier period

44.5

Median days

on the market

14%

Decrease in days

on the market from the

previous year

98.1%

Sale-to-list

price ratio

4,545

Active listings

Sources: Realtor.com and

Columbusrealtors.com

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