Apartments in downtown Columbus remain hot properties, with vacancies few and far between.
“Columbus leads the state on upper-level housing,” said Main Street Columbus Director Amber Murphree Brislin, noting Columbus has 148 downtown upper-level apartments. “With the quantity of apartments and owners, keeping up with all the vacancies is a bit difficult. (But) I can say that the vacancy level is very low and most apartments stay occupied.”
The owner of Holly Hocks, on Fifth Street, Gloria Herriott also owns three apartments above her store.
Of her rental apartments, two are occupied — one by a tenant who paid a deposit to hold the apartment months before it was available — and a one-bedroom apartment will be available for rent Aug. 15.
“The apartments don”t stay open more than two weeks, I would guess,” she said Wednesday. “The great thing about living downtown is you”ve got everything. You”ve got great restaurants, great pubs and great shopping. There”s just something for everybody; it”s so convenient. It”s just the perfect lifestyle for young professionals.”
“Downtown apartments have a lot of character to them and design elements you really aren”t going to see in cookie-cutter, new apartments,” said Stewart Stafford, who helps manage eight downtown properties. “And there”s just a lot going on downtown. You”ve got accessibility to restaurants and clubs and I think people are drawn to it for those reasons. Downtown is really kind of its own community of mixed-use designs and walking-oriented type developments. Now, it seems to be more of a young-professional type (who live downtown).”
“We”ve had very good success with them,” he said of the apartments he manages. “We”ve had minimal vacancy. I bought in because I had seen other people doing so well with them. And we have a pretty good cross-section (of residents). The demand has been good for the apartments.”
Stafford noted the design of downtown apartments evolving from rustic in style to units boasting higher-end amenities.
“You”re seeing the finished level really kind of escalate and be geared toward the young professional type,” he explained. “And you see more two-bedroom designs. The original ones were almost all one bedrooms. (Property owners are) not all necessarily competing with each other; there”s a little more strata there. Some of the smaller (apartments) are more geared for a college student.”
“Another great feature of the downtown apartments in Columbus is the wide variety of apartments,” said Brislin. “Many are rental units, some are occupied by the owner. Apartments range from spacious luxury to loft to unfinished and everything in between. Needless to say, they are all different sizes and a variety of price ranges.
Desire to develop unused spaces and storage spaces in the upper levels of downtown buildings into profitable areas led to the upper-level downtown housing, Brislin noted.
“By renting the space above, property owners are able to keep rent and lease fees for the retail and business space below reasonable,” she explained. “Our downtown apartments are a great economic development tool. They help downtown and local businesses keep their doors open by keeping rates affordable.”
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