On occasion, city leaders and developers say some absurd, ridiculous and hilariously tone-deaf comments regarding development and other urban issues in and around Columbus. And sometimes, as is the case with this example, those comments will highlight the often underwhelming results compared to the rhetoric.
15 years ago, the southeast corner of West Henderson and Reed Road was filled with a family-owned Italian restaurant called Da Vinci’s Ristorante. The restaurant had sat at the location since the mid-1970s and had become something of a local institution for the area.
For reasons that have been lost if ever reported, Da Vinci’s was closed and torn down in the spring of 2006. The family, it seems were either tired of the restaurant business, or had decided that a prominent location such as theirs could be a better money-making operation if it was redeveloped. Hence, Arlington Pointe, the current development on the site, came into being.
In a Dispatch article from that time, the developer- Ruscilli Real Estate Services- talked about the development in somewhat glowing terms.
“We wanted something that had more of a streetscape appeal,” said Ruscilli Real Estate President Tim Kelton. “There’s a lot of parking in the back and a hallway in the center. We wanted the shops and restaurants and everything very close to Henderson Road to fit into the neighborhood better.”
And what exactly did this development with lots of “streetscape appeal” look like? Yeah, it was just a standard strip center, the same kind that has been built 100,000x over across Ohio and the country, and now dominate the suburbs.
Do the shops look close to Henderson? They are set well back from Henderson, actually, and a large parking lot wraps the entire way around the building. In fact, there is more parking fronting Reed and Henderson than there is in the lot behind the building, as can be seen from the aerial.
Like so many of these suburban strip centers, getting to the shops and office space by any means other than a car was completely ignored. In fact, the development caters to cars so thoroughly that it actually has its own mini-off ramp from Henderson.
Now, there are sidewalks around, but the chances that anyone actually uses them in what must be an unpleasant, loud and dangerous walk seem slim.
Ruscilli did get one thing correct, though- the project did fit in with the area given that the vast majority of neighboring development is much the same.
You can peruse the Proposed Development for upcoming projects.
