$8 million building project for new Columbus works building moves forward

A more than $8 million project to turn a building off of Indianapolis road into a new home for the Columbus Departments of Public Works and Transit is moving through the approval process.

It was approved last week by City Council and will go before the city’s Plan Commission this week.

According to city documents, the city would buy a building on Arcadia Drive for $2.6 million and then spend about $6.1 million to renovate the building and property to accommodate the city departments. The renovations would include a maintenance addition, covered storage, a wash building for vehicles, a fuel island along with interior and site work, according to estimates prepared by Force Construction.

The building is owned by Yinlun TDI and was previously used as a data center. It includes 20 acres.

Money for the project would come from the city’s redevelopment department, via property tax revenues from the city’s central tax increment financing district.

The city department of public works is currently located off of Mapleton Street.

The project was approved last month by the Columbus Redevelopment Commission. Because the project will cost more than $500 thousand dollars, the redevelopment commission is required to seek approval from City Council, which happened last week.

This week the project will be before the city plan commission for rezoning it from heavy industrial to general rezoning use. That meeting starts at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.