CRH to begin work on westside project, without Bloomington developer

Columbus Regional Health plans to begin work on medical facilities at the site of the former Clarion and Holiday Inn hotel property on the west side of Columbus but without a Bloomington developer.

Excavating crews for the hospital will begin redistributing a large pile of debris on the Jonathan Moore Pike site later this week, part of a plan to lift parts of the more than 20 acre property out of the floodplain. But the work will be in preparation for CRH to move forward with medical facility plans, independent of a major mixed-use development at the site.

Last spring, the hospital announced a partnership with Clearpath Services of Bloomington to develop a $90 million project with apartments, a hotel, a grocery and more at the site. Under that project, the hospital would have kept part of the site for medical facilities. But now CRH officials say that the health network is moving forward independent of any developer, in order to meet their timeline.

CRH will be releasing its plans for the site soon and the goal is to have medical services available by the end of next year.

CRH originally bought the property in 2017 and has used the property to store highway debris from the construction projects on Interstate 65. That rubble will be used as fill dirt to raise parts of the property that are subject to frequent flooding.

This week excavating crews will commence the break down and redistribution of the large pile of construction materials. The excavating work on the debris pile is expected to take about six weeks.

Image: Design drawings of a mixed-use development on State Road 46 originally proposed in May of 2021, but now scuttled.