Suburban Spotlight: Grandview Heights

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Grandview Heights A Columbus Monthly Suburban Section

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WELCOME Grandview Heights is the place to be.

If I had to choose one word to describe Grandview Heights, that would be flourishing. From charming tree-lined streets to the bustling districts of entertainment, shops and restaurants, our community is a place residents are proud to call home. Whether you are strolling along lively Grandview Avenue, savoring a bite to eat at one of the many top-rated restaurants or enjoying the sounds of summer at Grandview Yard, the welcoming nature of our community is evident. Our quality of life is spectacular not only because of things to do and the front porch culture that is quintessential Grandview Heights, but for our commitment to education as well. Grandview Heights Schools is one of the oldest school districts in the area, with a proven track record of success.

Bordering Downtown Columbus, the Village of Marble Cliff to the west and Upper Arlington to the north, the proximity of Grandview Heights to the Central Ohio region allows residents and visitors access to various entertainment districts and hubs around Columbus within minutes. Our location also allows for participation in regional initiatives, transportation loops and to play an active part in significant changes happening along the northwest corridor of the city.

The revitalization of Grandview Heights, including the mixed-use development of Grandview Yard, has opened doors to new businesses and industries. The former 100acre brownfield with large industrial warehouses is now home to 1.2 million square feet of commercial space with offices, res-

taurants, hotels, an event center and fitness centers. In addition, the development has added over 1,000 residential units including apartments, condominiums and single-family homes. Another significant addition to the community is the development of the Dublin Road/Grandview Avenue area. We look forward to the construction of Grandview Crossing. The site of a former landfill, this cross-jurisdictional project is slated to yield a new hotel and commercial activity on approximately 53 acres.

Visitors initially come to play, but many find it is a desirable place to stay. Our community comprises lifelong residents, newer residents we’ve welcomed recently and many in between.

Our housing styles suit needs for every life cycle stage. We represent many voices uniting and have something for all ages.

I hope you will come discover the tremendous amenities Grandview Heights has to offer or attend our many events planned throughout the year. One of my favorite events is Tour de Grandview, a bike race showcasing our neighborhoods, that will be held June 12. We invite you to explore Grandview Avenue at one of our Grandview Hops on the last Saturday of June, July, August and September. For a full activity list, visit grandviewheights.org/Special-Events.

See you soon,

A Columbus Monthly Suburban Section

COLUMBUS SITE MANAGER

Alan Miller PUBLISHER/GENERAL MANAGER

Ray Paprocki ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

Rheta Gallagher

EDITORIAL SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

Emma Frankart Henterly

COLUMBUS MONTHLY EDITOR

Dave Ghose

CONTRIBUTORS

Brian Ball, Brooke Preston, Peter Tonguette INTERN

Heather Barr

DESIGN & PRODUCTION PRODUCTION/ DESIGN DIRECTOR

Craig Rusnak

ART DIRECTOR

Alyse Pasternak

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR

Betsy Becker

DIGITAL EDITOR

Julanne Hohbach ASSISTANT DIGITAL EDITOR

Brittany Moseley

PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO EDITOR

Tim Johnson

ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Rob Hardin

ADVERTISING ADVERTISING MANAGER

Holly Gallucci

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Michelle Crossman, Tia Hardman, Kyle Nussbaum, Jackie Thiam SALES ASSISTANT

Samantha Belk

MARKETING

Greta M. Kearns, Mayor

MARKETING MANAGER

Lauren Reinhard

PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS

INSIDE

EDITORIAL/ADVERTISING OFFICES

4 10 12 16 20 SMALL SCALE, BIG IMPACT There’s a long list of activities, retail and dining in the Heights.

SENIOR PORTRAITS

Local seniors keep themselves and their city thriving.

REFRESHED AND READY

Grandview Yard’s transformation has revitalized the city.

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

The city’s housing market is hot, with no signs of cooling.

BUILDING THE FUTURE

Learn what’s in store for Grandview Heights Schools.

ON THE COVER: Grandview Heights Municipal Pool | Photo courtesy City of Grandview Heights

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LIFESTYLE

SMALL SCALE, BIG IMPACT This compact city shines with jumbo-sized entertainment, recreational and cultural activities.

Grandview Heights Municipal Pool

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GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS: A COLUMBUS MONTHLY SUBURBAN SECTION MAY 2020

PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS

BY BRIAN BALL

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The community of Grandview Heights has long had a reputation as a center of activity—and yes, coolness—even with its roots as a working-class neighborhood anchored by gritty industrial activity. The Grandview Avenue commercial and entertainment district draws patrons from throughout the region for a movie and beer at the Grandview Theatre, fine dining at the upscale Spagio restaurant or a cup of joe at Stauf’s Coffee Roasters, as well as lifestyle options that have joined the fray over the years.

The revitalization of the city’s industrial district, east of Northwest Boulevard between Goodale Boulevard and West First Avenue, over the last decade has created a second concentration of lifestyle, dining and retail opportunities, anchored by the burgeoning employment and residential development dubbed Grandview Yard.

Center of Attention Brian Cheek, executive director of nonprofit travel-and-tourism promoter Destination Grandview, says Grandview Avenue has done well in providing a walkable, urban entertainment and retail experience in the 30-plus years since it emerged as a trendy hotspot in the region. “There’s a really nice mix of restaurants and retail,” he says. “We still have that local flavor.”

Among those added to that entertainment and retail corridor over the years have been the Columbus market’s second Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams scoop shop, DIY crafts experiences at The Candle Lab, children’s clothier Cub Shrub, restaurateur Cameron Mitchell’s The Avenue Steak Tavern and the recently renovated Balboa Mexican Restaurant, which shares common ownership with the long-standing Grandview Café at Grandview and Third avenues, across the alley from the formal city boundaries.

Grandview Avenue also serves as the setting for two signature events: the annual Tour de Grandview bike race in June and the Grandview Hop, a street party and sidewalk market that takes place during late afternoon to mid-evening the last Saturday of June, July, August and September.

The Grandview Hop began as a sidewalk market with outside vendors and various bands joining the local businesses about 15 years ago. In the last few years, the City has allowed the closure of Grandview Avenue to traffic, allowing more leisurely strolling and the addition of several food trucks, kid-focused activities and artists such as Grandview Heights-based sculptor Dustin Weatherby of Sculptdecor.

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Derek Grosso, CEO of the Columbus Young Professionals Club, which presents the Hop, says the community block party attracts a crowd estimated to be between 3,000 and 4,000 from throughout the region. “It’s a chance to get out and meet your neighbors and others, just enjoy the coolness of what Grandview offers,” says Grosso, whose nonprofit has organized the events with the City and support from Destination Grandview since 2015.

Grandview Avenue also serves as one leg of the annual Tour de Grandview, a series of races through the community’s streets for hundreds of professional cyclists from throughout the state and nation, as well as amateur cycling athletes competing for purses. Pathways Credit Union sponsors sprints for kids along the West First Avenue section of the course. Capping off the festivities is, of course, a street party along Grandview Avenue’s commercial district.

Grandview Heights Parks & Recreation director Mike Patterson says he marvels at how residents along the course set up picnic tables and banners welcoming the racers during the event. “There’s a sense of community with the interaction of neighbors, with so many homes having an activity,” he says.

“The cycling is the draw, but it’s about the community gathering for one night.”

Expanding Amenities Cheek says Grandview Yard also has created a solid collection of retail, entertainment and lifestyle businesses that support not only the community’s residential and commercial base, but also the travel and tourism/conference and wedding hospitality sectors, anchored by the Courtyard by Marriott Columbus OSU and Hyatt Place Columbus/OSU hotels and affiliate The Grand Event Center.

Lifestyle businesses include the Winans Chocolates + Coffee + Wine bar that Marble Cliff resident and Ohio State University alum Matt Finkes opened in April 2019 on the ground level of a medical office building at 1125 Yard St. That followed the opening of the Club Pilates fitness franchise and My Salon Suite salon nearby in the Manchester Building.

Residents and businesses also patronize the Yard’s Brekkie Shack breakfast and lunch venue and Jason’s Deli, while Eddie George’s Grill, the Hofbräuhaus Columbus brewpub/restaurant and, just a few blocks away, the High Bank Distillery Co. and its highly regarded food menu bring in visitors outside the immediate market. L.A. Fitness and Massage Envy also serve as lifestyle options in the mixed-use development, which

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GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS: A COLUMBUS MONTHLY SUBURBAN SECTION MAY 2020

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GETTING AROUND Grandview Heights City Council President Emily Keeler has walked, biked and ridden COTA buses to get to her Ohio State University job. It’s a part of the connectivity she believes makes the urban community she serves so attractive. “If it’s nice out and I’m running behind, I can ride a bike to work,� rather than walk, she says. And if the weather’s not cooperative, taking the bus works fine—Grandview Heights residents have four routes running through their streets, plus another nearby along Fifth Avenue. “It gives us options,� Keeler notes.

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The City has focused on mobility after endorsing a bike plan a few years back to promote bicycling.

Part of that has been a drive to install sidewalks in the few areas without them.

The City also has expanded the network of combined pedestrian/bike paths, such as one created in 2019 along the east edge of Grandview Avenue from the Municipal Building, 1016 Grandview Ave., downhill to Goodale Boulevard.

Roadwork nearing completion along West First Avenue between Bobcat Avenue and Olentangy River Road will provide safer cyclist and pedestrian access to the Olentangy Trail and the rest of the Central Ohio Greenways network.

PHOTO: DISPATCH FILE/COURTNEY HERGESHEIMER

And in 2018, the City financially supported the expansion of the CoGo bike-sharing network in and around Grandview Heights. The community now has CoGo stations at West Third Avenue and Northwest Boulevard; West Third and Grandview avenues; Pierce Field; West First Avenue at the Grandview Heights Public Library overflow lot; and at Burr Avenue and Yard Street within Grandview Yard, in addition to an older station at the Giant Eagle Market District plaza just north of city limits.

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Grandview Hop

is anchored by a Nationwide Insurance office campus. To put it mildly, “there’s more and more happening in the Yard,” Cheek says.

Along West First Avenue between Grandview Avenue and Grandview Yard stands a neighborhood strip center that has long hosted Marshall’s Restaurant & Bar, which remains popular for local residents and outside patrons.

The center also boasts the Luck Bros’ Coffee House, The Old Spot restaurant that took over the former Old Bag of Nails location, and The Butcher & Grocer, a whole-animal butcher that supplies numerous top-notch Columbus restaurants and retail customers with high-grade meats. It also offers a variety of cheeses, wine and select grocery products.

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ers. “We provide unique educational and cultural opportunities for the entire community.”

The library also serves its community outside of its four walls. The library and its foundation, for instance, provide Wi-Fi service at all Grandview Heights city parks.

Its mobile, pop-up library appears at many Parks & Recreation events to offer select books to those attending. “We work hard to collaborate with our strategic partners,” McDonnell says.

That same broad vision directs the recreational offerings of the Parks & Recreation Department. The City opened a completely revamped pool along Goodale Boulevard in recent years, offering more of a resort feel to the tired pool it had maintained for decades.

The community’s Memorial Park has been upgraded with a statue of a soldier and, on Veterans Day 2018, the city unveiled a plaza featuring stone columns that honor each of the five military branches.

Even the Grandview Yard development presented an opportunity to create a wedge-

GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS: A COLUMBUS MONTHLY SUBURBAN SECTION MAY 2020

shaped passive park that the City activated in August 2019 for three Thursday afternoon concerts. Dubbed Ray DeGraw Park, the greenspace honors former Mayor and City Council Member Ray DeGraw, who was an integral part of Grandview Heights’ development for more than 30 years.

Parks & Recreation also puts on sports leagues and craft activities for residents in preschool through senior citizens. It has in recent years started seasonal after-school activities for students and has long sponsored the Christmas tree lighting event that has become a mini-fair, complete with ice skating on a portable rink. It also hosts the long-running Great Pumpkin Run each October and, since 2018, the Tri-The-Heights Youth Triathlon that attracts participants from across Ohio. “We try to be well-rounded in our programming,” says Mike Patterson, who has worked for Parks & Rec since 2005 and became its director in September 2017.

“It’s all about the quality of life,” he adds, “and what people are interested in doing.”

PHOTOS: COURTESY CITY OF GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS

Wyman Woods Park

Beyond Business Grandview Heights has more than commercial ventures contributing to the foundation of its livability. Grandview Heights Schools has long earned the community praise for its high performance educating those residing inside its compact territory. (Read more about Grandview Heights Schools on Page 20.)

But those who live outside of Grandview Heights and its immediate area may be less aware of the high-quality public library and the level of activities the City’s Parks & Recreation Department sponsors.

The Grandview Heights Public Library remains one of a handful of Central Ohio community libraries independent of the Columbus Metropolitan Library network.

The library at 1685 W. First Ave. has been recognized for 12 years as a 5-Star Library by the Library Journal for its operations and creative programming, setting it apart from most would-be competitors. It also has more than 19,000 active borrowers and a reported circulation of 645,383 items in a recent year.

Its 886 events—including Howlin’ Halloween, the summer Music on the Lawn series, indoor music programming, and film viewing and discussions—attracted a combined 46,757 attendees last year.

The library hosts various authors, including one in 2019 featuring PBS travelogue presenter Rick Steves.

“We do a little bit of everything in our programming,” beyond summer reading and preschool story times, says director Ryan McDonnell, who came to Grandview Heights in 2013 after 10 years with the Marysville library. The library staff, he adds, listen to patrons’ ideas and collaborate with the City, the school district, local businesses and oth-

Grandview Heights is the place to be.

It is tough to find a city with a sense of community like Grandview Heights. From our partners at Grandview Heights Schools and the Grandview Heights Public Library to the many private business owners whose establishments draw crowds on a routine basis, together we are Grandview Heights. We are many voices coming together as one, and we can’t wait for you to join us.

The hospitality of Grandview Heights is unmatched, evident in our businesses and on our front porches as our residents greet neighbors and new visitors alike.

From our shops and restaurants to year-round events and prisitine amenitites such as our parks and Municipal Pool, there truly is something for all ages. We sincerely hope you love Grandview Heights as much as we do.

For more information, visit www.grandviewheights.org.

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MARTA DURBAN

Recreation supervisor for Grandview Heights Parks & Recreation

SENIOR PORTRAITS Grandview Heights seniors keep themselves and their community thriving.

For many, the term “senior center” might call to mind frail grandparents, quietly quilting or playing bingo in buildings and programs separated from the community around them. Marta Durban has a very different vision. The recreation supervisor for Grandview Heights Parks & Recreation oversees senior programming and a loyal, engaged army of lively volunteers.

The Grandview Center at 1515 Goodale Blvd. not only offers friends and fellowship to its members, its staff manage a staggering number of classes and workshops, from fitness to finance, while also coordinating or providing volunteer teams for dozens of community events. Stepping into the Center,

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it’s impossible to miss the joy and bustling energy that permeates each person and activity. Members share hot coffee, lunch and animated conversation before Durban ticks through an impressively long and detailed agenda of coming events and calls for volunteers. Notably, many events are intentionally intergenerational, from races to plays and beyond. In Grandview Heights, all residents take their civic responsibility seriously, from children to seniors.

We chatted with Durban and a few of her many active instructors, volunteers and members, to share in their own words how Grandview Heights and its seniors create a unique symbiosis. —Brooke Preston

GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS: A COLUMBUS MONTHLY SUBURBAN SECTION MAY 2020

PHOTOS: BROOKE PRESTON

CASE STUDY

Durban began working with seniors in Grandview Heights just after college, in 1978. “You develop over time, seeing where the needs are for the community,” she explains. “Now, we really focus on what we can do as a senior community to help with our residents.”

As she speaks, she quickly hops from one lily pad of heartfelt gratitude to the next, praising the City leadership, school district and business partners. None of what she does would be possible without them, she emphasizes.

However, she reserves her most enthusiastic cheers for her members, instructors and volunteers: “I think we all love each other, and that’s something really rare. Every individual that comes in, they all have gifts and talents.

I have brilliant men and women in here.”

The Center’s membership includes former pilots, police officers, business professionals and even World War II concentration camp survivors. Durban describes her main job as ensuring each person feels welcome.

“We try to make this like a second home.

When people come in, we sit down, have a cup of coffee, have a cookie, let’s meet, let’s visit. And now we’re going to go in and stretch a little bit. And by the way, I got a race coming up and I need your help—and then they’re ready to go!” Every step of the way, Durban is there, working right beside them. This seems to be so much of the reason Center members adore her and keep coming back.

“We want them to enjoy each other, make friendships. When you’re willing to work alongside a person, they see that you’re working with them, they appreciate that. They’re always looking for ways they can help or be a blessing,” Durban says.

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LAURA LEWIS

SANDY WILSON

Volunteer and member

Instructor and volunteer Laura Lewis, an active member and volunteer for the past 12 years, isn’t a Grandview Heights resident. She makes a daily trek from her home in Grove City, and she isn’t the only such case—members come from Canal Winchester, West Jefferson and beyond. Over the years, she tried out other senior centers closer to home, but found a second home at Grandview Heights’ Center.

“When I walked in here, it was like, ‘Wow!’ I was greeted. There was friendly chat. Now, all my friends here—they’re family. We see each other every day.”

She adds that her friends at the Center rallied around her during a recent bout with bronchitis.

Lewis also liked that, unlike other centers, Grandview Heights doesn’t charge individually for fitness classes (her personal favorite part of membership), but rather a very modest annual fee.

Because she visits often, each class she takes works out to cost roughly a quarter.

“That’s a pretty good value, I’d say,” she laughs. In addition to the fun and fitness, Lewis points out that the classes teach balance that, at her age of 75, is vital.

Lewis volunteers for events throughout the year and credits Durban’s energy

and leadership with the Center’s success. “She is the glue that holds this place together. She’s always welcoming.

There’s nobody like her.”

Lewis feels so at home at the Center, in fact, she’s already made arrangements with her family: If she’s eventually unable to drive, they have agreed to help ensure she can take an Uber or Lyft to keep her daily involvement going. “I just love this place.

I don’t know what I’d do without it. It’s special in my heart.”

CHARLOTTE MOHR

PHOTOS: BROOKE PRESTON

Volunteer and member

One of the newer members, Mohr began coming to the Center about a year and a half ago after retiring and moving from her home in Milton, West Virginia. Her daughter encouraged her to find a place to connect and get involved. “I had a background at Cabell Huntington Hospital, and I worked in an office throughout most of my life. So I started with Marta and organized about 400 of the Center’s files,” Mohr recalls. “Now I keep all of her records, anything in her filing cabinets and whatever needs to be done.”

Not one to miss out on the fun, she also uses her background in decorating and flower arranging for the Center’s seasonal events, making table centerpieces.

Mohr reflects that each volunteer uses their own strengths and passions, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. “We vol-

Wilson first joined the Center 31 years ago, and it’s safe to say she’s done it all.

From teaching dance and weight training to helping with set-up, decorations and tear-downs for major events, she is always on the move. “It changes constantly. We have to adapt to change quickly,” she says.

“Sometimes it’s heavier work where we lift tables and chairs and set up; other days it’s just decorating tables. But whatever it is, it’s fun. I’ve never felt like it was a hardship. It is fun to be here and to help out!”

Wilson points to Durban’s leadership and the active volunteers as keys to the Center’s can-do attitude. “She has a wonderful personality. Her mind is so quick! She’s got four or five major things going on right now. She’s very compassionate, she encourages us to surround people, help them,” Wilson says. “She’s so energetic and happy. I’ve never seen her down or disappointed; she just makes everybody feel so much happier. That is what draws me here. I’ve learned so much from her.”

Like the other Center members, Wilson describes the group as a close-knit family.

“We care for each other. We look after each other. We have little celebrations for birthdays or whatever that might be, or if someone’s going through a bad time, we surround them, we help them. We have some older ones here in their 90s, so anything that I can do to help them out, to make them feel comfortable, to make them come in and be able to exercise. I’ll get their coffee or whatever little thing it might be.”

unteers here pull together. One might have computer skills; another one will bring the muscle. That’s what makes this all work.”

GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS: A COLUMBUS MONTHLY SUBURBAN SECTION MAY 2020

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BUSINESS

REFRESHED AND READY Grandview Yard injects new life into a city once troubled by the closure of a major tax base provider.

PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS

BY PETER TONGUETTE

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GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS: A COLUMBUS MONTHLY SUBURBAN SECTION MAY 2020

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Call it multi-stop shopping: If you swing

by The Candle Lab in Grandview Heights, you can expect to make your own candles, lotions or soaps, but how do you pass the time while the various fragrant concoctions set?

Well, if you saunter down Grandview Avenue—where the establishment is located— you can participate in a wine tasting at the Spagio Wine Lounge, or you can drop into a class at GoYoga or another of the area’s many fitness studios. Want to paint your own pottery? Head on down to Clay Café on Fifth Avenue. How about making your own jewelry?

There’s always The Smithery, just across the street from The Candle Lab. That’s a lot of commerce stuffed into about 1.3 square miles and the streets surrounding Grandview Heights’ official borders, and it’s just a small sampling of all that’s available to be enjoyed.

There are no two ways about it: The city boasts an incredible assortment of businesses. “A majority of them are not chains—they’re independently owned,” says Brian Cheek, the executive director of Destination Grandview, the city’s tourism promoter. “A lot are owned by residents of Grandview, and there’s a lot of pride that comes up from those businesses.”

The diversity of destinations for consumers is what drew Candle Lab founder Steve Weaver to Grandview Heights as the site of his second store in May 2007; a few months earlier, the original Candle Lab had opened in Worthington.

After all, Weaver had to consider how to keep his customers occupied while they wait.

“Our business model is uniquely reliant upon filling that hour while you wait,” Weaver says.

For that all-important second store, the small business owner and his wife asked themselves which Columbus suburb they found themselves frequenting without planning a specific destination. “[Grandview] felt like the part of town where that was the most true,” he recalls.

With a plethora of businesses eager to set up shop in a city that is a stone’s throw from Columbus and its suburbs, Grandview Heights finds itself in the midst of something of a boom. “It’s centrally located,” says Frank Schirtzinger, whose family has owned Star Beacon Products Co., a wholesale distributor for school, office and art supplies on Goodale Boulevard, since the 1930s.

“That gives us a huge boost, I think,” says Schirtzinger, whose company has called Grandview Heights home since 1954. “It’s close enough to Downtown and Nationwide and everything else, but, at the same time, it’s not as busy and crazy as those areas get.”

But, not too many years ago, the business climate in the city was not quite as rosy.

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GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS: A COLUMBUS MONTHLY SUBURBAN SECTION MAY 2020

In the early 2000s, the grocery store chain Big Bear went belly-up. Collateral damage was a Big Bear warehouse on Goodale Avenue that had long been an engine for Grandview Heights’ tax base. “That was the catalyst for sending the city into economic distress,” says Mayor Greta Kearns. “We’re a tiny city, so to survive you need a viable tax base. … It disproportionately affected us.

[The area that was left] was really no trees, no infrastructure—an industrial yard. A hundred acres is a lot of space in a town that’s small.”

Out of the ashes of the defunct Big Bear warehouse, however, came something bigger—and better. An $800 million, 125-acre project led by Nationwide Realty Investors (NRI) converted the site into Grandview Yard, a multiuse development that introduced new housing options (including both single-family homes and multiunit dwellings), Hyatt Place and Courtyard by Marriott hotels, The Grand Event Center and an abundance of greenspace—3 acres’ worth, in fact. The numbers are impressive: According to NRI, Grandview Yard is estimated to generate more than $17 million in annual taxes this year.

“Creating a great neighborhood isn’t just about the construction of individual buildings,” says NRI president and COO Brian J. Ellis. “It’s about generating a vision that brings complementary elements together where the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. As Grandview Yard continues to grow, we’re able to provide an even more engaging mixed-use environment for our office tenants and residents, and deliver a thriving development for this community.”

Also springing up in Grandview Yard are dining establishments ranging from Hofbräuhaus Columbus to Winans Chocolates + Coffee + Wine and numerous health and wellness amenities, including Club Pilates, the Grandview Vision Center and several dental practices.

Some longtime business owners were initially leery of the influx of new economic activity, but most have come to see the benefits. “There was a lot of concern from the merchants when that was coming online: ‘Is the center of gravity going to leave [Grandview] Avenue and move down the Yard?’” Weaver says. “But I think it’s been nothing but a help.”

From couples who return home to have weddings in Grandview Heights to corporations seeking space for meetings, out-oftowners have helped propel the success of Grandview Yard’s hotels and event center.

“That’s definitely been a big turning point,” Cheek says. “Those visitors are obviously

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LAUBIE, DOTSON, RYAN LLC going to spend their dollars in the Grandview Heights area.”

It helps that vehicular transportation is not a prerequisite to spending an evening shopping or dining in the area. “It’s walkable,” Cheek says. “When you’re traveling, how great is it to just go outside of your hotel and find these local places within steps?”

The evolution of the old Big Bear site into Grandview Yard is part of a citywide shift. In decades past, Goodale Boulevard in general was dominated by light industrial businesses— but Kearns points to an increase in “modern uses for those spaces,” including the High Bank Distillery Co. and the title company Search2Close. And the currently underway Grandview Crossing project, at the corner of Grandview Avenue and Dublin Road, will take a location that had once been an unregulated landfill and turn it into a mixed-use development on the order of Grandview Yard.

Such redevelopment is described as critical to the continued viability of the city.

“Before Grandview Yard redeveloped, we had very little class A commercial space in town,” Kearns says. “Getting some was a major priority in order for the city to survive. … We’re full-service: We have fire, police, EMS; we do everything here.”

Longtime observers applaud the changes.

“I feel like the street has always been vibrant,” Schirtzinger says of Goodale Boulevard. “It’s just it was a lot more wholesale 20 years ago—where it was all trucks and stuff going on behind the scenes. Now you’ve got people walking up and down the street from shop to shop.”

And what about the business owner who made that fateful decision to locate The Candle Lab on Grandview Avenue? He has no regrets.

Says Weaver: “I’m just incredibly grateful to have been here and see this growth over time.”

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HOUSING

A PLACE TO CALL HOME Why the Grandview Heights housing market is so hot

BY PETER TONGUETTE

Recently completed townhomes at Grandview Yard

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GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS: A COLUMBUS MONTHLY SUBURBAN SECTION MAY 2020

accepted a friend’s offer to take care of her house in Worthington Hills (her friend lives overseas). All the while, though, Grandview Heights occupied her thoughts and dreams.

“At no point did I ever consider that permanent or that I would never come back,” she says. “I knew when that time was done, I was coming back here.”

Indeed, her break from living in Grandview Heights did not last forever. “I just woke up one day and I’m like, ‘It’s time,’ ” says Kayla, who found an affordable apartment in a historic complex and moved last November.

“I like older places with charm that have history, and there are a ton of places around

PHOTO: DISPATCH FILE/ ADAM CAIRNS

Rachel Kayla spent the better part of the 2010s living in the city of Grandview Heights; she spent the balance of the decade hoping to return there.

Kayla, a real estate agent, moved to an apartment in Grandview Heights in 2009 after discovering the area and its abundance of shopping and dining options. After a friend moved to the area, though, she discovered its more profound assets, like walkability and overall vibe. “I realized I really liked the neighborhood,” Kayla says. “This is a way to kind of be in the city without fully being in the city.”

Six years later, though, plans took Kayla away from Grandview Heights. In 2015, she

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Grandview—single-family homes or rentals— that have that charm,” she says. “They have the hardwood floors and brick exteriors and arched doorways.”

Such loyalty to Grandview Heights is far from unique. Entranced by its neighborly atmosphere, easily accessible amenities and closeness to Columbus and surrounding suburbs, many individuals who relocate to the city plan to stay for the long haul.

“City planners love this community because it is walkable and you’ve got amenities within walking distance in your little community,” says Mayor Greta Kearns, herself a resident of the area since the late 1990s.

“People move to Grandview Heights on purpose,” says real estate agent Anthony Panzera, a lifelong resident of the city. “It is an actual physical destination for investing in a home, for renting an apartment and for being part of the dynamic social fabric and community fabric that we have here.”

And, drawn by new, high-density housing available at Grandview Yard—comprising single-family homes by M/I Homes, attached and detached homes by Thrive Communities (formerly Wagenbrenner Development), plus condominiums and apartments—a new generation of Grandview Heights transplants are discovering the area’s appeal.

“It was a phenomenal task to be able to increase the population and the vibrancy and the economic base of a landlocked city by properly developing, and aggressively pursuing, just 105 acres of land,” Panzera says, referring to the Grandview Yard project, in which Nationwide Realty Investors took a site that had once housed a Big Bear warehouse and reimagined it as a multiuse development.

Grandview Yard soaks up much of the attention as an entry point for newcomers to Grandview Heights, but City leaders point to a variety of housing stock. In addition to multiunit dwellings—including doubles and quads—there are homes that date back decades or even a century.

“We have a lot of highly sought styles of housing as far as single-family homes that reflect the character and the planning design that was present in the ’20s and ’30s,” Panzera says. “That was when a lot of the core of the community was established.”

Sidewalks stretch as far as the eye can see, garages are often entered from a rear alleyway, and there are more front porches than you can shake a stick at. “Those things … lead to a more interactive social fabric that is a result of seeing your neighbor every day,” Panzera says.

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FULL-SERVICE AMENITIES Despite its tiny size, Grandview Heights is notable for employing its own Police and Fire departments. The City’s commitment to providing full-service amenities to its citizens doesn’t end there—in fact, it continues all the way up to your driveway.

Grandview Heights’ trash service includes workers who will collect trash at residents’ garages. And from October through Christmas, the City offers curbside leaf removal.

Bagging is not necessary; just rake and place by the curb. Recycling is also available.

Best of all: None of the services come at an additional cost. “That all is included in the people’s property taxes,” says Darryl Hughes, director of the Service Department. The residents, he adds, appreciate what he calls “nice little extras,” often offering lunch to workers around the holidays. “They really do get to know the guys,” he says.

After all, those who move to the city have no plans to go anywhere.

“I’m spoiled,” Kayla says. “People who live outside the [I-270] outerbelt come into Grandview … all the time for food, for entertainment, for shopping, and it’s no big deal. It’s 20 minutes.” But, she adds, “If you ask those of us who live here to leave and drive 20 minutes north or west or east to do something, we’re like, ‘OK, that’s too far!’”

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Home-buyers wanting old-school charm with new-school updates have caught on.

Charles Boshane, director of the Department of Building and Zoning, says that he has seen a sharp increase in building permits since he joined the City in 2015. “We’re seeing a lot of reinvestment into the exiting housing stock,” Boshane says. “We’re adding garages where they were missing in the alleys. … People are investing and improving their property.”

When houses are torn down and replaced, an aesthetic review process is undertaken to preserve the look of the community. “They try to get into the character of what’s around it,” Boshane says. “There’s a character that we try to maintain for it.”

Naturally, the attributes of Grandview Heights have not gone unnoticed in a local real-estate market that seems to be perpetually hot. According to Panzera, around 89 homes in Grandview Heights or Marble Cliff came onto the market and were sold last year.

“It’s such a small marketplace—a micro market,” he says. “Last year, our median days on market for single-family homes was 11 days.”

Yet the city strives to make itself available to as many potential residents as possible; the upcoming Grandview Crossing development, at the corner of Grandview Avenue and Dublin Road, will include apartments, condos and senior-living housing. Grandview Heights aims to be a city for all seasons—just ask the mayor.

When Kearns moved to the area, she first rented and then bought a condo. “Then we bought a home, and now we’re kind of middle-aged and we have three children,” she says. “We’re into the school district and we’re in that part of life.”

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EDUCATION

BUILDING THE FUTURE The next phase of Grandview Heights Schools builds on its firm foundation of student engagement and achievement.

BY BROOKE PRESTON

is actually an independent city, with its own Police and Fire departments—and its own school district.

Made up of only three schools—Stevenson Elementary (K–3), Edison Intermediate & Larson Middle School (EILMS, 4–8) and Grandview Heights High School (9–12)—

PHOTO: COURTESY CITY OF GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS

In a growing metropolitan area where entire neighborhoods seem to pop up overnight, Grandview Heights stands in stark relief. Nestled so close to the heart of Downtown Columbus that one could be forgiven for assuming the suburb was part of the capital city itself, Grandview Heights

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GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS: A COLUMBUS MONTHLY SUBURBAN SECTION MAY 2020

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the Grandview Heights Schools district is one of the oldest and smallest public school systems in the greater Columbus area. Yet since its founding in 1906, the district has built a reputation for student excellence and engagement. According to the district’s website, its story can be distilled into six key words: historic, open, engaged, rigorous, intimate and curious.

GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS WELCOMES THE GODDARD SCHOOL At Grandview Yard, Grandview Heights’ modern, 125-acre, mixed-use development, residents can eat, shop, exercise, live, work and play. Now, children can also learn there: The Goddard School opened its first Grandview Heights location (1175 Bobcat Ave.) in 2019. The acclaimed private preschool and daycare franchise serves ages 6 weeks to 6 years old, with infant, toddler, preschool and pre-kindergarten programs. Janie Patterson is the local on-site owner.

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A Small Place to Dream Big Though Grandview Heights is growing (its population increased from 6,518 in 2010 to an estimated 7,778 in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau), school and community leaders strive to keep the district’s small-town feel and advantages. For instance, as Grandview Heights principal Rob Brown points out, the 1.8-square-mile district does not bus. “We are small, so we can build relationships with all students and create an experience that personalizes education. This is a very friendly, safe, walkable community with an emphasis on wellness,” explains Brown.

Once at school, students experience a personalized and creative approach to learning. “Class sizes are small; teachers get to know all students,” Brown says. “Our size also allows for creativity. For example, in larger districts with multiple middle and high

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Honoring Tradition, Building Excellence Grandview Heights continues to refresh and innovate its approach to learning even after 114 years, which includes updating buildings and learning spaces to support the unique needs of today’s students. In January, the district broke ground on its multiphase Facilities Master Plan, which includes construction of a new middle school building for grades 4 through 8 (which will be attached to the existing high school building) and renovations to the existing high school building, along with accessibility and safety upgrades.

True to Grandview Heights form, even the construction project has a mission statement: “Honoring Tradition. Building Excellence.”

This mission includes a careful timeline of planned milestones and goals focused on

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completing work on time and on budget: all accessibility and safety upgrades by summer 2022, and opening the new and renovated school buildings by winter 2023. The new middle school building will be built first and will serve as the temporary high school while renovations on that building take place. Once the high school students return to the renovated high school building, the old middle school building will be demolished.

“We’re really excited about the facilities project. [Outdated] facilities can be limiting; kids are learning in spite of the facilities.

So now we are working to think about and develop space to create and foster creativity, innovation and collaboration with our students, to support high levels of student learning,” says Jamie Lusher, the district’s assistant superintendent and chief academic officer.

Lusher emphasizes that the plan’s organizers have been intentional and strategic to ensure that student disruption during construction is minimized, and that each stage keeps its laser focus on maintaining and improving learning environments for students.

While Grandview Heights school staff agree that new buildings are nice, the emphasis on building strong relationships with students, parents and the community is the real magic ingredient for their district.

“We’re really all in this together to provide the best experience for our students,” Lusher says. “When you see our outcomes in terms of the success that we’ve had academically, it’s directly correlated with relationships and building those strong relationships to help support students to achieve their potential and their passion.”

All Science Day at Stevenson Elementary

PHOTO: MARC ALTER/COURTESY CITY OF GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS

OUR MISSION:

schools, new ideas and initiatives have to work for all schools. In our district, we have more freedom to create and take risks.”

Students are highly engaged in and out of the classroom by the 30-plus athletics, arts, community service opportunities and extracurricular clubs and teams with a focus on inclusion and connection.

“We strive to ensure every single high school student is connected to a sport, activity or club beyond academics. This brings students closer, connects them to school, and improves culture and climate and morale,” Brown says.

“Additionally, when we hire coaches, we look for professionals who not only know their sport, they understand child development and school policy. I tell coaches all the time, ‘I likely don’t know your record, but I absolutely know how you are treating kids.’ ”

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