WESTERVILLE, OH—The city has announced that it plans to acquire 67 acres of a struggling development in the Westar Center of Business park here just east of Interstate 71.
The City Council got its first look at the purchase plan at a meeting Tuesday night. The council is considering a $6.7 million land purchase, along with $9.5 million in tax increment financing in infrastructure reimbursements.
The property between Cleveland Avenue and Africa Road, south of Polaris Parkway, was formerly known as Altair Business Park, a development pushed by Solove Real Estate. The project, hit hard by the recession, only produced a 100,000-sq.-ft. office anchored by Bank of America and two medical office buildings.
City officials said in a statement that the community will help facilitate planned office and retail development, as well as a full-service hotel and conference space along underdeveloped portions of the Westar area. “This area is primed to become an unprecedented amenity for those who live and work in Westerville,” said the city’s Economic Development Administrator Jason Bechtold. “We envision this area as the next logical addition to the premiere corporate presence that has decisively taken root in Westerville, complementing the Medical Mile corridor along Cleveland Avenue and setting the standard for future development.”