Community Profiles

Columbus’ Near East Side is one of the city’s most storied neighborhoods and the heart of the city’s African-American community. The 1960s brought population decline and disinvestment to the Near East Side as wealthier residents moved to the suburbs.  This disinvestment continued throughout the late 20^st century; and as vacancy and crime rates rose, conditions in Poindexter Village declined.

In 2011, a partnership led by PACT, a neighborhood organization founded by the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, City of Columbus, and The Ohio State University, began a community-driven planning process to create a new vision and trajectory for the Near East Side.  In 2014, the team, now joined by McCormack Baron Salazar, Inc., Urban Strategies, Inc., and Columbus City Schools, successfully applied for a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Blueprint set the stage for the redevelopment of Poindexter Village into a mixed‐income, multi‐generational community, as well as complementary investments in economic development, education and human capital development and neighborhood initiatives. 

The Housing component comprises five phases of mixed-income development, beginning with a 104-apartment, LEED-certified, universally-designed senior building and followed by four phases of family apartments.  The 345 family apartments, in townhouses, garden-style apartment and mixed-use buildings, are designed to be certified under the Enterprise Green Communities sustainability standards. The entire community incorporates LEED for Neighborhood Development standards, with walkable streets, connections to transit and services, bike lanes and on-site amenities like a fitness center, a community room and live/work space for neighborhood entrepreneurs.