In The News: Beulah Park Living Off To The Races

Beulah Park is in the news! Check out the October 13th publication of The Columbus Dispatch.

Demand for Grove City development grows as virus shifts people’s views

By Jim Weiker

Strong demand for housing during the coronavirus pandemic has allowed the Beulah Park Living development in Grove City to shoot out of the starting gate.

“One bright spot of the pandemic is that residential has done really well,” said Beulah Park Living’s developer, Pat Kelley. “We’ve been fortunate, the pandemic just seemed to reinforce the new urbanist idea of walkability, which we’re focused on here.”

The 212-acre development, on the site of the former Beulah Park racetrack, features a housing smorgasbord, with activity on almost all items:

• After some supply chain delays, the first phase of Beulah Place Apartments, which includes 264 units, is expected to open in November following the recent completion of the apartment clubhouse. Another 141 apartments are planned in a second phase.
• The first homeowners have moved into Epcon Communities’ new patio home development, called The Courtyards at Beulah Park, which will include 102 homes when completed.
• Work is well under way at the Danbury Senior Living facility, which will feature 92 homes for seniors when it opens in the spring along with 30 “villas” to be built next door.
• Pulte Homes has just opened a model at its Grove at Beulah Park single-family home development. Work is under way on the development’s first phase of 52 homes while another phase of 81 homes is planned.
• Three homes have started in The Paddock, the community’s single family custom home portion that will overlook the 32-acre park in the middle of the development.
• Work is scheduled to begin in the spring on 82 townhomes, the final item on the housing menu.

Beulah Park Living, like many other housing developments, has benefitted from low interest rates, an extreme shortage of homes on the market, and a desire for new houses during the pandemic, when many people are staying at home. Beulah Park residents are also drawn by the mix of housing, commercial uses, green space and proximity to downtown Grove City, say those involved.

“People are enthusiastic about new plans and new homes in the area, and the mixed-use idea, the ability to connect to the city, the historic town center, libraries and parks,” said Robyn Crawford, vice president of sales for Pulte’s Columbus division.

“You have to go far to find a community with all that.”

Pulte introduced a new line of homes to central Ohio for the Beulah Park development. At 30 to 35 feet wide, they are narrower than usual, but start at 2,400 square feet and under $300,000, rare for new central Ohio homes.

Pulte has sold nine of the 52 homes in its first phase, Crawford said

The pandemic has slowed commercial activity at the development, as it has throughout the nation, but Beulah Park Living landed the first tenant for a string of commercial sites along Southwest Boulevard on the northern end of the project.

OhioHealth plans to build a medical office at the southeast corner of Southwest Boulevard and Columbus Street.

“OhioHealth is key because they’ll be a draw for other users,” said Kelley, adding that he expects to soon announce a “high-profile restaurant” for the development.

Kelley and his partners purchased the former racetrack in 2016 and got underway a year ago on the development.