Aug 15, 2023

Land-Grant and Kaufman Development team up to turn Idea Foundry parking lot into a park

Retail

Land-Grant Brewing Company and Gravity are teaming up to run a new park in Franklinton starting this October.

The Gravity Experience Park is an outdoor community gathering space featuring an outdoor bar, concerts, artwork, pickleball, an ice rink and more in Franklinton.

We first reported on the park in February, but now Kaufman Development is releasing more details.

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Land-Grant and Kaufman Development team up to turn Idea Foundry parking lot into a park

Land-Grant Brewing Company and Gravity are teaming up to run a new park in Franklinton starting this October.

The Gravity Experience Park is an outdoor community gathering space featuring an outdoor bar, concerts, artwork, pickleball, an ice rink and more in Franklinton.

We first reported on the park in February, but now Kaufman Development is releasing more details.

Read Article

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Dec 21, 2022

Gravity bringing more homes, offices, restaurants to Franklinton

Community Live Office Retail

The second phase of the innovative Gravity development on West Broad Street is preparing to open this spring, bringing more offices, apartments, restaurants, street life and a bit of novelty to east Franklinton.

Sitting on the south side of Broad Street opposite Gravity’s first phase, the second part of Gravity vastly expands the scope of the development, and further connects Gravity to other Franklinton developments.

Construction of Gravity’s second phase started in early 2020, about a year after the first phase opened. Designed in a more conventional way than the first phase, the second is larger and continues the programming and experiential focus of the first.

“We’ve been very pleased with how it’s come along,” said Frank Sasso, president of Kaufman Development, which created the Gravity brand. “We will start delivering our first units in the first quarter. Throughout the spring and early summer, we will have artists painting murals all over the project, with some really exciting announcements including international artists and sculptors adding place-making and activation to the site.”

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Gravity bringing more homes, offices, restaurants to Franklinton

The second phase of the innovative Gravity development on West Broad Street is preparing to open this spring, bringing more offices, apartments, restaurants, street life and a bit of novelty to east Franklinton.

Sitting on the south side of Broad Street opposite Gravity’s first phase, the second part of Gravity vastly expands the scope of the development, and further connects Gravity to other Franklinton developments.

Construction of Gravity’s second phase started in early 2020, about a year after the first phase opened. Designed in a more conventional way than the first phase, the second is larger and continues the programming and experiential focus of the first.

“We’ve been very pleased with how it’s come along,” said Frank Sasso, president of Kaufman Development, which created the Gravity brand. “We will start delivering our first units in the first quarter. Throughout the spring and early summer, we will have artists painting murals all over the project, with some really exciting announcements including international artists and sculptors adding place-making and activation to the site.”

Continue readin

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Oct 28, 2022

Building on a Vibe: Developer Brett Kaufman is helping lead the transformation of Franklinton from an unpolished gem into an artful destination

Community Live Office Retail

Brenda St. Clair was 5 years old when her family moved to Franklinton in 1955.

Both of her parents – like many in the blue collar neighborhood – worked at the bustling North American Aviation plant on the city’s west side, which employed thousands and promised a solid, middle-class life.

St. Clair was there when the plant closed, the floods came and Franklinton’s residents fled for the suburbs. For decades, Franklinton was frozen in time, neglected and unpolished.

Now, St. Clair is there to see its latest transformation, one that again is promising a solid, middle-class life.

“The neighborhood started changing very quickly,” she said. “Once the ball got rolling, it rolled fast.”

Today, Franklinton hosts crowded breweries, bars and art galleries. Homes are being flipped, short-term rentals are popping up, and thousands of apartment units are being added in new developments that are replacing vacant homes, rundown warehouses and empty lots that once dotted the neighborhood.

Marty Johnson was the first tenant in 400 W. Rich, a building filled with art studios. She moved to Columbus in 1980 from Hartford, Connecticut, where she was a photographer.

Now she makes prints and lithographs from her Franklinton studio.

“I saw Columbus as a town of opportunity,” she said.

Ripe for development

So far, the eastern edge of Franklinton has been the focus of most redevelopment and building activity.

And it continues to see the most activity today.

Columbus developer Brett Kaufman has invested heavily in the neighborhood with his Gravity development, now encompassing two huge, mixed-use complexes along both sides of West Broad Street in east Franklinton, with a third mixed-use project in the pipeline.

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Building on a Vibe: Developer Brett Kaufman is helping lead the transformation of Franklinton from an unpolished gem into an artful destination