Bexley Breaks Ground on Its First Tax-Credit Apartments, 43 Homes

The City of Bexley and nonprofit developer The Community Builders broke ground on October 22, 2026, on 43 income-restricted apartments across two Franklin County sites. The tax-credit project, financed through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, is the first subsidized mixed-income housing in the affluent Columbus suburb.

A groundbreaking years in the making

The ceremony was held Thursday, October 22, 2026, as WOSU reported. George Tabit, the developer's senior vice president for its Great Lakes region, said the aim was "to offer family affordable housing in an affluent suburb with top tier schools."

The partnership dates to 2018, when Bexley began studying senior support and affordable housing, the developer told WOSU. Its financing application describes more than three years of collaboration among the developer, the city, and local stakeholders before construction began.

Two buildings, 43 apartments

The project splits its 43 apartments between two sites, the City of Bexley says. The larger building, at 2300 East Livingston Avenue, is a three-story structure with 27 apartments and 27 off-street parking spaces.

The second building, at 420 North Cassady Avenue, adds 16 apartments and about 3,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space over three stories. Bexley plans to build out that commercial space as a new senior center, replacing a temporary space of about 1,900 square feet on the same site.

Demolition is complete at the Livingston Avenue site, where foundation work is now underway, while demolition continues at the Cassady Avenue building, the city says.

How the rents are set

All 43 units are restricted to households earning no more than 80 percent of the area median income, the developer's Ohio Housing Finance Agency application shows. The application reserves 11 of the apartments for tenants holding Project Based Vouchers at the deepest 30 percent income tier.

It divides the remaining homes among 7 units at 50 percent of the area median income, 12 units at 60 percent, and 13 units at 80 percent. WOSU reported that monthly rents could start as low as $300 for the most deeply subsidized tenants.

A $14 million tax-credit package

The 2022 application sought a federal low-income housing tax credit worth about $1.03 million a year, or $10.3 million over ten years. It put the total development cost at about $14.2 million.

That works out to roughly $331,000 per apartment across the 43 homes, a figure that also covers the shared commercial space and site work. These are application figures, and the final award and budget may differ.

What CREN will watch next

The developer expects leasing to begin in early 2028, WOSU reported. Bexley redesigned the Livingston Avenue building with a wider setback to meet a new street design overlay, its project page says.

This is the first subsidized, mixed-income rental housing in Bexley built with federal tax credits, according to the developer's application. CREN could not independently confirm the final credit award or the current unit mix, which may have changed since the 2022 application.