Downtown Columbus Demolition Appeal Reaches City Council

Columbus City Council hears oral arguments Monday on a developer's appeal of the Downtown Commission's refusal to let it demolish three vacant, fire-damaged buildings at 171 to 191 South High Street downtown, a case that tests whether the city can require a replacement plan before a teardown.

## The block and who owns it The century-old brick storefronts sit across High Street from Columbus Commons and next to the former Ohio National Bank building at 167 South High Street. Their owner, Town High Plaza, LLC, is tied to Cleveland-based Harsax Management, which Hoodline reported bought the block in 2023 and shelved an earlier plan for a 15-story tower as construction costs and interest rates rose. Town High Plaza has renovated the adjoining bank building, which it describes in the appeal as the future grand lobby of whatever is eventually built on the site.

## Why the Downtown Commission said no City code bars any downtown teardown without a certificate of appropriateness from the Downtown Commission, which cannot sign off unless an owner first gets a replacement use cleared or, lacking that, wins approval of a plan to maintain the empty lot. Town High Plaza applied on February 25, 2026 and offered to keep the cleared lot as a seeded lawn rather than build a replacement. At the commission's March 24, 2026 meeting the vote split 3 to 3, a tie that counts as a denial, with the three members against citing the lack of a replacement structure or use. Local news covered the denial at the time.

## A long code-enforcement backstory The block has drawn city enforcement for years, a history both sides lay out in a joint stipulation of facts. A May 2019 unsafe-building order cited fire-damaged framing and structural damage at 185 to 191 South High Street. The city sued over code violations in 2022, then dropped that case after the prior owner agreed to sell to a buyer committed to demolition. In August 2025 the city filed a fresh code-enforcement suit seeking to place the property in receivership and tear the buildings down as a remedy. The property is not on the Columbus Register of Historic Properties, so the Historic Resources Commission has no role.

## The question before council The appeal turns on one reading of the code. Town High Plaza argues the ordinance plainly allows a certificate when an owner offers a maintenance plan and proposes no replacement, and that the commission erased that path by insisting on a building. The city, defending the commission as appellee, counters in its brief that the application offered no replacement structure, only a vacant lot with a grass lawn, and that the downtown design guidelines council adopted in 2013 advise against vacant lots and non-accessory parking. Columbus Landmarks had earlier put the storefronts on its 2023 most-endangered list and urged reuse over demolition.

## What to watch Oral arguments are set for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, October 5, 2026 before the council's Zoning Committee, per the council record. Council can affirm the commission, reverse it and grant the certificate, or return the matter for more work; a committee recommendation and a full council vote would follow. The separate 2025 receivership suit, in which the city itself seeks to demolish the buildings, remains pending in Franklin County Municipal Court and could produce the very outcome the commission blocked.