Grove City’s Beulah Park development cruising toward completion

GROVE CITY, Ohio (COLUMBUS BUSINESS FIRST) — A project the magnitude of Falco, Smith, and Kelley’s Beulah Park would typically take more than a decade to finish.

The Grove City mixed-use project is an ambitious undertaking, sprawling across more than 210 acres, with 972 residential units including townhomes, apartments, and single-family homes, according to its master plan document. Its commercial component contains a maximum of 196,800 square feet, and to top it off, the site contains about 30 acres of green space developer Pat Kelley refers to as Central Park.

The project broke ground in May 2019 and was broken down into two phases. The second phase wrapped up its infrastructure — which Kelley said cost about $28 million — recently, bringing the timeline of the project significantly down from what it would typically be.

Kelley said that’s because of the site’s proximity to Grove City’s historic town center.

The project extended Columbus Street from that area to the development, which Kelley said expedited the process because it provided easy access to a commercial center. Typically, Kelley said commercial development comes after building everything else.

“It’s an existing town center that’s an extension of this development,” Kelley said.

Sarah Backiewicz, Beulah Park director, said the residential units — which include apartments, patio homes, townhomes, single-family homes, and assisted living options through Danbury Senior Living — are seeing high demand. Dwellings are being built by Townsend Construction, Pulte Homes, AR Homes Coppertree Homes, and Iulianelli, among others.

“As soon as they’re ready, they’re occupied,” Backiewicz said.

Kelley attributes this demand to the new urban lifestyle the estimated $500 million development promotes, as well as its history.

It sits on the site of Grove City’s former horse racing track, also named Beulah Park, and the history is not lost on the developers. The former raceway will be a part of Central Park, which Kelley hopes to be similar to Columbus’ Schiller and Goodale parks.

“Beulah Park’s race track was such an iconic part of central Ohio,” Kelley told Columbus Business First. “It’ll continue to serve as a gathering place. It’s conducive to the quality of life and the lifestyle the residents will have here.”

That lifestyle will include what he called a “more upscale” type of restaurant, although a tenant hasn’t yet been named, and additional retail and commercial space. He hopes to break ground on a retail center within the next two months.

Some tenants are pending, but Kelley said he cannot disclose who they are. He said they will target “neighborhood convenience” and promote walkability. The site will also contain an OhioHealth medical office facility.

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