Photo via Columbus Landmarks.

Almost exactly one year after the Kroger Bakery closed its doors at 457 Cleveland Avenue, a new plan for the site has begun to emerge. A partnership between development firms Casto, Kelley Companies and The Robert Weiler Company has acquired the property as of today, with plans to renovate and redevelop the two buildings on the 10 acre parcel.

“We don’t have any specific plans for the site,” explained Brent Sobczak, President at Casto Communities. “But we think there’s an opportunity to create a campus atmosphere with a mixture of uses. What those uses become is still up in the air.”

The Kroger Bakery buildings were placed on the Columbus Landmark annual list of “most endangered buildings” last year, due to concerns with potential demolition. Sobczak said that their intentions are to preserve and renovate without demolishing.

“There are opportunities here for housing or office or hotel or banquet space or destination retail uses,” he stated. “We were attracted to this project because of its size, the condition of the two historic buildings, visibility from I-670, as well as the views from the buildings back into Downtown.”

More detailed plans for the site are expected to be made public sometime within the next six months. Sobczak anticipates that construction would likely start sometime in 2021.