Apartments have been proposed for this parking lot - across the street is the Station 324 development. Photo by Brent Warren.

A proposal to build a 175-unit apartment complex on a surface parking lot in Italian Village got a first look from the neighborhood’s review board earlier this week.

The proposal calls for two separate buildings at the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Sixth Street – one five stories tall and the other four. A free-standing garage would be built behind the buildings to provide parking for residents and for the commercial tenants of 274 E. First Ave., the large warehouse-like building that holds the State Library of Ohio and a NAPA auto parts store.

The new apartments would sit directly across Second Avenue from the Station 324 development.

The Italian Village Commission (IVC) weighed in on the idea at its meeting on February 11. Jonathan Barnes Architecture and Design was listed as the applicant for the project, while the site itself is controlled by an LLC that traces back to a New York-based real estate fund called Parkstone Capital.

Jason Sudy, Chair of the IVC, said that commissioners’ comments on the project were fairly general, since it was presented as a conceptual review (meaning no vote was taken).

“Discussion focused mostly around the massing and scale,” he added. “The commission discussed possibilities including breaking down the largest building along Second, which is now the entire length of the site, as well as potential variability in the height throughout the project, [although] others thought the length of the building could be appropriate depending on how the architecture evolves.”

Also heard at this week’s meeting was a two-part application for the building that once held Callander Cleaners, at 608 N. High St. The proposal, which was also presented for conceptual review, calls for adding a rooftop deck to the building and constructing an automated, vertical parking structure on the small lot behind the building, at 24 E. Poplar St.

The Callander building proposal and the Second Avenue proposal would both need to return to a future commission meeting for a vote of approval before moving forward.