Ralston Towers is getting a $10M transformation. What to know about housing project
Former low-income housing complex Ralston Towers has been sold, and its new owners announced a plan to redevelop the historic property during a news conference Thursday morning.
Atlanta-based Infinity Real Estate Advisors, LLC plans to spend $10 million on the project to create 224 project-based Section 8 subsidized units and 45 market-rate apartments.
The project will include a full-interior demolition and extensive redevelopment. Plans include using the building’s 61,000 square feet of community space to bring new amenities like a library, business center and lounge area. Infinity has also taken the first steps to submit required documents to add the Ralston to the National Historic Register, said Greg Jones, the firm’s partner and CIO.
The expected completion date is December 2022, but the first residents could move in by the end of this year, Jones told the Ledger-Enquirer.
“I think everyone here shares the same vision, and it’s really two parts,” he said. “Part one is to take a beautiful building like Ralston Towers from dilapidated to something nice — to preserve the historical element of this building, and we’re going to do that. The second is to bring hope to a group of our community that doesn’t get hope.”
Among those in attendance for Thursday’s announcement were city, state and federal leaders including Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson, U.S. Reps. Drew Ferguson and Sanford Bishop, State Rep. Calvin Smyre, and Columbus Councilors Charmaine Crabb and Mimi Woodson.
“We are absolutely thrilled at the opportunity to get this historic building back to what it was and that is a source of housing for folks who desperately need it,” Henderson said.
Local general contracting company Freeman & Associates, Inc., local architectural firm 2WR + Partners, Rosin Preservation and Mayfair Street Partners are all working with IREA on the redevelopment.
The redevelopment news comes just weeks after the property was sold.
In a document provided to the Ledger-Enquirer, Wilmington Trust, an investment management and private banking firm headquartered in Delaware, issued notices to bondholders on May 17 that the Ralston had been sold.
The Delaware-based firm filed documents in Muscogee Superior Court seeking a receiver to take charge of the property, and the court appointed GlassRatner Advisory and Capitol, an Atlanta-based firm, to serve in that role.
The transaction was completed on May 14 for a gross sale price of $3.85 million, according to the document. The buyer was not identified in that document.
Named after former Board of Trade President J. Ralston Cargill, the nine-story building at 211 W. 12th St. opened in 1914 with 100 modern rooms as the city’s most upscale hotel. The Ralston was considered the city’s tallest building at the time, according to research conducted by Columbus historian Virginia Causey.
In 1977, the building was converted into a retirement home for senior citizens and disabled persons. Issues plagued the building before its residents were moved out in early 2020. It’s sat vacant since.
Residents in recent years have been subject to increasingly dire conditions, with one resident dying due to extreme heat, and other issues including malfunctioning elevators. Rats, roaches and dangerous living conditions were found during inspections.
The building was under a Section 8 Project-Based Housing Assistance Payments Contract, where HUD issues vouchers to help make up the difference between the rent and what its residents could afford.
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 10:02 AM.