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Oct 18, 2024

Pins Mechanical Co. will stay at downtown location, not move to The Peninsula - Columbus Business First

Listen to this article 9 min A new Pins Mechanical Co. won’t be part of the slimmed-down next phase of The Peninsula. A new Pins Mechanical Co. won’t be part of the slimmed-down second phase of The

Listen to this article 9 min

A new Pins Mechanical Co. won’t be part of the slimmed-down next phase of The Peninsula.

A new Pins Mechanical Co. won’t be part of the slimmed-down second phase of The Peninsula.

Troy Allen, CEO of Pins owner Rise Brands, said delays with the project combined with the $3.4 million purchase this year of the current Pins building at 141 N. 4th St., led to the decision.

Rise planned to move its two downtown bars and game spaces – Pins and 16-Bit Bar + Arcade – to a new 40,000-square-foot space at The Peninsula.

It now will expand that 4th Street building instead.

“For us to move out of a building that we now own – there was no benefit for us,” Allen said. “The economics changed. We have six Pins under construction in other markets. This location fell out of the schedule.”

Pins has grown to nine locations, including three in Central Ohio, with new units in the works in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina; Austin, Texas and Greenville, South Carolina, among other markets.

Details of the second phase, including Pins' involvement, were announced last August, but Allen said their plans with Columbus-based developer Rockbridge, one of several co-developers of The Peninsula, had been in the works for several years prior to that.

He said they told Rockbridge they no longer wanted to be part of the development at some point in the first quarter.

“Things change over three years,” Allen said. “It wasn’t moving at the pace it was supposed to.”

The Peninsula is being developed by Downtown Columbus Inc., Rockbridge, Columbus-based Daimler and Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins. The first phase included 230,000 square feet of Class A office space, 330 apartments and a 198-key hotel, The Junto, which also includes multiple restaurants and bars.

The second phase first was announced in 2021 with 400 new residential units and 245,000 square feet of Class A office space.

As of last August the plan became 150,000 square feet of new office space; two residential towers, including one topping a building with a 400-space garage and a ground-floor grocery; and a hotel with Pins on its first two floors.

Pins, the hotel and the office space are no longer in the phase two plans.

The Downtown Commission next week will see the latest iteration of phase two, which has been scaled down to a 15-story building with a grocery store on the ground floor, four floors of parking and 10 floors of residential space.

Flaherty & Collins already was approved this spring for the second residential building in phase two.

Rise Brands meanwhile will turn its attention back to its existing downtown buildings. The current Pins has a 5,000-square-foot second floor that currently is not being used.

Allen said the plan is to renovate that space and move the 16-Bit into the building at some point in the future. That bar – the first venture for Allen in what would become Rise Brands – is at 254 S. 4th St. and opened in 2013. It’s currently on a month-to-month lease.

The building is part of a redevelopment proposal from Bluestone Brothers Capital that includes a 24-story tower.

"We're all-in on Columbus and downtown," he said.

– Bonnie Meibers contributed to this story.