The vacant Franklinton lot that once housed the Spaghetti Warehouse is officially on the block. The site at 397 W. Broad St. is up for sale, turning one of downtown Columbus's most visible holes in the streetscape into a high-profile redevelopment prospect. The warehouse was demolished last year, and the cleared parcel is now being pitched as a development-ready site.
According to Columbus Underground, the team behind the property includes Falco Smith & Kelley, The Robert Weiler Company and BLD Capital. Partner Skip Weiler said the group is listing the land so "a developer experienced in affordable housing could take over the project." He noted that "The City of Columbus has affordable housing as its priority [and] we are market rate builders," adding that the owners have already seen significant interest from specialists in affordable housing.
What Is Actually for Sale
A LoopNet posting dated March 12, 2026, describes the property as a multifamily development site. The listing highlights a conceptual plan for two seven-story buildings totaling about 250 units on roughly 1.66 acres. It also identifies the zoning as Downtown District and records the on-market date as March 12, 2026.
How the Vision Shrunk
Developers originally floated a far taller 15-story tower for the address in early 2024, as reported by Columbus Business First, but that proposal was later scaled down. The Downtown Commission signed off on demolition of the historic warehouse on October 22, 2024, according to minutes from the City of Columbus. The development team then returned to the commission in April 2025 with a new conceptual plan for two seven-story mixed-use buildings, per the April 22 records from the City of Columbus.
Why They Want an Affordable-Housing Pro
In meetings with city reviewers, the owners pointed out that the site sits between projects like Gravity and the Peninsula and along a LinkUS development corridor, making it a prime candidate for new housing. At the same time, they stressed that their track record is in market-rate work, not deeply affordable projects. Weiler and his partners told officials they had "a lot of interest" specifically from groups that concentrate on affordable apartments and suggested that handing the baton to a housing-focused developer could better align the site with the city's affordability priorities, according to Columbus Underground.
What Happens Now
Any buyer who steps up for the parcel will still have homework. The future project will need to comply with Downtown District design standards and will almost certainly go back before the Downtown Commission for detailed design review and approvals before shovels hit the ground. That means the listing is just the opening move in what is likely to be a multi-year redevelopment of one of Franklinton's largest empty sites.
For now, the listing hands the next chapter of the West Broad lot to the market. Whether the eventual buyer is an affordable-housing specialist or a market-rate developer that retools the concept, the property at 397 W. Broad St. is shaping up as a test of how Columbus balances fast-growing downtown momentum with its stated housing goals.
