The long-vacant Broadwin Building at 1312 E. Broad St. might finally be getting its comeback story. A developer has floated a plan to turn the Near East Side landmark into a mixed-use hospitality hub with apartments, short-stay hotel suites, restaurants and wellness amenities. If the deal comes together, it would mark the latest and most ambitious attempt to revive one of the corridor’s most visible historic anchors after decades of stalled renovation efforts.
What’s Planned For The Broadwin
According to Columbus Business First, early concepts call for a blend of traditional apartments and hotel-style suites stacked above ground-floor dining and wellness space, with an emphasis on preserving the building’s historic character. The property’s offering memorandum from The Robert Weiler Company pegs the structure at roughly 85,831 square feet and notes that historic-tax-credit work had already been approved for a prior conversion, hinting at how a new rehabilitation could be financed.
A Landmark That’s Been Waiting
Built in 1924 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the eight-story Broadwin is known for a marble-lined lobby and ornate stone trim that preservation advocates have long pushed to save. A 2023 tour by Columbus Underground showed many of those interior details still intact and traced a string of renovation attempts that have sputtered out since the early 2000s.
Funding And Previous Attempts
Market reporting shows the building finally changed hands at auction in April 2025 for about $1.025 million after sitting on the market for years, according to Traded. Files from the Ohio State Development Services Agency list an earlier proposed historic-tax-credit package tied to an $8.8 million rehabilitation as “cancelled,” underscoring the financing and approval hurdles that have tripped up past plans. Those records are included in the agency’s annual report.
What Comes Next
Developers are describing the current concept as early-stage and say they will still need to lock in financing, secure preservation approvals and obtain city permits before any construction can begin, per Columbus Business First. Supporters argue that a successful adaptive reuse could boost foot traffic and jobs along nearby retail corridors while putting a marquee 1920s building back to work.
Any formal proposal is expected to get close scrutiny from preservation groups, neighbors and city officials. The Broadwin sits directly across from Franklin Park Conservatory and anchors a stretch of East Broad that city planners have flagged for careful reinvestment. The property’s Showcase offering memorandum, auction records and state planning files now serve as the baseline numbers that investors will have to make work if the long-discussed rehab is finally going to happen.
