Highpointe, a 220-acre mixed-use project years in the making, has officially shifted from farm fields to a construction site in Etna Township. Crews started clearing and grading land northwest of the I-70/SR-310 interchange today as T&R Properties kicked off a long-planned blend of apartments, townhomes, single-family houses, and retail parcels. Township trustees joined company representatives at the groundbreaking while the first dirt was being moved.
Columbus Business First reports that the buildout calls for hundreds of apartments and single-family homes along with several retail outlots. The outlet also published a photo identifying RJ Sabatino of T&R Properties standing with Etna Township trustees during the ceremony.
What Will Be Built
Phase One is spelled out in Etna Township meeting minutes, which detail 66 detached single-family homes, 60 attached townhomes, 36 ranch-style duplex units and 228 multifamily apartments. Those apartments are broken into 34 studios, 98 one-bedroom units and 96 two-bedroom units. The same document describes mixed-use buildings with retail on the ground floor and housing above, plus amenities such as a pool and fitness center. Meeting notes even record the developer saying the name “Highpointe” was picked “because of the elevation of Etna.”
Scale and Approvals
County planning materials map the site at about 220 acres with roughly 273 planned lots and show that the Highpointe project was formally submitted in October 2025 under that name, according to Licking County records. The concept itself is not new. Columbus Business First reported back in 2021 that approvals were advancing for a roughly $400 million, 220-acre plan that at the time envisioned up to 800 homes.
Traffic, Services and the Township's Role
Developer presentations at township meetings have shown a proposed three-legged roundabout, a realignment of Pike Street so it meets US-40, and several access points along SR-310. Trustees used those sessions to press for clarity on who would be responsible for maintaining the new infrastructure. The Etna Township meeting minutes also reserve space within Highpointe for a future township fire station and note that parking is planned behind commercial buildings rather than in front. That layout is intended to make the ground-floor retail more walkable for residents.
Timeline and Next Steps
Licking County documents show portions of Highpointe already in construction-plan review, a step that lets grading and phasing work move ahead while final permits are completed. There is no public timeline yet for full build-out, but the combination of single-family homes, townhomes and apartments points to a multi-year effort that will significantly reshape this stretch of Licking County, according to the county’s active developments map.
