Franklin County has sold roughly five acres of land for more than $1.12 million to the community authority overseeing Grandview Crossing, setting the stage for the sprawling Columbus mixed-use development to expand by 300 multifamily units starting next year.
The land sale, first reported by The Columbus Dispatch, adds to a development that has already reshaped one of Central Ohio's largest former industrial sites. Grandview Crossing sits on 55 acres once known as the Dublin Road Landfill, or the McKinley Avenue Dump, an unregulated dumping ground that operated from the 1950s through the 1970s, according to background compiled by the City of Grandview Heights. The site sat contaminated and untouched for decades before public-private cleanup efforts made it viable for housing and offices.
A Landfill Turned Job Engine
Turning the old dump into buildable land required serious state money. In May 2023, the Ohio Department of Development awarded $6.3 million in Transformational Mixed-Use Development tax credits to help convert the landfill into Grandview Crossing, a project state officials projected would create more than 1,900 permanent jobs. Public infrastructure at the site, including a 677-space parking garage, was financed separately through $24 million in bonds backed by Tax Increment Financing and community development charges, according to DiPerna & Company.
That investment has already paid off in occupied buildings. Before this latest expansion, Grandview Crossing had brought more than 650 multifamily apartment units online across sub-communities including The Thomas, Midpoint East, Midpoint West, and 8 on the Park, a track record that earned the project CoStar's 2023 Multifamily Development of the Year award for Columbus. The commercial side of the development is anchored by BMW Financial Services, which relocated roughly 900 employees into a 121,000-square-foot office building on site, per CoStar.
Food Hall Anchors the Neighborhood
Retail has followed the residential and office growth. Grandview Crossing opened The Little Grand Market in August 2024, a 23,000-square-foot food hall with 10 local vendor stalls and two full-service bars set beside a 3.5-acre public park, as reported by The Lantern. Hoodline previously covered a pizza spot's debut inside that market, part of the steady stream of small businesses filling out the site.
The newest 300-unit phase builds on that momentum, and it required its own round of local government action. Between May and June 2026, Columbus City Council passed resolutions to hold public hearings and expand the boundary of the Grandview Crossing Community Authority district under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 349, according to City of Columbus records, incorporating additional acreage like the parcel Franklin County just sold.
Two Cities, One Authority
Grandview Crossing straddles a border that most developments never have to navigate. The project operates under a cross-jurisdictional agreement between the City of Columbus and the City of Grandview Heights, using the Grandview Crossing New Community Authority created in 2019 to manage shared roadways, parks, and bike paths, per city documentation. That structure is what allowed Franklin County to sell land directly to the authority rather than to either municipality alone.
The developer behind it all, Thrive Companies, formerly known as Wagenbrenner Development, specializes in exactly this kind of brownfield infill work in central Ohio. The firm has also led projects including Jeffrey Park in Italian Village and Quarry Trails along the Scioto River, according to the Columbus-Franklin County Finance Authority. Thrive's leadership has faced its own turbulence recently: in April 2026, a former executive filed a civil lawsuit in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas accusing former CEO Kevin Zeppernick of sexual harassment, battery, and wrongful termination following his 2025 departure from the company, a case Hoodline detailed in April. Company leadership has said many of the claims are false while confirming Zeppernick's exit.
Despite that internal upheaval, the expansion plans are moving forward on schedule, with construction on the additional 300 units expected to begin next year as Grandview Crossing continues filling out its footprint along the Columbus and Grandview Heights border.
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