Residents have already started moving into Madison North, the new 15-story apartment tower rising at 100 N. High St. in downtown Columbus, where studios under 500 square feet sit alongside two-bedroom units stretching to 1,900 square feet. Rents for currently available apartments range from $1,675 to $4,623 per month, with two-bedroom model units — a little over 1,000 square feet — going for $3,000 to $3,400 a month. The building marks the latest completed project from Edwards Companies in a downtown corridor the developer has been reshaping for nearly a decade.
According to Columbus Underground, the tower includes 152 units total and sits directly next to The Madison, a 44-unit apartment complex created through the adaptive reuse of the long-vacant Madison's and White-Haines buildings at 72-84 N. High St. The two properties are physically linked by Madison North's six-story parking garage, which offers direct resident access for both buildings and features public space on the ground floor. A landscaped courtyard sits atop the garage, visible from interior units on the seventh floor and above.
A Facade That Doubles as a Thermometer
Come September, Madison North's exterior will get a striking addition: a public art piece by Brooklyn artist Spencer Finch built from 31 stacked LED light tubes. The lights will shift hues based on Columbus temperatures recorded over the previous month, per Columbus Underground's reporting on the project. A more technical account from Columbus Business First describes the 26-foot-tall installation as a live thermometer refreshing automatically every night at midnight, built directly into the facade facing Gay and High streets.
Finch's piece will have company in the neighborhood's growing outdoor art collection. Madison North's balconies look out on “Current,” the 229-foot floating fiber sculpture by artist Janet Echelman that hangs over the intersection of Gay and High. Commissioned by Edwards Companies CEO Jeff Edwards and donated to the Columbus Museum of Art's permanent collection after its June 2023 installation, the sculpture contains more than 500,000 knots and 78 miles of twine, inspired by the city's historic street-lighting arches, according to Specialty Fabrics Review.
From Bank Vaults to Bedrooms: A Historic Block Reborn
The Madison's shell has a longer history than its new residential use suggests. The White-Haines Building at 72 N. High St. was designed by Richards, McCarty & Bulford and built in 1913, while the neighboring Madison's Department Store building at 80-84 N. High St. dates to 1904. Both structures sat vacant for years and landed on Columbus Landmarks' 2019 “Most Endangered Sites” list before their adaptive reuse, per the preservation group's own accounting. The block is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the High & Gay Streets Historic District, a designation that opened the door to state and federal historic preservation tax credits supporting the restoration, according to Columbus Landmarks.
Edwards Companies has run this playbook at the intersection before. In 2017, the developer converted a 1917 bank building at High and Gay into apartments under the name “The Citizens,” building a new sister structure across the street for shared resident parking and amenities — a project detailed by KEPHART. Madison North's own path to approval stretched back further than its recent completion — the project received its first downtown commission review in July 2021, with the Downtown Commission granting approval that October.
Rooftop Pool, Dog Runs, and a Downtown Boom
Amenities inside Madison North include a rooftop common area with both indoor and outdoor space, a rooftop pool offering views of LeVeque Tower and the surrounding skyline, a gym, a yoga room, a dog run, and a dog washing station. Drucker + Falk is managing the property. The rooftop's LeVeque views arrive amid renewed attention on that landmark tower, whose penthouse recently fetched $609,000 after 21 bids at auction.
Madison North's arrival fits into a broader surge in downtown living. Downtown Columbus' residential population reached roughly 13,513 people by early 2026, up from about 11,200 residents in 2021, as high-density development accelerated across the urban core — a trend Hoodline reported alongside coverage of the $100 million Capital Line groundbreaking on Gay Street in March. That two-mile pedestrian and bicycle corridor runs directly alongside Madison North, with Edwards Companies serving as a key private partner in shaping its initial route design.
Chef Josh Dalton Returns to the Corner With Rosalita
On the ground floor, chef Josh Dalton is opening Rosalita, an upscale Mexican restaurant, with seating for 60 guests indoors and a patio spilling onto Pearl Street. Per an Edwards Companies spokesperson, the restaurant is slated to open in the first quarter of 2027. Dalton is no stranger to this corner of downtown — he opened his flagship restaurant Veritas in late 2017 inside the historic former Citizens Trust Bank building at the same intersection of High and Gay, according to Veritas, and he also runs Speck Italian Eatery nearby on High Street.
Rosalita will share the renovated Madison block with three incoming art galleries — Brandt Gallery, Lindsay Gallery, and Chaos Contemporary Craft — as part of an effort to turn Pearl Street into a pedestrian-friendly social hub, according to WhatNow Columbus. The mix of dining, galleries, and public art reflects Edwards Companies' broader ambition for the block, even as the developer's plans elsewhere downtown have hit turbulence. The company paused its separate $600 million Capitol Square Renaissance redevelopment in April 2026 — a 10-acre, 1,000-plus-unit vision that included a proposed 12-story, 218-unit tower on South Fourth Street — citing unfavorable market and economic conditions, according to ConstructConnect. Madison North's completion, by contrast, shows at least one piece of the developer's downtown vision reaching the finish line.
