An innovative concept of workforce housing will be coming to Columbus’s South Side with the launch of The Residences at Career Gateway. Fifty- eight new garden style and town homes, along with on-site workforce training, will be located at 755 E. Whitter. The official launch event ceremony took place Friday, Sept. 30, 2016.
Residents of the workforce housing community, as well as those living on the South Side, will benefit from locally delivered and easily accessible workforce and professional development services. These services will focus on attaining and retaining employment, career development and advancement, combined with other applicable life skills.
The NRP Group LLC and Community Development for All People (CD4AP) partnered to develop this break-through concept of workforce housing. Combining NRP’s expertise of multifamily development, construction and management with comprehensive family, job and support services from CD4AP along with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, this new model in workforce housing provides an ongoing commitment to training, hiring and improving the lives of South Side area residents.
“Bringing workforce housing to the South Side makes sense for residents as well as employers,” said Mayor Andrew J. Ginther. “It improves the quality of life of those residing at Career
Community Development for All People Gateway as for the employers and overall community. I hope to see this concept expand to other areas of the City of Columbus.”
This development and its partners foresee a successful project that has the potential to be a replicable model in other areas of the city to those facing similar challenges. “We started work on this concept in early 2014 and invited employers and providers of workforce development training and education to be a part of the project from the very beginning,” stated Reverend John Edgar, Executive Director, Community Development for All People. “The Residences at Career Gateway will be a wonderful addition to the South Side. These apartment homes will not only provide workforce orientation, but elegant, high quality housing with affordable rents for working families.”
The lead workforce training partner in this initiative is Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Nationwide Children’s has a long-standing partnership with CD4AP.
"Nationwide Children's Hospital is proud to partner with the NRP Group and Community Development for All People on The Residences at Career Gateway Homes," said Steve Allen, MD, Nationwide Children's CEO. "This project represents new opportunities for families in safe, affordable housing and career development and training. As a workforce development partner offering services on-site to residents, we look forward to working with additional partners to ensure that residents have access to training to prepare them for the next level in their career path. We are grateful for the support this project has received from the City of Columbus, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, JP Morgan Chase and Nationwide Insurance. Because of the commitment of all involved in this project, children and families will be better equipped with the resources necessary to thrive and achieve their full potential."
By engaging Nationwide Children’s from the beginning of this project, the hospital’s goals related to recruiting, developing and retaining members of its entry level workforce are included in the project proximity, design, construction and related initiatives implemented as part of the development upon completion. Other Columbus employers will be asked to engage in the project as well. The private sector support of this initiative has been funded by commitments from Nationwide Children’s, JPMorgan Chase, and Nationwide Insurance.
The NRP Group, founded in 1995, is a full-service developer, general contractor, and property manager of multifamily, senior and student housing throughout the United States. From start to finish, every development NRP Group works on is carefully contemplated and executed to maximize investment return cost efficiency, productivity and satisfaction. The NRP Group is recognized as a three-time recipient of the National Association of Builders Multifamily Development Firm of the Year and has been consistently ranked one of the Top 25 Developers by Multifamily Executive. The NRP Group LLC has offices in San Antonio, Texas; Cleveland, Ohio; Raleigh, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; Buffalo, NY and Detroit, MI, devoting significant resources to providing high-quality housing to residents. For additional information, visit NRPGroup.com.
About Community Development for All People
Community Development for All People (CD4AP) is a faith-based non-profit located on the South Side of Columbus, OH. Our work in the community began in 1999 with the opening of the United Methodist Free Store and a commitment to build authentic relationships and an inclusive community. Today, CD4AP catalyzes collaborations with key strategic partners to improve the quality of life for all residents of the South Side through individual and community.
About Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report’s 2016-17 list of “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of America’s largest not-for-profit freestanding pediatric healthcare systems providing wellness, preventive, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative care for infants, children and adolescents, as well as adult patients with congenital disease. Nationwide Children’s has a medical staff of 1,100 and more than 10,000 employees providing state-of-the-art pediatric care during more than 1.2 million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded freestanding pediatric research facilities. Nationwide Children’s remains true to the original mission since its founding in 1892 of providing care regardless of a family’s ability to pay. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org.