Bier Stube to cease operations weekend of Sept. 21 to make way for apartment building

After an almost 60-year run, a bar located near the Ohio State campus in Columbus' University District will soon have to make way for what will be the country's second-largest wood-framed building.

The Bier Stube, located at 1497 N. High St., will be permanently shuttered by Oct. 1, the bar announced in a Facebook post Monday. The last weekend of operations will be the weekend of Sept 21.

In its wake, Harbor Bay Ventures, a Chicago-based company, is planning to build a 13-story apartment complex out of wood, the Dispatch previously reported. This will be Harbor Bay's second wood-based project; two years ago, the company opened INTRO in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood, made of two timber-framed buildings, nine and 11 stories high. Harbor Bay bills INTRO as the nation's largest timber-framed building, though not the tallest.

The apartment building planned for the Bier Stube site would be the tallest of a string of new student housing developed along North High Street and Lane Avenue near the Ohio State campus. Harbor Bay noted in its proposal that the building would be significantly shorter than the 26-story OSU Wexner Medical Center's new building , and Morrill and Lincoln towers, also on Ohio State's campus.

Bier Stube

Harbor Bay's plans were approved in April by the University Area Commission after the company agreed to make changes to the plan, including reducing the height from 15 stories.

In addition to ousting The Bier Stube, the development would also remove the 14-0 Express convenience store and Yau's Chinese Bistro to make way for the apartment buildings.

Harbor Bay is partnering on the project with Marker, a Philadelphia-based student housing company, and the Mollica and Ryan families, who own the Bier Stube and neighboring sites.

smeighan@dispatch.com

@ShahidMeighan

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Bier Stube to cease operations weekend of Sept. 21 to make way for apartment building