If you’ve driven through the stretch of East Main Street between Grant and Washington Avenues lately, you might have noticed the spattering of new businesses and buildings to pop up in the old neighborhood over the past two years.
Upscale, architecturally chic restaurants and design groups’ offices now occupy the vacant lots in a block that had been all but forgotten for the last few decades. Corrugated steel façades punctuate the modernized look of the neighborhood’s oldest surviving businesses.
Now dubbed the “Market Exchange District,” the neighborhood’s revitalization has been the work of life-long tenants, including the area’s land-owner and developer J. Daniel Schmidt. His father opened the Jack Schmidt Oldsmobile dealership in 1956 at 447 E. Main St. While running his father’s business until it closed in 1998, Schmidt bought 11 acres of the neighborhood. At that time, he often needed to tear down buildings to expand the car dealership.
Schmidt started modest renovations in on the neighborhood 1990, remodeling the old Acme Laundry building into offices. He moved his own business, JDS Companies, into one of the offices and started planning. An apartment complex followed eight years later, and since then new businesses have sprung up everywhere along the block.
A medical center, a deli, a bakery and the relocated Indian Oven restaurant have all set up residency in the area in the last three years, not to mention several architectural firms and design groups. Indian Oven, formerly located at 2346 N. High St., moved to Main Street in November 2001.
“The owner (Murad Hossain) had been looking for a larger location,” said Cara Austin, Indian Oven’s general manager. “On the weekends, people had to wait sometimes an hour and a half to get a table. We had obviously outgrown that space.”
Hossain had been considering moving to the Sawmill area, until one of the restaurant’s regular customers, Schmidt, suggested moving to the Market Exchange District.
“He succeeded in talking Murad into moving out here and it’s worked out wonderfully for us,” Austin said.
The restaurant still draws its Clintonville and Grandview customers, and has an additional clientele because of its new location.
“People working downtown come in for lunch and then bring their families in for dinner. We also get a lot of customers from Bexley since we’re on Main Street,” she said.
The area has also become a place for students from Columbus College of Art and Design and Franklin University to hang out.
“Students from CCAD didn’t really have anywhere close to go to,” said Andy Robertson, who works at Indian Oven. “It’s a bit pricey for students here, but they still come to the area.”
Many of the original tenants of the Market Exchange District are also happy with the new changes. Katz Tires, a family-owned business, has been operating in the area for over 75 years and has been at 475 E. Main St. since 1962.
“We moved to Main Street to accommodate the customers that the new interstate (71) was bringing,” said Philip Katz, former owner of Katz Tires.
Although Katz’s nephew now runs the business, the 92-year-old Katz still comes out to the tire store. He is pleased with the way the neighborhood is shaping up.
“Look at all the new buildings,” he said. “Things are getting really nice.”
