It’s a tiny concept but it may be the next big thing. Micro apartments are now open in downtown Columbus.
Micro Living on South 4th Street is the first apartment building of its kind in Columbus. The first few tenants just moved in.
Amanda Rearick said a lot of factors led her to consider the smaller apartment.
“It’s kind of an opportunity to maybe purge some things I don’t need any more,” she said.
Rearick wants to walk to work but it was the price that really drew her here.
“There seemed to be a huge gap in price range either pretty low or very, very high,” Rearick said.
She wanted something under $950 a month but she found the only way to get that was to go shrink her expectations.
“Right now, we’re the only ones to hit the market at this price point downtown,” Connect Realty Developer Brad Dehays said.
DeHays wanted to renovate the historic building but didn't want to compete with the new build apartments. So he researched other cities and found the trend is going tiny to keep downtown living affordable.
“We wanted to maximize the space in the restroom and in the kitchen area,”DeHays said.
They saved on square footage in the bedroom. It’s basically a loft over the kitchen where the tenant can put a mattress.
DeHays has a second micro-apartment building opening next year and other developers are following suit.
“I imagine we’re probably going to see it grow over time,”DeHays said.
“If the prices downtown stay as expensive as they are, then it’s probably here to stay for a while,” Rearick said.
The Micro Living Apartments have 51 units with 11 currently rented. The rest are currently being finished. The developer expects the building to be full by the end of the year.
The square footage ranges from 250 to 310. They rent for $750-$850 a month.