COLUMBUS, Ohio — Driving through the Hilltop community on West Broad Street, the fresh smell of coffee might catch your nose.
"This is a place for business and a place for opportunity,” Founder of Roosevelt Coffee Roasters Kenny Sipes said.
The old Hilltop Bank Block has sat on West Broad Street since the late 1920s. Now it houses Sipes’ Wholesale Company.
"We're growing and this space allows us to continue to get bigger,” Sipes said.
The new tenants are a part of a project called the "Hilltop Bank Block Project." Owners of the block and brothers Parker and Preston Steele said it’s a step in revamping a piece of the Hilltop community from North Oakley and North Wayne Avenues. They said it's under the mission of Envision Hilltop, the city's plan to reinvigorate the area.
Sipes said there are plans to open a used bookstore in the front of the building.
"Coffee is a place in which people can commune together,” he said.
The Steele Brothers, owners in the Hilltop community, said along with the bank, they have several other spaces including apartments and retail spaces planned.
"It was an opportunity to make some change in the neighborhood,” Parker Steele said.
It's a vision the brothers want to see expand to the entire Hilltop community.
"Our goal is to help grow the Hilltop, the Greater Hilltop area. Really, Sullivant and West Broad,” Preston Steele said.
Sipes said he is thankful he’s a part of something positive and impactful.
"Long as I can be a part of something that's going to create value and change, that's enough for me,” Sipes said.