A few years ago, Stephan Hansard said he would never have moved into the former Colonial Village apartments on Columbus’ East Side, not even if someone had paid him to do so.
But now, he’s hoping to pay for the privilege of living at the complex, which has been gutted and is being renovated after years of crime and code violations plagued residents there.
Leasing of the 508 one- and two-bedroom apartments and townhomes will begin in mid-September as The Rand Apartments.
Hansard, 64, was shocked Aug. 8 when he saw the renovations that have happened on the property.
“I’m very amazed; it’s been long overdue,” said Hansard, who lives in Bexley and has been looking for a new apartment he can afford within his fixed income with much frustration and little luck.
He can rent a one-bedroom at The Rand for $1,099 a month.
“I can make it,” he said of the price. “I’d rather struggle for these kind of conditions than somewhere it’s not worth it.”
Hansard said his rent has been increasing at his current apartment, while maintenance isn’t completed and conditions deteriorate.
On Aug. 8, the first day The Rand was open to show people model units and host a ribbon-cutting event, there was already interest from future residents like Hansard, property manager Kevin Griffin said.
The inside and outside of the apartment community is a stark difference compared to less than two years ago and even just months ago before Pepper Pike Capital Partners of Cleveland bought the property in May and began renovations. It bought the more than 20-acre property for $15.1 million and is investing $18 million into renovations.
The renovated and rebranded Colonial Village, now called the Rand Apartments, holds a ribbon cutting and welcome event on Aug. 8. The market-rate apartments, which closed in December 2023 before being sold to Pepper Pike Capital Partners of Cleveland, are still several months from being completed.
Originally built in 1964 and 1965, the newly renovated units will have all new appliances, flooring, walls, wiring and air conditioning, said Paul Kiebler, CEO and founder of Pepper Pike.
The apartments will become available on a rolling basis, with the hope to have all of them finished by September 2026 or sooner, Kiebler said.
The 508 units were split into “neighborhoods” of around 50 apartments each, and one of those is expected to be available for leasing every 30 to 40 days, he said.
“We’re trying to make it a new community, something Columbus can be proud of,” he said.
A ‘heartbreaking’ history
In late 2023, 1,300 residents of the then-Colonial Village apartments were told they had to move out right away.
Legal fights, crime and poor conditions plagued the community for years, including a public nuisance designation from the city in 2021.
In December 2023, the then-owner was planning renovations of units that had long been in a state of disrepair and had been plagued for months by insect infestations, rodents, unusable utilities and water and fire damage.
Many of the then-tenants were Haitian immigrants who had already faced years of hardship and told city officials they had been trafficked and scammed into paying for condemned or uninhabitable apartments with no lease and sometimes no heat or hot water.
The complex had also been plagued by crime, with hundreds of calls to Columbus police for fights, drug activity, prostitution and more, said Shirley Marshall, president of the East Hampton Block Watch Civic Association.
Shirley Marshall, the president of the East Hampton Block Watch Civic Association, tours the renovated and rebranded Colonial Village, now called the Rand Apartments, during a welcome event on Aug. 8. The market-rate apartments, which closed in December 2023 before being sold to Pepper Pike Capital Partners of Cleveland, are still several months from being completed.
Though they were leaving poor conditions, it took months for former Colonial Village residents to find new housing. Four months after they were evicted, less than one-third of the 523 households who moved into city-provided hotel rooms had been able to find housing on their own.
The displacement of everyone living there was “heartbreaking,” said Marshall, who hopes that residents who had to leave can come back and live in the newly renovated units. However, she worries the market rate prices may be too high now for some.
The prices range from $1,099 for a one-bedroom apartment to $1,399 for a two-bedroom townhome. Although they are market-rate apartments, they do accept Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Columbus is $1,160 per month, according to Apartments.com.
Units are considered “affordable” for people if they spend no more than one-third of their income on them.
Affordable housing is something the city is striving to build and preserve, as Columbus has fewer affordable housing units per capita than are available in cities like New York and San Francisco, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.
“Folks are unhoused at an astronomical rate in our community,” said Tiara Ross with Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein’s office.
There are just 25 affordable units per 100 extremely low-income households, according to the 2025 Gap Report.
The reopening of the complex offers another much-needed affordable housing option to the community, said Christine Reedy, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Development, in a prepared statement.
Plan met with ‘a little bit of skepticism’
When Kiebler and Pepper Pike presented their “great plan” for renovating Colonial Village to Klein’s office, they were met with “a little bit of skepticism,” Kiebler told those assembled at the Aug. 8 event. But the city has come on board, and Klein and other city officials have been “incredibly helpful,” he said.
The Franklin County Environmental Court order levied on previous owners to ensure safety, security and maintenance of the property remains in effect, Ross said.
Ross told those gathered at the event for The Rand that it is her office’s responsibility to make sure promises made to the East Side community are kept.
The new owners are “committed to the future of this site as an affordable option for folks on the East Side,” she said. “We’re supporting them and we’re also holding them accountable.”
Paul E. Kiebler, CEO of Pepper Pike Capital, speaks during a ribbon cutting and welcome event for the renovated and rebranded Colonial Village, now called the Rand Apartments, on Aug. 8. The market-rate apartments, which closed in December 2023 before being sold to Pepper Pike Capital Partners of Cleveland, are still several months from being completed.
Kiebler has been eyeing the property for a long time, as he tried to buy it 12 years ago and again five years ago, with no luck. When he purchased it in May, he took the property down to the studs to rebuild.
“We buy communities like this — the worst house on the best block — and rebuild and make them new,” said Kiebler, whose company has done more than 35,000 renovations in the Midwest. “This was an anchor that kept this neighborhood down.”
Kiebler knows the reputation and history of the apartments but has ignored it.
“It’s a completely different place,” he said. “It has a lot of history, but that history is gone now. … It’s going to be an affordable, attainable, family environment.”
The neighborhood around The Rand keeps improving, as Barnett Park has expanded and a new library branch is being built nearby, Kiebler said, and he believes the complex’s renovation can also have a positive impact on the area around it.
The Rand is just one more good thing coming to the East Side, said Columbus City Council member Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, a lifelong East Side resident.
Colonial Village was once “the heart of the East Side,” she said.
“When I think about this, it’s not just about air conditioning units and hardwood floors, this is really about families,” she said. “This is about 500-plus families having a place that they can call home, that is safe, a place that has dignity, a place that they can be proud to live.”
Underserved communities reporter Danae King can be reached at dking@dispatch.com or on X at @DanaeKing.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Colonial Village is now The Rand. See inside new East Side apartments