Hey there everyone. Dave Barlow here with Jaime Barlow and Mike Hopper from Sell for One Percent. Today, we’re going to get into our suburb of the week. Mike, you’re doing Grove City today, tell us about Grove City.
Mike (00:24):
Founded in 1852, down on the southwest side of Columbus is Grove City, a fairly large suburb of Columbus. It is also one of the largest school districts in the entire of Central Ohio. Back in the 1850s, it was a large, fast wilderness with lots of trees such as the Oak Beach, Maple, Dogwood, and Buckeye trees. What’s funny is the town was named after the remaining groves of trees that were left over from the clearing when they built the city. Today, Grove City has a rough population of about 41,252 people, which is quite a bit more than some of the surrounding areas. There’s access to so many parks in this area, one being the Batel Darby Creek Metro Park which has about a thousand acres of forest prairies and wetlands in Grove City. I know they have protective areas there too for most of the wetlands and the prairies. It’s a great hiking spot, I’ve taken my daughters there several times. You might also get a chance to spot a bison or two while you’re out there because I think there is a preserve for the Bisons out at the tele metro park.
Dave (01:52):
I think the preserve is relatively new. I’m 61 and when I was younger, we didn’t have Nintendo and all the things that technology is today. We spent time at the park on the weekends. Darby Park, which was owned by John Galbrath, the billionaire from Columbus who owned the Pittsburgh Pirates, horse racing and all, was big money out there. If you drive out West Broad, all the white fences out through there mark John Galk property. Interesting. He had his own jet airplane that he flew in and out of the big Darby Dan Farms. He donated all that land to Patel, which became Patel Park around 15-20 years ago.
I hunted lots of crawl dads at Desert Creek.
Mike (03:00):
I remember when I was in fourth grade and we took all the nets and all of our stuff to go catch things that live in the creek. I remember going and doing that as a kid. That was an experience I’ll always remember. Speaking of the creek, you can get access to Darby Creek from Galloway, West Jeff, and Hilliard, it’s over in that corridor. It’s not necessarily in Grove City, but it is a quick shot down the road to get to it. When I was young, I spent a lot of time at Trapper John’s. If most of you were from Central Ohio, you probably know Trapper John’s canoe and livery, it is a wonderful place to kayak or canoe. You can rent boats and take them down. I think there are two or three different trips, one’s about an hour, and another one’s two, the longest one is a whole day trip. It’s between three and three and a half hours for you to just float on down the water. It’s a great time. I take the kids to do it too. I didn’t realize Grove City has a really large skate park too, and now that I think about it, I’ve driven past it several times. They have a lot of good bicycle trails. They also have paintball, and I didn’t realize there’s a place called Level Up Sports in Grove City. They have 10 different playing fields called the Falcon Village, and I didn’t know this, but it’s the largest paintball structure in the Midwest. So I guess there are a lot of tournaments and stuff that take place. I’ve been out of Paintballing for 15 years, or 20 years, so I don’t remember.
We were playing behind at Shirt Singer Road where the golf course used to be and got taken out. Truman Road used to be on a golf course, that’s where we would play paintball. I didn’t realize that that was down there. That was interesting to me. Grove City has lots of entertainment, if doing the outdoors isn’t your thing, they have their own brewing company down there which I’ve been to but haven’t drank any of the beer. That’s not my thing, but their food is fantastic. There is a lot of pub-style food. Very good. They also have Simis Bistro. I haven’t been there but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, I’d love to give it a shot. There’s a put-and-play fun center that I have been to. I didn’t realize this is still around, but this is probably a lot of your era Dave, Skate America.
Dave (05:58):
Oh boy.
Mike (05:58):
I know that we had to make the trek down there a couple of times because that’s probably the best place to go in Central Ohio. If you’re looking to rollerblade or skate, it’s a big facility.
Dave (06:09):
That’s cool.
Mike (06:11):
Yep.
Dave (06:12):
That’s where we want to get the girls.
Mike (06:16):
Hey, you’re the one who brought it up with all the not having TVs and going out and hiking. You would’ve gotten skating too, man, bowling, and all that stuff.
Dave (06:23):
There was a huge skating rink there on Georgesville Road and could find us boys there on Friday nights looking for the girls.
Mike (06:33):
They’re a few famous people. Derek Combs, the football player. There are also musicians, the 21 Pilots. Don and Tyler Joseph, both of the 21 Pilots, actually grew up in Grove City and got their start in music here in Ohio. That’s cool. Yeah. 21 pilots are from here. Now about the average sales price, if you want to live in Grove City now, obviously this’ll fluctuate depending on what part of town you’re living in because there are some older ones down Columbus Street. There are some older neighborhoods that have some really nice homes that you can probably get between the $225,000 – $250,000 range. The average sales price right now is about $324,000 in Grove City. There’s a lot of stuff going on down there. They’re building a lot of homes and also a Southwestern school district. It’s not ranked as the highest, but I can say, that their elementary and middle schools are actually top ranked between eight and nine out of 10 on great schools. The high schools have a little bit to be desired, but they’re not bad, with five or six ratings with Westland and Grove City High, a decent school district to be at a very affordable price. Also, if you have kids, there is no shortage of anything for you to do in that part of town. You have quick access to 2 70, 62 71. You can get pretty much anywhere you need to go from Brook City.
Dave (08:01):
Yeah, it’s a great place. It’s grown up quite a bit, it was fairly small in the last 15 years. I would guess that it’s probably at least doubled in size, population-wise.
I can remember one of my first listings was down off of 665 on Hoover Road. There was a development that had been built a couple of years prior. This had been about 1997 – 1998. They built this community and I had a preacher that had a new calling over in Indianapolis, I remember getting off at 665 and there was nothing. There was a Kroger at the corner of 665 and Hoover, that was it.
Mike (09:12):
They put a Sheetz down there too, didn’t they?
Dave (09:16):
You know you’ve made it when there’s a Sheetz showing up.
Mike (09:20):
Yeah, I know there’s one in Hilliard and one on the east side too. It’s a wonderful place to live. Again, we’re very experienced here in Central Ohio. We know Grove City like the back of our hand. I take my kids down there to go skating or put putting, or whatever you wanna call it. We spend time there. So if you are interested in looking for a home, it is a great idea to give us a call. We can help you get in the home of your dreams and make sure it’s quick, easy, and painless, get you the right lenders, and get it closed for you on time.
Dave (09:52):
Sounds good. Thanks Mike. That’s good information about Grove City, Ohio. Thank you.