A window wholesaler expanding its operation in an old Westerville industrial building plans a fitting addition along East Broadway: more windows.
The Westerville Planning Commission unanimously approved the project Aug. 26 for the building at 170 E. Broadway Ave., where the company already operates.
The expansion includes new south-facing windows along East Broadway and additional loading bays at the rear and west side of the building.
The new windows will bring more daylight into the company’s showroom, offices and warehouse space while breaking up what is now a mostly solid wall facing East Broadway.
The building’s cream-colored exterior has already been painted dark gray. Renderings submitted to the city show large industrial-style windows along the Broadway facade.
The company is a wholesale window and door distributor. Its showroom is used primarily for appointments rather than walk-in retail traffic.
The windows became a point of discussion during the commission meeting because the building sits close to East Broadway and presents a prominent facade to the street.
Commissioner Stephen Munger said the windows shown on the south elevation were an important part of improving the building’s appearance.
“The windows need to come in,” Munger said. “The windows facing Broadway, I think, are a critical part of being able to meet the character that is intended within the preliminary development text.”
He said the existing building is “way too solid” along the street and described it as “quite inhospitable.” Property owner David Smith said there was no plan to back away from the Broadway windows.
The uncertainty discussed during the meeting involved existing high windows on the building’s west side, where three new loading docks will be added.
“Daylight’s king,” Smith said.
Company representatives said they hope to preserve those west-side windows if the loading-dock construction allows it. City Planner Tom Lodge said the Broadway windows would help the building better fit the industrial character envisioned for the property under its broader redevelopment plan.
The existing manufacturing buildings on the site date to the 1940s, according to the city staff report.
The roughly 20-acre McGill property was rezoned to a Planned Development district as part of a broader redevelopment plan approved by the Planning Commission and City Council in 2020.
That plan divided the property's redevelopment into phases.
The current proposal is part of the first phase and focuses on improvements to the existing 170 E. Broadway building rather than new construction elsewhere on the site. Most of the rest of the McGill property remains unoccupied. A smaller warehouse is used for storage by a printing company.
Across the street is a small business district that includes an auto garage, warehouses, fabricators, the printing company, and a yoga studio.
The Ohio to Erie Trail, a heavily used bike-and-walk route through Westerville, runs just east of the property.
In addition to the new Broadway windows and loading areas, the project calls for pavement and parking improvements, landscaping, bike racks, and updated signs.
The company expects about 18 employees to be at the site on a typical day, including 12 warehouse employees and about six people working in the showroom and sales area.
Company representative Justin Siak told commissioners the showroom is appointment-based and is expected to have about five appointments a week.
“It’s not like a retail showroom where we have weekend hours, and we’re crushing people through,” Siak said.
For drivers, cyclists, and walkers passing the old industrial building, the most visible change will be along East Broadway: a dark gray wall opened up with rows of new windows.
What is the McGill property?
The McGill property is about 20.6 acres of longtime industrial land on the north side of East Broadway, extending north to Old County Line Road. Its existing manufacturing buildings date to the 1940s, but much of the property has sat unused in recent years. Redevelopment planning took a significant turn in 2019, when McGill Development presented a concept that would renovate two large warehouse buildings while adding two- and three-story live-work buildings on mostly vacant land to the north and east, with offices on the first floor and residences above.
In March 2020, Westerville City Council rezoned four parcels at 170-200 E. Broadway and 233 Old County Line Road from Industrial to Planned Development and approved a preliminary development plan for the 20.6-acre site. That plan divided the property into four phases, with the first phase focused on repurposing the existing buildings for office and manufacturing uses. It also preserves a long-planned extension of McCorkle Boulevard south through the property to East Broadway, creating another north-south connection through the industrial area.
The window-company project approved Aug. 26 does not replace that larger plan. The Planning Commission classified it as a minor modification and limited the approval to improvements associated with the existing building at 170 E. Broadway. Future buildings, additions, lot splits, access or circulation changes elsewhere on the McGill property would require separate city review, and the current work cannot interfere with a future McCorkle Boulevard connection. In other words, the new tenant puts part of the McGill property back into use, but what ultimately happens on most of the site remains unsettled.
Woman Sentenced In Death of DoorDash Driver After Parking Lot Crash
A Columbus woman has been sentenced to three to 4½ years in prison after pleading guilty in the death of a DoorDash driver who was struck and dragged beneath her vehicle following a minor crash in the Schrock Road Kroger store parking lot.
Danielle Henry, 35, pleaded guilty Aug. 11 to involuntary manslaughter in connection with the Oct. 22, 2025, death of Ibrahim Diakite, 31, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeff Brown sentenced Henry on Aug. 27 and suspended her driver’s license for life.
The confrontation began after Henry and Diakite were involved in a minor collision in the Kroger parking lot. Henry left the scene, and Diakite followed her for nearly a mile. At the intersection of West Schrock and Cooper roads, Diakite pulled his vehicle in front of Henry’s and got out in an effort to stop her from leaving.
Police said Diakite eventually climbed onto the hood of Henry’s SUV. Henry then jerked the vehicle several times in an attempt to throw him off before accelerating to speeds of about 45 mph with Diakite still on the hood, according to the complaint. Diakite was pulled underneath the vehicle and dragged between 300 and 600 feet. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Henry fled following the deadly encounter and was arrested three days later. She had initially faced charges including aggravated vehicular homicide, involuntary manslaughter and failure to stop.
Diakite was working as a DoorDash driver at the time of his death, according to his family. Relatives said that he had moved to Columbus from West Africa in pursuit of a better life.
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