Brunswick Town Center

In 2004, with the opening of Brunswick Town Center, the City of Brunswick, Ohio placed its bet on reasoned mixed-use planning and development vs. linear commercial corridor sprawl.

Brunswick had long been a community held hostage by the Center Road (Highway 303) commercial corridor that slices through the city from its western juncture with Interstate 71 through to the eastern end of town (and remaining farmland and rural residences). As increased commercial development spread along the length of Center Road, traffic speeds, congestion, and citizen tempers continued to rise.

It was clearly time for a new approach. Staking an accumulation of city-owned land clustered about Brunswick Lake, the city entered into development agreements to leverage both Brunswick Town Center and the Lake for an improved development trajectory for the surrounding community. A planned retail complex with related restaurant and office parcels would introduce new goods and services to the city, and homes neighboring Brunswick Lake would benefit from significant recreational and infrastructure improvements.

Brunswick Town Center is anchored by both a 24-hour Giant Eagle supermarket and Home Depot. Bracketed by these two anchor stores is the four-building Town Center. Designed in a contemporary and colorfully artful village style, the multi-tenant retail buildings cluster about a main avenue, and have substantial landscaping and a variety of pedestrian amenities enhancing the subdivided parking fields and convenient storefront parking. The development also includes a free-standing restaurant, and a medical office building, as well as several other individual-tenant peripheral buildings. Brunswick Town Center was developed by Zaremba Group of Ohio. Additional city-owned land at the terminus of the main avenue is slated for future public use or related development.

A number of various styles of homes and townhomes have more recently been developed adjacent to Brunswick Town Center. They are part of Southlake at Brunswick Town Center, which was also developed by Zaremba, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio. Residential amenities include the 14-acre Brunswick Lake and 65 acres of preserved woodlands. A range of home styles, floor plans and prices are available, all within what many Brunswick citizens would consider an affordable range, and presented in a pattern hearkening to the 'New Urbanism' — smaller home sizes, greater density, walkable streets, calmed traffic, greater neighborhood visibility.

Brunswick Town Center and Southlake at Brunswick Town Center provide a positive alternative to the typical creeping commercial expansion that can choke a community.