Resident Profile – Gilbert Michael Borlaza, 32

May 20, 2010 0 Comments

By Mary Martineau

Gil Borlaza

A Michigan Avenue resident and, in fact, born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Gil appreciates the irony of now living in and loving Columbus.

He’s named after his father, Gil (who is “Gil,” not “Gilbert”), but he avoided the “junior” appellation by incorporating his father’s forename into his own. He’s just “Gil” to those who know him, though. As he puts it,

“Really, just Gil, although when I introduce myself, people tend to hear ‘Dill.’ Maybe I just lack enunciation.”

Gil is a management consultant for First Data Corporation focusing on state government consulting and project management. He started his own computer-consulting company in college (he’s a Boston University grad) but discovered that he couldn’t pay his bills or his rent and thus decided to work as a temp for KPMG. After building a database for them, the folks at KPMG were suitably impressed and hired Gil into their consulting group, Bearing Point. He moved from Washington, D.C. to Columbus in 2005 and fell into a great rental house on Bradley Street through a connection with friends of landlord Marty McGreevy (of North Market’s Market Blooms fame). Ultimately, he realized his Harrison West homeownership dreams by buying a place on Michigan Avenue, where he comfortably resides and is currently delighted with a new front porch.

Gil loves the walkability of Harrison West, its proximity to cafes, wine bars, neighborhood taverns and Gallery Hop. He appreciates the neighborhood’s great housing stock with nicely sized lots and really likes that folks in the ’hood sit on their front porches and interact with each other (probably another reason he’s so excited about his new porch). His guilty pleasures include red wine and good food. Happily both are readily available in Harrison West, although he’s known to make short journeys to his favorite restaurants, which include M, The Refectory and G. Michael’s Bistro. (Luckily Harrison West is centrally located to just about everything in Columbus.)

You might coerce Gil into giving you a private tour of Columbus gem, Franklin Park Conservatory; he’s got the inside scoop on the place as a docent. Buying Gil a glass of red wine or a beer at Caffe’ Apropos might do the trick!