Columbus Monthly Special Section: Hometown Story

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Hometown Story

10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT OUR TOWN JULY 2020 COLUMBUS MONTHLY

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Groveport’s past, present and future intertwine with shipping, transportation, industry and agriculture. The Ohio and Erie Canal made the town a port and put it on the path to prosperity. Groveport started as a single entity in 1847, when the neighboring rival towns of Wert’s Grove and Rarey’s Port merged. Groveport was home to John Rarey, the original horse whisperer, known for his horse training techniques and taming a fiercely wild horse named Cruiser.

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Groveport has several family-oriented festivals and events. The Groveport Farmer’s Market takes place every Tuesday from May to September. The 4th of July Celebration features a parade, entertainment, food, children’s activities and fireworks. KidsFest, in August, offers children’s activities and the always-popular Touch-a-Truck. On the second Saturday in October, enjoy fresh apple butter, along with homemade food and artisan wares, at Apple Butter Day. Santa and Mrs. Claus host A Heritage Holiday on the first Friday in December. This two-day event includes a tree-lighting ceremony, horse-drawn wagon rides and live reindeer.

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With more than 25 million square feet of industrial space currently

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Explore “Central Ohio’s Hometown”—a growing suburb with a rich history. under roof throughout five industrial parks, Groveport is a distribution hub for a variety of well-known companies like Eddie Bauer, Kraft Foods, Build-A-Bear Workshops and many more.

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Recently named as having the most parkland per capita in Central Ohio, Groveport is home to nine beautiful parks. Their amenities include the historic Erie Canal’s Lock 22, numerous sports fields, lighted tennis courts, a large stocked pond and several miles of pedestrian and bicycle paths.

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Groveport’s Recreation Center is a 67,000-square-foot facility offering state-of-the-art equipment, fitness classes, an indoor climbing wall, a heated indoor pool, an indoor track, indoor basketball courts, outdoor paved leisure paths and the Groveport Senior Center. Next door is the Groveport Aquatics Center, one of the top outdoor community water parks in Central Ohio.

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Motts Military Museum was founded in 1987 by Warren E. Motts of Groveport, who established the museum as a nonprofit educational organization.

The museum showcases military vehicles,

aircrafts, a Higgins Boat from World War II and many artifacts.

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Groveport Municipal Golf Course is an 18-hole, par-72 course, owned and operated by the City of Groveport. Located in the clubhouse, the Paddock Pub & Links Event Center offers casual dining and a banquet room that accommodates groups up to 250 for weddings, corporate meetings, special events and golf outings.

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Groveport’s Main Street business district offers prime sites for commercial and retail development. Opportunities abound for restaurants, retail shops and offices.

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Groveport’s Community Affairs Department offers programs for all ages at Town Hall and Crooked Alley KidSpace. Featured at Town Hall is a variety of art and the Heritage Museum, showcasing Groveport’s history.

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Groveport operates its own transit system. With three routes serving Groveport and the Village of Obetz, Groveport Rickenbacker Employee Access Transit (GREAT) provides vital last-mile, door-to-door service to companies in several Rickenbacker-area industrial parks.

PHOTOS: COURTESY GROVEPORT

Groveport

It’s All Here: Small Town Charm.

Big City Advantages.

Stately, historic homes and peaceful tree-lined streets coexist with well-planned residential subdivisions. A thriving economy complements a quaint, historic Main Street. Easy access to airports, sports venues and entertainment but plenty to do in any of the city’s seven parks, municipal golf course, recreation center and award-winning aquatic center.

We may be the best kept secret in central Ohio but we’re also the best place to live, work, play and do business!

www.groveport.org

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New Albany is a friendly place, built on the strongest traditions of small-town America, that embraces a strategic approach to land use and a high quality of life based on our founding pillars of life-long learning, culture, health and the environment. That’s why 24/7 Wall Street recently ranked us as one of the best places to live in America.

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Our New Albany-Plain Local School District, rated in the top 3 percent of all public schools in Ohio, is located on one 200-acre campus surrounded by the Swickard Woods wetlands preservation, which intertwines our environmental and educational commitments.

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Our pedestrian-friendly Village Center, the town’s centralized gathering spot, includes restaurants, coffee houses, boutique shops, a summer farmers market, the library, the New Albany-Plain Local school learning campus, Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts, Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany and diverse housing that includes luxury apartments designed for millennials and empty nesters.

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Rose Run Park, our community’s central park and gathering place, which COLUMBUS MONTHLY JULY 2020

Community connects us here in New Albany.

opened in late 2019, now connects people to nature, each other and all that our Village Center has to offer. The park includes a natural play area for children, many different trails along Rose Run Creek, a library garden and a birch tree walk, bringing nature to life in the heart of town. Thanks to the Hinson family, Raines and Cadieux families, and Marx family, as well as Facebook, for their generous donations to support our recreational and cultural offerings in and around this park.

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In their own words, residents praise New Albany as safe, beautiful, convenient and well-maintained with a small-town feel, strong sense of community, quality schools, friendly people and lots of trails for walking and running.

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We are an active community with lots of land for recreational pursuits. Counting Rocky Fork Metro Park, nearly 20 percent of New Albany’s land use is devoted to parkland and open space. There are 53 miles of leisure trails, and nearly every neighborhood is within ¼ mile of a park.

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The New Albany International Business Park is the largest master

planned commercial park in the Midwest with four highway interchanges, 5,000 acres, more than 15,000 employees, nearly 12 million square feet of space and more than $5 billion in private investment, with companies that include Abercrombie & Fitch, AEP, Facebook and Google.

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Innovate New Albany, our technology incubator for startups, has lived up to its name by continuously evolving the services and resources it provides to entrepreneurial enterprises. Innovate’s entrepreneurial TIGER Talks attract more than 1,500 people annually.

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The New Albany Community Foundation’s Jefferson Series is one of the best lecture series in the United States.

New Albany staff are committed to a high level of professionalism and customer service with an attention to detail—99 percent of residents surveyed feel safe in New Albany, 96 percent view New Albany as vibrant and attractive, 95 percent are satisfied with snow removal and 90 percent are satisfied with management of architectural standards.

PHOTOS: COURTESY NEW ALBANY

New Albany

As partners in a master-planned community, New Albany collaborates with our residents and businesses to create a shared vision for the future that brings people together to do more than just live or work. It’s a friendly, inclusive community that makes you feel at home, encourages a healthy, active lifestyle, nurtures the creative spirit, invests in lifelong learning, supports business and protects the environment for future generations. It’s more than a place, it’s a way of life.