Columbus CEO Special Section: Grove City Suburban Growth

A Special Advertising Section

Grove City A Suburban Growth Section

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Welcome Letter & Contents

Welcome to Grove City Grove City is a welcoming and inclusive community where all can feel safe and respected—a full-service community where each person feels at home. Twice named one of Ohio’s Best Hometowns by Ohio Magazine, we feel much of that success comes from our cohesive neighborhoods and the connections among residents, businesses and service providers.

Strength through Connections Grove City understands success for all is found in working together. One great example is a property agreement among the City, South-Western City School District and Beulah Park developer that provided land for a much-needed new middle school and freed up space for City use.

Other successful partnerships, such as those with Southwest Public Libraries and Columbus Metro Parks, have garnered unmatched benefits for Grove City residents, including a leading-edge library and Scioto Grove Metro Park.

Together with leaders from Jackson Township, Franklin County and the Grove City Area Chamber of Commerce, we continue working closely with residents and businesses, providing programs needed for success.

Eliminating Transportation Obstacles Recognizing a need for improved public transportation, we partnered with COTA to offer an on-demand transit program, developed with input from area businesses, medical facilities, educational institutions and service providers.

COTA//Plus provides affordable, accessible transportation in Grove City, Jackson Township and Urbancrest.

A Columbus CEO Suburban growth Section Columbus Site Manager

Alan Miller

Publisher/General Manager

Ray Paprocki

EDITORIAL Special Sections Editor

Emma Frankart Henterly Columbus CEO Editor

Katy Smith

contributors

Striking the Work-life Balance Residential development in Grove City has responded to the growing demand for a variety of housing options. Recently approved projects offer a range of amenities, such as connections to our trail network and an abundance of open space offering recreational opportunities. These communities are developed with the intention of promoting improved quality of life and ease of living. This approach is based on the premise that residents are happier living in a community with convenient access to their needs.

Science

Tech HUB

Grove City’s science and technology industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.

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Small Business

Better Together

Grove City leadership stepped up to support its small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interns

David Rees, Lily Roby, Eiliana Wright

DESIGN & production Production/ Design Director

Craig Rusnak

Art director

Yogesh Chaudhary

Digital Editor

Julanne Hohbach

Photography Photo Editor

Tim Johnson

Associate Photo Editor

Welcome Home It’s Grove City’s healthy mix of smalltown charm and big-city amenities that make it one of the most desirable places in Central Ohio for a family or a business to call home.

Rob Hardin

ADVERTISING Vice President of Sales

Eugene Jackson

Senior Multimedia Sales Executive

Holly Gallucci

Multimedia Sales Executives

Tia Hardman, Jackie Thiam SALES ASSISTANTS

Amy Vidrick

Production Designer

Rebecca Zimmer

Mayor Richard L. “Ike” Stage

C o n t e n t s

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Brian Ball, Virginia Brown, Sarah Steimer, Peter Tonguette

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Innovators

Layers of Support

Local government, businesses and nonprofits build a web of assistance for entrepreneurs and innovators.

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Housing

CONNECTED GROWTH

Beulah Park and Farmstead lead the charge in Grove City’s goal to diversify housing stock.

Marketing marketing manager

Lauren Reinhard Editorial/Advertising Offices 62 E. Broad St., P.O. Box 1289 Columbus, OH 43216 • 614-888-4567 Grove City: A Columbus CEO Suburban Growth Section is published by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © Gannett Co., Inc. 2021. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials.

Cover Photo: Grove City’s Town Center Courtesy: City of Grove City July 2021 l Grove City

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Science

Tech Hub

Grove City’s science and technology industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.

By Peter Tonguette With a population hovering around 45,000, Grove City, southwest of Columbus, is known for its eclectic Town Center, numerous local and national retail establishments and restaurants, and appealing residential options.

Grove City, whose economy has long been anchored in transportation and logistics, can also be associated with science and medicine.

In fact, the city has gradually become a hotbed for health care providers and science innovators. It is the home to a variety of tech-industry innovators, as well as Mount Carmel Grove City, OhioHealth Grove City Methodist Hospital and The James Grove City—all of which were drawn to the area for various practical reasons, as well as something more difficult to quantify.

“There is a sense of southern charm in Grove City,” says Kevin Lutz, president of

OhioHealth Grove City Methodist Hospital.

The Japan-based Tosoh Corp. has long had a presence in Grove City; the American-based arms of the company span multiple industries, including the manufacturing of sputtering targets—used in creating semiconductors—and sales and marketing of specialty materials and chemicals used in a wide array of industries. In Grove City, the company also sells and distributes medical diagnostic instruments to the medical industry and separation materials and instruments for liquid chromatography in the pharmaceutical industry.

And, just last summer, Forge Biologics, a new gene-therapy manufacturing company, chose Grove City as its headquarters.

“Having these new sectors in the city

Mount Carmel Grove City Courtesy Mount Carmel Health System

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says Jim Shaffer, vice president and chief financial officer of Tosoh America.

Tosoh America, which operates out of a 348,000-square-foot building on a 40-acre plot of land off of Gantz Road, continued to invest in Grove City, with products being exported to, rather than imported from, countries overseas. “Seventy percent of the products we make in Grove City, Ohio, get exported to Asia. It’s not the other way around,” Shaffer says.

“The cost of living in Central Ohio is very reasonable, so the cost of labor is very reasonable for us,” he adds. “We’re offering competitive compensation and better-than-average benefits.”

Shaffer also points to the skillset found in the talent pool in and around Grove City. “We hire a tremendous amount of engineers and chemists,” says Shaffer, whose company employs about 320

Courtesy Mount Carmel Health System

really helps to diversify our economy,” says Kyle Rauch, the city’s director of development.

As Mayor Richard L. “Ike” Stage sees it, Grove City has become attractive to science and medical companies for several reasons, including a diverse labor force, the proximity to Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and the friendliness of city leaders.

“We are a welcoming community,” Stage says. “We’ve heard that from a broad range of industries.”

Leaders say that Tosoh’s entry into Grove City in 1988, following its acquisition of the sputtering target manufacturing of Varian Associates, was a turning point in the city’s eventual emergence as a science hub.

“Tosoh started with investing in a company, and ended up finding a home,”

people in Grove City (about a third of whom live in Grove City).

In fact, Forge Biologics, which manufactures life-changing and -saving gene therapies for patients, chose Grove City over 15 different sites, including others in Central Ohio, in part for its supply of potential employees who seemed likely to remain in the area over the long haul.

Like Tosoh, the company is based in a facility on Gantz Road.

“There’s leadership and expertise to draw from in the gene therapy space,” says Timothy J. Miller, co-founder, president and CEO of Forge, who calls Central Ohio a center of gene therapy. “It’s not Raleigh-Durham or Boston, where people are jumping every other year to new jobs.”

Grove City, though, won out for its unique qualities even within Central Ohio. “It’s on a great intersection, right next to the highway,” Miller says. “Lots of access to food, to hotels, to shopping. It’s only 15 minutes away from the airport.”

Forge’s ranks have swelled from four employees to over 70, and the company continues to hire aggressively in manufacturing. Forge benefits from ready and willing city partners. “They worked with us to help make sure our permitting was done on time [and] to help review our manufacturing build-out plans,” Miller says. “They’ve definitely incentivized the company to come and basically stay.”

Another new player in town is the Mount Carmel Grove City hospital, which opened in April 2019 on North Meadows Drive after Mount Carmel leaders determined they had a patient base in the area they needed to reach.

The hospital, which employs about 1,300, offers a full complement of ameni-

“Having these new sectors in the city really helps to diversify our economy. ” Courtesy Mount Carmel Health System

Kyle Rauch, director of development for Grove City July 2021 l Grove City

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Forge Biologics Courtesy Forge Biologics

ties, including a full-service emergency department, a bariatrics program and traditional outpatient and inpatient services.

“We want people to be able to get the care that they need within 10 to 15 minutes of their home,” says Tauana McDonald, president of Mount Carmel Grove City.

“Grove City is one of the fastest-growing suburbs in Central Ohio and very much wanted to [ensure] ... they have an environment that has all the services for their community,” says McDonald.

“It’s a very family-friendly city, very

focused on education, health care, small business,” she adds.

And, last August, The James Grove City, also on North Meadows Drive, opened its doors. The center focuses on breast cancer as well as overall breast health.

Steve Kalister, the service line administrator for the breast cancer program at The James, says that The James targeted Grove City for a satellite location to help serve a large population of women who had reached the age to start having mammograms but were not being reached by

other locations. “It was a big area for us to establish a presence,” he says.

The James shares the same building as an expanded Grove City Veterans Administration Clinic. The VA had long operated a clinic in Grove City, but, looking to expand its footprint and offer more services (including primary care, mental health and nutrition), it moved to the new facility about two years ago.

“They determined, with the number of veterans here in Grove City, it was time to expand,” Stage says.

Mount Carmel Grove City and The James Grove City joined the existing OhioHealth Grove City Methodist Hospital, which opened in October 2018 with a full-service ER plus inpatient rooms and operating rooms. “We’ve been part of the Grove City community for 30 years, with a very large ambulatory health center on Stringtown Road,” says

“Grove City is one of the fastest-growing suburbs in Central Ohio and very much wanted to [ensure they have] ... all the services for their community.”

Courtesy Forge Biologics

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Tauana McDonald, president, Mount Carmel Grove City

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Lutz, president of the hospital (located a mile away from the original facility, also on Stringtown Road). “It was a natural next step for us to mature the ambulatory health center, which we were serving the community with, by adding hospital services.”

Lutz praises city leaders for being “at the table 100 percent” in helping OhioHealth realize an ambitious, largescale construction project. “While never offering shortcuts, they made it very easy for us to navigate the timelines between the steps that we had to go through,” he says. “We worked together to best serve the interests of both the city and the project here for Grove City Methodist.”

Stage says that, with the addition or expansion of so many health care centers, the city is on its way to becoming “a full-service community.”

“That means that people have, hopefully, as much as 90 percent of their services within the driving area of Grove City,” Stage says.

And, on the business side of the ledger, Shaffer, of Tosoh, appreciates having other manufacturing companies within Grove City, going so far as to form an informal network of area executives to meet periodically.

For his part, Stage remains convinced that Grove City will remain a desirable destination for those in the science and medical arenas for years to come.

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Small Business

Better Together

Grove City leadership stepped up to support its small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Virginia Brown Celebrations serve as a path for Sue and Gary Baisden to make a living.

The owners of Capital City Cakes create wow-worthy custom cakes—a hamburger-and-fries theme for a Wendy’s employee’s birthday, for one, or a magical, “Frozen”-inspired tower cake for a 4-year-old’s birthday—each one garnering public praise on the company’s Facebook page.

The shop has been a mainstay of the Grove City small-business community since 2012. But when the pandemic hit, the shop, like millions of other small businesses across the country, found itself in a tough financial spot.

Though no strangers to a challenge

(the couple competed on the Discovery Family Channel baking show Bake It Like Buddy in 2018), they never could have predicted the struggles COVID-19 would produce.

For one, due to travel restrictions and social distancing mandates, the wedding industry dried up. Wedding orders make up about three-quarters of the business, according to Sue, and 90 percent of their wedding orders were postponed or canceled.

“Luckily, they postponed to 2021, so now we’re doing [orders] for the 2020 brides that have had to change their wedding plans, as well as the 2021 couples that are getting married this year,” she says.

Most of the birthday parties and baby

showers and retirement parties dried up, too, amid concerns of spreading the coronavirus. “We continued to make small birthday cakes, just so that it would take a little bit of that stress and anxiety away from people and let them have a bit of normalcy,” Sue says.

They wore masks and gloves and increased their store cleaning. They added recommended CDC signage. They moved tables and closed the restrooms.

Still, customers were wary of coming into the store.

Over time, they were forced to let go of their employees, who received unemployment. (Five have since returned.) But the Town Center shop stopped—and, as of press time, has yet to bring back—indoor dining, a boon for drawing casual customers in search of a midafternoon sweet treat.

As the year went on, creativity kicked in. “We came up with great ideas,” Sue says. “We did a drive-by baby shower,” at which they handed out cupcakes. Sue also began hosting live videos through Facebook. “I would decorate cakes and cupcakes and offer DIY cookie kits and cupcake kits,” she says. Those kits have remained popular as she adapts them for holidays like Mother’s Day and Easter.

Mill Street Market, which includes businesses like Local Cantina, used funds from the Grove City Town Center Grant and Working Capital Grant programs.

Courtesy City of Grove City

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Capital City Cakes is just one example of the many pillars of Grove City’s small business community, which was struggling when the pandemic began in early 2020. A grant from the city and support over social media, among other resources, helped the Baisdens stay afloat during a difficult time.

With stories like the Baisdens’ becoming common, Grove City leadership knew they needed to act. “We met with members of the [City] Council and administration to discuss what we needed to do,” says Kyle Rauch, development director for the city. “Our first step was to reach out to businesses to do a wellness check … to see what the concerns were, so we could determine what was actually happening.”

That itself was no small feat. City officials made 926 calls to area small businesses between mid-March and early May 2020, according to Rauch.

From those calls came the Working Capital Grant program, a short-term fiCutting a Capital City Cake confection

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Courtesy Grove Sheek Boutique

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nancial support channel launched in October 2020 to provide $2,500 to Grove City-based businesses with immediate working-capital needs.

“The needs were all different,” Rauch says; they included facility improvements to help make spaces safer given the new COVID-19 restrictions; product or inventory purchases; and technology upgrades, among others.

“Location is so important for retailers,

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so we knew it was going to be important for us to help keep our retailers in their existing locations,” adds Mayor Richard L. “Ike” Stage, now in his sixth term.

Grove City is home to more than 1,200 businesses total, with nearly 700 classified, according to U.S. Small Business Administration standards, as small businesses. But the city focused on the smallest businesses, prioritizing those with 25 or fewer full-time employees.

“I understand the complexity of trying to run a small business, and as soon as it was becoming evident that it was going to be a very difficult time, we were proactive in [developing] the Working Capital Grant and making contact as quickly as we could,” Stage says. “From what our feedback has been, that has been extremely appreciated. We always wish we could do more.”

In all, Rauch says, 59 businesses received roughly $147,000 in Working Capital Grants, funded by CARES Act dollars.

“Location is so important for retailers, so we knew it was going to be important for us to help keep our retailers in their existing locations.”

Mayor Richard L. “Ike” Stage

Grants were administered through an online application process.

Rise Yoga is just one example of a business the city’s efforts helped. The brand sent a thank-you message to the City of Grove City and Mayor Ike Stage via an Instagram story. “As a small business this year has had its challenges and this Grant money lifted a huge weight off these winter months,” reads the post.

City officials also worked closely with manufacturers to distribute personal protection equipment toolkits, which consisted of COVID test kits and masks, according to Rauch. “We targeted our manufacturers because they’re a primary employer, so we wanted to make sure that the employment centers were taken care of [and had the] equipment they needed to conduct their business,” he says.

They also loosened the reins on rules for small businesses to hang banners in their windows or set up property-front signs.

“We relaxed our sign code infractions [so] businesses could maintain operations,” Rauch says. “It was pretty gratifying to see that unity amongst the local business owners.”

But the city didn’t act alone. In partnership with the Grove City Area Chamber of Commerce, the city funded a gift certificate program called Hometown Dollars. Here’s how it works: If a customer purchased a $25 gift certificate to any of the participating local small businesses, the city covered that amount again, doubling the value for the consumer. The city dedicated the funds to the program, which was implemented by the Grove City Area Chamber of Commerce.

“Our businesses wanted to get feet in the door, and consumers wanted some normalcy,” says Shawn Conrad, the Chamber’s executive director. “In eight days, we went through roughly $50,000, and many business owners told us, ‘This program helped us keep our doors open.’ ” For the Baisdens, the support from Grove City officials and residents alike made a big difference.

“The community—from City Hall to the Chamber and all of our customers— they pulled together,” Gary says. “They came in and said, ‘We’re so glad that you’re open, and we love you guys.’ That really kept us going.”

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Innovators

Layers of Support

Local government, businesses and nonprofits build a web of assistance for local entrepreneurs and innovators.

By Sarah Steimer The space at 3989 Broadway in Grove City could have stayed a “remember when” building: Remember when it was a hardware store? Remember when it was an auto dealer and repair shop? Instead, it’s become a building of “what if?”

It’s all thanks to start-up incubator Cultivate moving in five years ago. Founder Matt Yerkes—an entrepreneur himself— adopted the location so others could adopt it as well. Those who’ve called the incubator home have developed businesses that include medical billing services, marketing management and even the restaurant on the building’s ground floor. This building, once steeped in the past, is now looking toward the city’s innovative future.

But the story of Cultivate is a microcosm of Grove City’s steady but pronounced interest in fostering entrepreneurs and innovation. While the area maintains its charming, small-town appeal, its collaborations among businesses, government

and nonprofits have given the city a wellflexed entrepreneurial muscle.

Partnerships and Support Systems Grove City has a web of support for business owners and those hoping to set up shop. Cultivate is one example of a company that both benefited from and provided such support. Yerkes received a $60,000 grant from the city when he opened Cultivate five years ago, along with loans for historic preservation of the 100-year-old building.

“When we had those early conversations with Grove City, they were also eager to help small and emerging businesses and startups,” Yerkes says. “They were already working with Rev1 Ventures, which is what we call one of our community partners.”

Cultivate was rolled into the agreement that Rev1 had with Grove City to act as the start-up program’s boots-onthe-ground support for local entrepreneurs. Rev1 is a nonprofit investor startup studio that combines capital and

Courtesy Cultivate

The café at Cultivate Grove City

strategic services and works through public-private partnerships. “We’re really focused on fostering entrepreneurship in order to create jobs, grow regional wealth and attract and retain talent to the region,” says Kristy Campbell, chief operations officer at Rev1.

Grove City funds Rev1 to be a startup studio for high-growth-potential companies in the region. Campbell explains that the communities her organization works with don’t have the studio services, capital and advisory resources necessary for high-growth-potential companies, largely because such companies make up a small percentage of that region’s businesses. But Grove City leaders understand that these small companies can have an outsized impact on the community.

“That’s why they fund and support us,” Campbell says. Rev1, in turn, also helps to direct funding into the communities and support start-ups such as Cultivate.

For Cultivate, Rev1 provided educational resources, guidance on how to use the space and services to entrepreneurs in the region. The two entities now also provide cohort-based and online educational sessions for entrepreneurs, but the strength of the approach is its physical footprint in Grove City.

“Every community wants to create density and create a place for entrepreneurs to come together, and that’s really difficult to do,” Campbell says. “When we all saw Matt getting excited about giving back ... to create that, we thought he would have a much better chance of starting up and growing if we support him.”

That support trickles down from the city (and often the state) to Rev1, to Cultivate and on to local entrepreneurs.

Yerkes says Cultivate—which now has locations in London and Pickerington as well—has 101 members. These member businesses employ 486 people and boast $22 million in revenue.

But innovators in Grove City predate July 2021 l Grove City

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Courtesy New Wave Prosthetics

New Wave Prosthetics

Cultivate. New Wave Prosthetics, for example, has called Grove City home since 2014. The business, a fabrication service company that specializes in upper-limb prosthetic devices, employs nine people and works with prosthetics clinics across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Mitch Neff, general manager at New Wave, says the Grove City government has been proactive in reaching out to businesses with funding opportunities.

For example, Grove City Director of Development Kyle Rauch contacted New Wave when a state grant the company would be eligible for became available.

“They proactively reached out to us, knowing that we might have an interest,” Neff says. “Otherwise we would not have known about it. That’s not anything that we would typically follow up on, just because we’re trying to run the business on a daily basis.”

Rauch says Grove City officials work to establish and maintain an environment that’s attractive for businesses through their local partners, which include the Chamber of Commerce, Visitors and Convention Bureau and the Heart of Grove City, which promotes the Grove City Town Center.

“There is no one thing or perk on

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which we focus,” Rauch says. “It is a specific mindset to develop and evolve the composition of the market in which the business operates. In doing so, this approach makes it attractive for other small businesses to locate in the city.”

He says the city is also working on a resource guide to help aspiring business owners navigate the city’s regulatory processes for a company’s legal formation, as well as a listing of local, regional, state and federal funding sources. The city administers a grant program to assist Town Center businesses with facility improvements, capped at $10,000 annually. In the last 10 years, the city funded a little more than $1 million in Town Center grants. It also offers a Town Center loan program that provides access to working capital up to $150,000 for small businesses.

Perks of Staying Small Grove City is within a short distance of Columbus, but it’s not trying to compete with the big players. In fact, the city’s residents and innovators are more likely to underscore Grove City’s small-town charm when describing what makes the area so appealing.

“Grove City has a really unique downtown,” Campbell says. “It feels like a very

close and tight-knit downtown. But it’s in a community that’s one of the fastestgrowing communities in the state when it comes to population, and they also have the benefit of being really close to Downtown Columbus. It’s that small-town feel, but close to where the action is.”

Neff’s retelling of how he started working for New Wave is a perfect encapsulation of how Grove City’s smalltown sensibility plays directly into how its business community functions. Neff has lived next door to New Wave owner Victoria Lawson in Grove City for about five years, only joining her company in January.

“My background was in the prosthetics industry,” Neff recounts. “And to relocate where you live and move in next door to somebody that is also involved in the prosthetics industry was beyond imaginable.”

But it’s not unheard of for many of Grove City’s entrepreneurs to live in or near the town where they’re growing their businesses.

“We encourage people to work as close as possible to where they live,” Yerkes says.

“When you’re a small business owner, your time is the most valuable asset that you have. You really don’t want to have to commute 20 or 30 minutes to work each way. That’s a lot of your time that you could be putting into your business.”

And the harder working the region, the more it can reap the benefits of a welloiled economy. According to Campbell, regions in the U.S. with active startup communities create twice the number of jobs and businesses than those with less active startup communities. They attract more skilled talent and thus the corporate partners that want to be near that talent. And venture-backed companies have nine times the economic impact of other companies in the region.

When Yerkes excitedly mentions that Cultivate offers a free membership for aspiring business owners, it sounds less like a sales pitch and more like a neighbor tossing out details of a community event.

And he is quick to point out that this free opportunity is part of the interconnected web of partnerships in the city.

“We’re really only able to provide that membership for free as a nonprofit because we have support from Grove City,” he says.

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Housing

CONNECTED GROWTH

Beulah Park and Farmstead lead the charge in Grove City’s goal to further diversify housing stock.

By Brian Ball Steady growth in economic performance gains in the Greater Columbus region—and Grove City in particular—has increased demand for a variety of housing options for those working in the community and nearby employment centers.

A 2016 housing study commissioned

by Grove City showed 78 percent of the existing housing stock offered came in the form of single-family homes. Other demographic studies have shown the city’s population has grown nearly 37 percent since the 2000 Census, with expectations of a continued flow of new residents through 2050.

To accommodate that anticipated demand, Grove City has prioritized development of additional housing units that target a variety of lifestyles and housing preferences as a supplement to its solid base of existing housing stock. As a reflection of the diversifying economy, recent development offers comprehensive

housing options. The construction and opening of the OhioHealth and Mount Carmel hospitals and various other medical facilities in recent years, for example, has expanded the market for upscale homes and well-apportioned rental options for management and staff.

At the same time, plans call for creation of dedicated open space, active parks and multiuse trails. These qualityof-life amenities are considered a key aspect of Grove City’s plan to attract and retain residents as well as employers.

“We’re trying to fill the full spectrum of housing needs in line with our commercial development profile,” says Mayor

“We’re trying to fill the full spectrum of housing needs in line with our commercial development profile.”

Mayor Richard L. “Ike” Stage

Richard L. “Ike” Stage.

The most high-profile housing development emerging at this time builds on the Town Center, which dates back to Grove City’s founding in 1852. Columbusbased master developer Falco Smith & Kelley Ltd. has staged the redevelopment of the shuttered Beulah Park through its attraction of several homebuilders to create a variety of housing units where the thoroughbred racetrack and community events venue once stood.

The 212-acre redevelopment opportunity attracted Falco Smith & Kelley for its proximity to a thriving, mixed-used Town Center, with its established grid of commercial, civic and housing elements. That street grid will extend into the development, which will offer a 32-acre park close to the existing Town Center, further complemented by a 22-acre nature preserve along the West Water Run stream.

The Beulah Park development will take its walkable attributes from the Town Center; it features about 900 residential units and some additional neighborhood commercial space.

The second phase calls for a SouthWestern City School District middle school on a reserved site.

“The whole mixed-use aspect of Beu-

Beulah Place apartments and townhomes at Beulah Park

Courtesy City of Grove City

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Courtesy City of Grove City

Fischer Homes’ Farmstead development

lah Park is as good as anywhere in Central Ohio,” says Patrick Kelley, president of Falco Smith & Kelley. “We had plenty of room to work with.”

Additional housing projects set for Beulah Park include an 88-unit assisted living facility called The Danbury with 30 adjacent condos called the Grove City Villas; the 376-unit Beulah Place apartments and townhomes; and a yet-unnamed 82-unit townhome project set along the stream that runs through the site. The Paddock, a collection of 80 custom, single-family home lots, will frame the north and east sides of the central open space.

“It will be very walkable to the core of our town,” Stage says.

Housing developers at Beulah include Pulte Homes, which has plans for 52 single-family residences within its The Grove neighborhood on the west side of the central open space. And condo developer Epcon Communities has plans for 104 detached condos within its Courtyard at Beulah.

But Beulah Park is not the only major housing project under development.

An equally important development in terms of housing diversity, trail connectivity and open space can be found in

Getting Around Growth in Grove City in residential and non-residential sectors over the last several decades had made traveling between Downtown Columbus and the community difficult, especially during the busy morning and afternoon rush of commuters going to and from work.

But a $175 million rebuild, reconfiguration, repaving and widening of the Interstate 71 corridor from Interstate 70 to State Route 665 will more than relieve traffic congestion as the last finishing touches get completed this summer after nearly six years of construction.

The project, spearheaded by the Ohio Department of Transportation, began with the widening of I-71 between Stringtown Road and 665, with a more efficient 665 interchange and widening of the White Road bridge over I-71 as other key components. The widening of I-71 between I-70 and Stringtown began in 2017. A reconfiguration of the I-71/I-270 interchange improved the heavily traveled I-71 southbound exit at Stringtown by expanding the vehicular capacity of that key entrance into Grove City and giving it a separate exit lane to bypass the I-270 interchange.

The northbound interchange also received a reconfiguration designed to improve the flow of traffic.

ODOT also has improved sections of I-270 north and east of Grove City.

“With steady economic growth, ODOT has responded by upgrading our main arteries,” says Grove City’s longtime mayor, Richard L. “Ike” Stage.

The end of construction makes Grove City even more accessible to the region and elevates the community’s attraction as a hub for commercial activity and residential living.

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the Farmstead Development by Fischer Homes. Its 500-home development is well underway off Jackson Pike (Route 104) just north of London-Groveport Road/Route 665. That development features residences on a variety of lot sizes to accommodate everything from executive homes to smaller lots designed for buyers seeking a lower-maintenance lifestyle. The builder has set aside 66 acres— or about 30 percent of the site—for open space throughout, including a connection to and the expansion of the existing Indian Trails Park, with trails connecting Farmstead with the nearby Indian Trails neighborhood and, in conjunction with another City initiative, the Scioto Grove Metro Park. Fischer Homes also has set aside land to accommodate a future elementary school.

Other significant residential projects planned, under construction or at some stage of occupancy include: • Brown’s Farm, a development adjacent to the city’s Fryer Park, which is slated to have 110 detached condominiums from M/I Homes and 210 ranch-style apartments geared toward older adults

by Wilcox Communities; • Trail View Run, which features 77 single-family homes and 40 patio homes/ condos with an 11-acre city park; • Homestead, an occupied community adjacent to the Grove City Christian School and the Church of the Nazarene, which offers 130 independent living apartments; • Pinnacle Quarry, a planned community with 177 single-family homes by M/I Homes, 31 detached condominiums from Pinnacle Club community developer Joe Ciminello and a 10-acre city park; and • Bentley Apartments, a completed and occupied rental community from developers Fairway Realty and Metropolitan Holdings, built on the site of a former movie theater on Stringtown Road.

The City’s commitment to providing an assortment of housing makes it an attractive suburban destination for those relocating to or within the region while meeting the needs of existing residents as their lives progress from young singlehood in rental housing and single-family neighborhoods to the empty-nester and retirement stages.

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