Columbus CEO – July 2025

Early-career employees are bullish on Columbus. PAGE 33 Attorneys Embrace AI

Young Professionals

Law firms are tapping into tech to save time and money. PAGE 40

COTA’S NEW CEO

Monica Téllez-Fowler is in the driver’s seat at a critical time for the transit system. PAGE 7

State of Downtown Residency is up but much office space sits unfilled. PAGE 48

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Philanthropic planning is an important element of managing your overall legal and financial goals. As you work through tax, legal, and financial strategies, know that The Columbus Foundation—more than 80 years strong—serves as a world-class, trusted resource. Whether you’re interested in increasing your impact, decreasing your tax liability, or leaving a lasting legacy, we’re here to help.

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WHEN FINANCIAL ADVISORS ARE CROOKED,

Most financial advisors are honest. Some are not. At Meyer Wilson, we’ve been successfully representing individual investors against dishonest advisors for 25 years. We’ve done it locally. We’ve done it nationally. And we’ve built our reputation on our success. So if you know of a financial advisor who is crooked, negligent, or just plain not smart enough to do the right thing, contact us. We can help.

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YOUNG PROFESSIONALS

Cover photo by TIM JOHNSON

Photo by Tim Johnson

Elevate Cbus

The Columbus Chamber program is helping to develop future leaders.

Firm Tech

The legal industry is cautiously embracing AI to save time and money.

Health care systems are expanding to meet patient demand.

Longtime

Correction: Fortuna Bank attracted 350 shareholders and had 150 clients as of late March. Incorrect figures appeared in “Forging a New Banking Model” in the May issue.

Photo by Tim Johnson

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VOLUME 34 / NUMBER 4

GENERAL MANAGER

DISPATCH MAGAZINES

Katy Smith

EDITORIAL

EDITOR

Julanne Hohbach

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Linda Lee Baird, Lucy Clark CONTRIBUTORS

Tim Feran, Samantha Hendrickson, Laura Newpoff, Shannon Shelton Miller, Peter Tonguette

DESIGN & PRODUCTION PAGE DESIGNERS

Kathryn Biek, Kelly Hignite, Hannah Patton

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Tim Johnson

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Heather Kritter, Adam Trabitz

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Rebecca Zimmer

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Lauren Reinhard

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Columbus CEO (ISSN 1085-911X) is published six times a year by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © Gannett Co., Inc. 2025, 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. Known address of publication is 605 S. Front St., Suite 300, Columbus, Ohio 43215. Periodicals postage paid at Columbus, Ohio, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Columbus CEO, P.O. Box 460160, Escondido, CA 92046 SUBSCRIPTIONS 760-237-8505 columbusceo@pcspublink.com

Editor’s Notes

* jhohbach@ColumbusCEO.com

Taking the Pulse of Young Professionals

As baby boomers continue to age out of the workforce, employers in the Columbus region—and the nation at large—will need to step up their recruitment efforts to lure the next generation of talent.

Many companies have turned their attention to attracting and retaining young professionals, in the hopes of bringing them up through the ranks and one day elevating them into leadership roles.

Here in Central Ohio, where we are lucky to have world-class institutions of higher education graduating a steady supply of qualified candidates, that goal seems both obvious and imperative. Fortunately, it’s one that the business community at large has long taken seriously.

We decided to explore the current climate for early-career workers to find out what they think about the city and the business environment. Freelance writer Shannon Shelton Miller talked to a variety of YPs about what lured them to Columbus, why it’s a place they want to stay and what local leaders can do to ensure the region remains attractive to the next generation.

“When I looked at national trends and the cost of living here and in other cities, I knew Columbus was the place to be,” says Kendall White, president of the Columbus Urban League Young Professionals.

But in addition to low overhead, they’re also seeking amenities, transit and a sense of community. Learn more in “A Place to Make Their Mark,” starting on Page 33.

Speaking of transit, you could say it was the city’s lack of solid public transportation that lured Monica Téllez-Fowler to accept a job at the Central Ohio Transit Authority in March 2023. When a recruiter called her, she initially demurred but was intrigued by the LinkUS regional transit plan that Columbus, the MidOhio Regional Planning Commission, The Columbus Partnership and county commissioners were backing. The effort aims to transform the region’s transportation infrastructure with increased service, bus rapid transit lines, and sidewalks, trails and bike paths so riders can access their stops safely.

Two years down the road, TéllezFowler is now president/CEO of COTA, charged with implementing the ambitious $8 billion LinkUS plan. Learn how her extensive transit career prepared her for the job in “Time of Transition,” starting on Page 7.

Thanks for reading.

Julanne Hohbach Editor

PROFILE

By LAURA NEWPOFF

Time of Transition

In COTA’s $8 billion LinkUS plan, Monica

Téllez-Fowler faces an epic challenge to move transit forward in Central Ohio. A lifetime of experiences has prepared her for this moment.

Growing up in a low-income neighborhood in East Dallas in the 1980s, school wasn’t easy or fun for Monica TéllezFowler. She remembers a day when an assistant principal sat her down and told her, “You have so much potential, you have got to focus.” He encouraged her to look into a magnet school that offered enriched curricula. She applied and was accepted.

Studying at the magnet school, which required commuting on a cross-town city bus, was revelatory. Téllez-Fowler began learning about a college pathway, something that hadn’t been on her radar. She graduated early in 1992, then became the first in her family to attend and graduate college. She earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Tarleton State University and an MBA from Texas A&M University–Central Texas. She was drawn to finance because she thought it would give her life stability and ensure a steady paycheck.

Téllez-Fowler worked in accounts receivable and office management roles for a logistics firm and an engineering firm before taking a job as an accountant with the Burnet County Auditor’s Office northwest

of Austin in 2008. Not long after, her mom got sick, so she moved back to Dallas in 2010. “I found a job [as an accountant/treasury analyst] with the Denton County Transportation Authority. I felt like I’d be good at it. That was my first exposure to transit as an employee, and it didn’t take me more than a month [to realize] I had found the place I was meant to be all along.”

It helped that she was already familiar with the power of transit.

LinkUS and a Leap of Faith

In Denton County, Téllez-Fowler was able to volunteer for tasks outside her comfort zone in accounting. The agency was building a 21-mile rail line, and she managed a project to ensure ticket machines were properly installed. “It was experience and a growth opportunity,” she says.

In 2012, Téllez-Fowler was recruited to Trinity Metro in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as assistant vice president of finance; she later was named chief financial officer. While there, she oversaw the New Starts Federal Transit Administration grant application process for TEXRail, a $1 billion, 27-mile commuter line between

Monica Téllez-Fowler

President/CEO Central Ohio Transit Authority

Experience: Deputy CEO and chief operating officer, COTA; deputy CEO/treasurer, C-TRAN (Vancouver, Washington); assistant vice president of finance and CFO, Trinity Metro (Fort Worth, Texas); accountant/ treasury analyst, Denton County Transportation Authority (Texas)

Education: MBA, Texas A&M University–Central Texas; Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting and finance, Tarleton State University

Community involvement: LinkUS executive committee; board member, Rise Together Innovation Institute and Latinos in Transit

Resides: Gahanna

Family: Husband, Joe, and four adult children

by

Photo

Tim Johnson

downtown Fort Worth and the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

In 2019, she was recruited to become chief of staff for the Clark County Public Transit Benefit Area Authority (C-TRAN) in Vancouver, Washington, and subsequently was promoted to deputy CEO. She was responsible for more than $100 million in annual operations and capital budgets and represented the authority on a $3.5 billion Interstate 5 bridge replace ment megaproject across the Columbia River on the Washington-Oregon border. C-TRAN was named Outstanding Transportation System of the Year in 2019 and 2022 by the American Public Transportat ion Association.

In the summer of 2022, a recruiting firm called Téllez-Fowler about an open CFO position at the Central Ohio Transit Authority. The firm assured her that the agency had a broader role in mind and persuaded her to visit Columbus. She toured COTA facilities and the city and heard from the leadership team about LinkUS, the regional plan to bring rapid transit and other transportation options to accommodate Central Ohio’s population growth. “I bought in immediately knowing there was this project on the horizon that would essentially change the landscape of the entire Central Ohio region,” she says.

While LinkUS still needed voter approval, Téllez-Fowler was impressed with the partners that came together to develop and advocate for the plan: COTA, the city of Columbus, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, The Columbus Partnership and the Franklin County Board of Commissioners. “You had stakeholders in the community who really understood why this was so important,” Téllez-Fowler says. “I felt the dedication behind it and then the minute I came [to Columbus] and met with the people representing all those entities, I really felt that LinkUS was going to happen and we’re going to do this together.”

She joined COTA in March 2023 as chief operating officer and was named deputy CEO two months later before taking over as president/CEO in May 2024.

In November 2024, voters in Franklin and parts of four other

Téllez-Fowler with grandson Theodore on a COTA bus

Téllez-Fowler does a demonstration at the 2025 COSI Science Festival.

COTA

By

the Numbers

2024 revenue: $312.8 million

2024 ridership: 11,912,895

2023 ridership: 11,128,906

Highest yearly ridership: 19.1 million, in 2019

Number of buses: 300

Drivers: 675

Employees: 1,150

counties approved a ballot initiative to help fund LinkUS through a half-percent sales tax increase for COTA. Other funding is expected to come from federal grants and bonds. The move paves the way for the transit aut hority to implement the $8 billion plan’s goals of increasing service by 45 percent, introducing bus rapid transit (BRT) and building 500 miles of sidewalks, trails and bike paths. It is considered a transformational project, and Téllez-Fowler—the middle of three daughters who cites her mom and Mexican grandmother as role models—stands squarely in facing the challenge.

“I consider how much courage it took for my grandmother to move to the U.S. with small children in search of a better life for them,” she says. “While my mother was not able to further her education because she had to work to help make ends meet, it did not impact her courage to learn new skills. There were many struggles in both of their lives, yet they persevered knowing that a better future was possible. I think this is why I do not shy away from big things, like LinkUS or any of the other big projects I’ve been a part of.”

Boosting Hiring and Ridership

When Téllez-Fowler joined COTA, it was suffering lingering effects from the pandemic, which forced the organization to make cuts in service and staffing. One of the first things Téllez-Fowler did was ride the buses to learn the community—a practice she continues. She quickly noted there was a shortage of operators and that service could be improved.

Ridership still hasn’t recovered

Téllez-Fowler, Garth Weithman and COTA colleagues pass out seat cushions during an OSUMinnesota football game in November 2023.

from a 19.1 million passenger high in 2019, but the nearly 12 million riders in 2024 and 11.1 million in 2023 both represented year-over-year increases.

In addition to supporting three major hiring events in 2023 and 2024, Téllez-Fowler implemented the agency’s paid family leave policy and worked with Transport Workers Union Local 208 to reach what she calls a historic collective bargaining agreement approved in January 2024. The contract provides the agency’s 900 union employees with industryleading wages, a better work-life balance and enhanced insurance benefits, she says. According to The Columbus Dispatch, the contract includes pay increases of about 16 percent over three years. The pact helped COTA hire more than 250 operators last year, which essentially ended the operator shortage, Téllez-Fowler says.

“Providing better service—that’s how you drive ridership up,” she says. “We also want to remind people we are there. During the pandemic, we had to limit how many people could be on the buses. Ultimately, redesigning our system … is a great way to build ridership back up. Once that first BRT opens, you’ll see ridership really take off. I’ve never been anywhere that [has completed a bus rapid transit project] that didn’t see a ridership boost.”

Since before the pandemic, COTA leadership has made it a priority to invest in modern vehicles and give riders new ways to plan trips and pay

fares, including its Transit app and a reloadable Smartcard. The authority also created a program that gives nearly 80,000 students transit access at no cost to their families.

With the help of LinkUS, COTA plans to become a 24-hour system. Three BRT lines—West Broad Street, East Main Street and Downtown/ Dublin—are in the design phase.

Groundbreaking for the first BRT stop along the West Broad Street corridor is scheduled for the first quarter of 2026. These lines will feature dedicated transit lanes, traffic signal priority, platform-level boarding, high-capacity vehicles, modern stations and off-vehicle payment to speed up boarding.

Transportation is a critical economic driver for a region because it gives people access to employment, housing, education and healt h care. Téllez-Fowler says it was important to combine BRT with the other components of LinkUS such as sidewalks and appropriately designed bus stops to create a comprehensive infrastructure letting people to get to and from COTA service safely.

“Ask people about the favorite places they’ve been to, and they’ll tell you the transit is incredible,” she says. “That’s what we’re trying to create here.”

MORPC Executive Director William Murdock says Téllez-Fowler has focused her early work on connecting with her employees, communities, and civic and business leaders. “She’s

been out and about. All of these ‘state of the city,’ ‘state of Dublin,’ ‘state of Bexley’ events—I joke that I run into her at all of them. She’s just present,” he says. “The other piece is, she has a reputation for getting stuff done. … She’s built these [transit systems] before. So, I’m a big fan.”

Sean Mentel, a partner with Kooperman Mentel Crossley Yaross and chair of the COTA board of trustees, says LinkUS is a transformational opportunity for the region. That made it paramount to hire the right person as president/CEO after the early 2024 departure of Joanna Pinkerton, who held the post for six years.

“As [the board] talked about where we were hoping to go with LinkUS, we knew we needed somebody with expertise and experience,” Mentel says. “Monica already had a wealth of experience … including delivering on major projects as part of the federal grant application process. That, on top of seeing firsthand her ability to negotiate with the union here, made us realize we had a real asset here to move us in the right direction.”

The board voted unanimously to hire Téllez-Fowler at a base salary of $363,825.

‘She Did Whatever It Took’ People who know Téllez-Fowler describe her as someone who blends professional prowess with a personal touch.

Reena Ryall, an attorney in Vero Beach, Florida, worked with TéllezFowler at Trinity Metro and considers her a mentor. She remembers having coffee one day to talk about advancing her career. Téllez-Fowler advised her to design the job she wanted, even if it did not yet exist. Ryall created a role focused on eliminating redundancies and got the OK from leadership to implement her plans. “She truly helped me shape and put into words what I was accomplishing at work so I could turn that into a position and build a career. It’s an example of how she leads with thoughtful truth,” Ryall says.

Tom LeBeau, national market director for transit/rail at Sundt Construction Inc., met Téllez-Fowler when he was vice president of rail development at the Denton County Transportation Authority. She

considers him a mentor.

“We were the small agency that could, and she wore many hats. She did whatever it took to get the job done,” he says. “I’ve seen her put on her boots and jeans and go out and serve passengers at a rail platform when we were just turning on the system. She spent hours and hours out there with us. Then I would see her behind her desk when I’m leaving for the day in order to get contractors paid, which means a lot in the community. She’s also a very empowering person, and her leadership style is to empower key people around her.”

Shawn Donaghy, the CEO of North County Transit–San Diego Railroad, worked with Téllez-Fowler at Trinity Metro and recruited her to C-TRAN. They have remained friends. “One of the things [C-TRAN] benefitted from when we worked together was an open and honest collaborative

Joanna Pinkerton and Téllez-Fowler at the McKinley Avenue Transit Facility in March 2024

environment,” Donaghy says. “She went out of her way to make sure people in the workplace felt empowered to make the decisions they needed to make. She always believed every single person had to be unapologetically authentic when they walked through the door. The organization was trying to change the culture from previous leadership, and she was able to help us solidify what that meant to be who you are in the workspace—bring the best version of yourself at all times.

“I’ve worked with a lot of people I consider good co-workers. She is one of the few in the world I trust not only with my professional life, but with my personal life. She is everything she is billed to be. I was crazy proud to see her get [the COTA CEO] job.”

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer. This story also appears in the July 2025 issue of Columbus Monthly

Photo courtesy COTA

SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

Photo by Tim Johnson

Fresh Focus

Luxe + Lemons delivers meals to a growing customer base.

BY PETER TONGUETTE

Kat Brown wasn’t looking for a career change—she was just looking for something good to eat.

In 2018, Brown, then a young professional working in commercial real estate, found herself lacking the bandwidth to prepare the homecooked meals she had grown up with. “I was very busy and very career-focused,” says Brown, 36, who is from Grove City.

“I thought, ‘There’s got to be some kind of company out there that cooks meals and delivers them,’ ” she says. “The only local options were really geared toward performance athletes: Think roasted chicken, steamed rice, roasted asparagus. I was like, ‘That is not going to do it for me.’ ”

Inspired by her Greek family, which prized meals together, and her research into cooking healthier spins on her favorite foods, Brown began cooking for herself and her co-workers. That effort became prepared meal delivery company Luxe + Lemons.

Founded by Brown, who is also the CEO, Luxe + Lemons offers a variety of refrigerated meals that customers simply heat up. The name represents the luxury element she aims to bring to everyday customers. The focus is on healthful preparation. “It’s all the meals you want to eat, but if you go to eat them from the traditional outlets … you’re looking at double the calories, quadruple the sodium, triple the fat,” she says.

With 3,000 to 4,000 meals prepared

each week, the company is serving a hungry customer base. “About 80 percent of our customer demographic is a busy, middle- to upper-middle-class working mom,” Brown says. “She’s in upper-level management, executive or C-level in her career. She’s trying to balance it all, and she’s drowning. We are her reprieve.”

Professional coach Kim White, who worked with Brown when she was preparing to launch Luxe + Lemons, credits her mentee for identifying a need. “She could see there was a market for this,” White says. “Here’s this millennial or Gen Y generation that’s waiting to have kids, are living on their own, maybe even working a full-time job and a side hustle and may not have time to cook—yet still wants to eat healthy.”

Brown studied fashion merchandising management at Southern New Hampshire University, from which she graduated in 2016, and worked at Cameron Mitchell Restaurants prior to her stint in commercial real estate. Although Luxe + Lemons now employs an executive chef, about 95

percent of the recipes are hers—as is the attention to detail. “We’re very, very diligent about presentation,” Brown says. “I want the meal to look exactly the way it looks in the picture.”

Luxe + Lemons’ staff of 40 works out of its own private kitchen at the 1400 Food Lab incubator on Dublin Road in Marble Cliff. The company’s culture is a reflection of its product, says head of operations Melissa Blackburn. “There’s just an air of camaraderie and excitement and health and wellness,” Blackburn says. “It’s not your typical startup—we’re not sitting behind computers.”

Brown hit $2 million in annual revenue and wants to expand to other cities, starting with Cleveland and Indianapolis as early as next year. Her goal is to have a presence in at least 25 cities with $150 million in revenue within 10 years.

But she still finds inspiration in her own kitchen in Plain City. “It’s always where I find myself on my day off or in my free time,” she says.

Peter Tonguette is a freelance writer.

Kat Brown, founder and CEO of Luxe + Lemons

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Building Healthy Families

Two siblings who were longtime educators created an app to put resources at parents’ fingertips.

By SOPHIA VENEZIANO + Photo by TIM JOHNSON

Steven Shapiro and his sister, Nancy Shapiro Rapport, have spent their lives serving students. Shapiro was a teacher in Reynoldsburg City Schools before serving as the program director for Mosaic, which offers an alternative, humanities-based learning experience for high school juniors and seniors in Central Ohio. He then worked as an administrator in Bexley City Schools. Meanwhile, Shapiro Rapport was a career counselor. When they stepped away from education, they began brainstorming ways to address what they saw as a youth mental health crisis. They dreamed of creating a culture of building healthy families. “We both walked away from our 34-year careers a couple of years ago, feeling unsettled, like we still had work to do,” Shapiro Rapport says.

“So we thought, ‘Why not create a system that would allow parents to be able to identify what is most important to them, what they really want to teach their kids … what they value most and hold most to their hearts, and then help them figure out how to teach it to their kids.’ ”

The siblings began holding focus groups around Columbus. The result was “Our Family Culture,” a mobile

app designed to help families raise emotionally healthy children. “We just want to make the world a better place, one family at a time,” Shapiro Rapport says.

They hope their app, whose monthly subscription model is drawing interest from as far as Canada and Australia, will transform families and the spaces where they live and learn by reframing thinking and building communities of kindness. “We have to help people build stronger kids,” Shapiro says.

“We’re saying, don’t just wait and see. Build stronger kids now, so they have a better chance. You’ll build a happier and more connected family and a healthier community.”

With 44 “fundamentals,” or value-based modules, parents can choose their preferred areas of focus. Based on their selections, they are provided curated questions, scenarios, videos and activities that are designed to fit into what they already are doing

as parents, Shapiro Rapport says. “It’s instead of saying, ‘How was school?’ asking, ‘What was one kind thing you saw someone do for another person today?’ ” she explains.

Their hope is the change will start locally and continue to grow. “You have this practice. It’s this really slow drip, but intentional practice,” Shapiro says of Our Family Culture.

“We think if we can get good traction in families, it will actually start to change communities and change the narrative in our own city.”

This article was made possible by support from the Center for HumanKindness at The Columbus Foundation, which has partnered with Columbus CEO to profile those making our community a better place. Help us inspire kindness by suggesting people, initiatives or organizations for Reporter Sophia Veneziano to profile. She can be reached at sveneziano @dispatch.com. Learn more at ColumbusCEO.com/Kindness.

Nancy Shapiro Rapport and Steven Shapiro

CONNECTIONS

PHOTOS BY TIM JOHNSON

Top Workplaces 2025

Columbus CEO celebrated the winners of our 2025 Top Workplaces awards with a special celebration held April 16 at COSI. More than 300 guests attended the 13th annual awards event, which recognized 81 honorees.

Thank you to our longtime research partner, Energage, as well as Leadership sponsor Atlas Butler Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, Dessert sponsor Canal Winchester Schools and DJ sponsor R&T Staffing.

1 Marshall Drewry, Sarah Cox, Lauren Murdy, John Brooks, Rebecca Grissom and Dominic Brooks 2 Laurie Gill and David Voss 3 Anna Despas and Juliana Triano 4 LaMonte Monroe, Markelia Eldridge-Phillips, Julia Lyons, June DeLeo, Emerson Yepez and Janet Stephens 5 Michael McClaskey, Matt Sako, Avartar Peebles, Charles Garland and Liz Blankenship 6 Rosalyn Ransaw and Stacie Piunno 7 Sarah Townes, Jenn McCallum, Amy Card and Brian Ross 8 Heather Rush, Bethany Reid, Gary Sharpe and Tomeka Harris 9 Chris Timo, Doug Schwinne, Dave Powell and Heather Schwinne 10 Deven Baskota, Milan Rijal, Surendra Thegim and Priya Subba 11 Shiloh Stephens, Mitch Novotni, Amanda Fulwider and Monica Yanscik

BEXLEY

A SUBURBAN GROWTH SECTION

BEXLEY

WELCOME TO BEXLEY

Bexley is well known for our expansive tree canopy, historic and walkable neighborhoods, and nationally acclaimed public schools and library. Our love of lifelong learning is enriched by best-inclass private institutions like St. Charles Preparatory School, Columbus School for Girls and our community mainstay, Capital University. Though just minutes from Downtown Columbus, John Glenn Columbus International Airport and major cultural destinations, Bexley offers the sense of respite and connection found only in a small town.

But what you might not know about Bexley is that while we cherish our deeply rooted history and role as a firstring suburb of Columbus, we’re actively positioning ourselves for meaningful redevelopment as we shape a dynamic and inclusive future. Being fully builtout and landlocked challenges us to think creatively about land use, infill development and adaptive reuse—encouraging sustainable design and architectural innovation while preserving our historic fabric.

Vibrancy on Main Street continues to grow—anchored by regional draws such as the historic Drexel Theatre, Rubino’s Pizza, Gramercy Books and the original Johnson’s Real Ice Cream, and enhanced by new businesses like Katalina’s, COhatch, The Lion and many more.

At the same time, we’re welcoming catalytic projects like The Fitzgerald,

which will add over 230 apartments and much-needed commercial space to the community. We’re also committed to ensuring housing options for all income levels—working with affordable housing developers through the Bexley Community Improvement Corp. to support attainable housing opportunities. Interconnectedness and accessibility are guiding values as we look to the future. We’re working closely with COTA on the East Main Street bus rapid transit corridor, which will raise the bar and define the future of public transit in Central Ohio. Our public spaces are evolving, too—from new murals and community Adirondack chairs (in Bexley blue, of course) dotting Main Street, to major park upgrades like splash pads, a dog park and a new skate park opening soon. (A shoutout to the Bexley Community Foundation for your support of these projects and so much more!)

In Bexley, collaboration with the city and our leaders is personal. We’re small enough to give each new development and business bespoke attention, but bold enough to make a lasting impact. Whether you’re considering launching a business, developing a project or planting roots, we invite you to see Bexley not just for where we’ve come from—but for where we’re headed.

Kessler Mayor of Bexley

GENERAL MANAGER DISPATCH MAGAZINES

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advertise@columbusceo.com A Columbus CEO Suburban Growth Section

Bexley: A Columbus CEO Suburban Growth Section is published by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © Gannett Co., Inc. 2025, 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.

Ben

Photo courtesy City of Bexley

4 OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Bexley is experiencing a development boom, and there’s more opportunity on the horizon.

8 FORWARD THINKING

By focusing on long-term priorities such as sustainability and infrastructure, city leaders are setting the stage for continued success.

12 A CONNECTED COMMUNITY

Bexley aims to bring more businesses and amenities that residents crave while maintaining walkability and homebuyer appeal.

Building New Business

Bexley is experiencing a development boom, and there’s more opportunity on the horizon.

By Julanne Hohbach

Bexley is open for development, and city leaders aren’t shy about sharing that message. From a recent resurgence of businesses on East Main Street to a new mixed-use project from noted local developer Frank Kass, the scene is far from stagnant.

“We’re not just a sleepy bedroom community. There is opportunity here,” says Director of Administration and Development Megan Meyer.

Though the city isn’t blessed with an abundance of available land like many of its suburban counterparts, officials say that doesn’t mean there’s no room for business growth. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

Meyer says that careful planning efforts, including an updated Land

Use Strategy, will help the city provide new opportunities as parcels become available. “We can help guide what the future of that looks like from the city perspective and make sure that we’re staying aware of historic preservation and walkability and connectivity while also responding to what residents want,” she says.

The original 2011 Main Street recommendations included moving City Hall into the old Bexley Monk space and replacing it with a Market District grocery store. They also spurred creation of the Bexley Community Improvement Corp., as well as a strategy to remediate vacant gas stations—a goal Meyer says the city will accomplish within the next two years.

“Since 2011, the game has really changed for Bexley. The market in Central Ohio is no longer for office. We’re really seeing a boom in the need for new housing, and our updated strategy recommendations understand that. We understand, too, that there is a desire from our residents for amenities and services close to home,” she says.

“For us to make that happen in Bexley, that does mean we need to strategically plan to redevelop, and so that’s the goal of this plan is to identify areas where that is a best fit and to guide the way for that redevelopment.”

A Vibrant Main Street

Despite its modest 2.5-square-mile footprint—the city is bounded by Alum

The southeast corner of The Fitzgerald development

Creek, Delmar Drive, Gould Road and Livingston Avenue—the business scene continues to grow. Newer tenants on East Main, including Katalina’s and COhatch, complement longstanding businesses such as Gramercy Books, Urban Emporium, Giuseppe’s Ritrovo and Cherbourg Bakery, which sits just around the corner on South Drexel Avenue. “What we’re seeing … are creative, adaptive reuses of sites,” Meyer says, which increase the overall vibrancy of Main Street.

Officials say the key lies in thoughtful redevelopment projects. In recent years, the city has encouraged developers to create multifamily housing above restaurant and retail spaces.

One such project is the under-construction, mixed-use development at 2200 E. Main St. known as The Fitzgerald. Developed by Kass’ Continental Development Ventures on the site of the former Trinity Lutheran Seminary apartments, which had been owned by Capital University, city leaders hope the project is indicative of the type of development to come. The Fitzgerald will include about 230 apartments, more than 12,500 square feet of office space and 11,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, including a new location of Hudson 29 by Cameron Mitchell Restaurants.

“The Fitzgerald is a wonderful proof of concept of how you can get creative in Bexley,” Meyer says. “The Fitzgerald is truly illustrative of what our code allows and exactly what type of quality redevelopment Bexley is looking to do into the future.”

Kass, a Bexley native, has undertaken two other significant ventures in his hometown: the Market District-City Hall project and the Gramercy Building. “Bexley is the quintessential urban inner ring suburb that you don’t find empty land and empty lots. You have to redo something,” he says.

The developer says he’s been happy to contribute to economic development in the city. “Main Street has just developed beautifully,” Kass says.

“[Bexley is] just a great place to live. The housing market is strong because of the schools, in part, because of the trees and the neighborhoods where the houses don’t all look alike, and you’re close to everything, whether it’s the

airport or Easton or Downtown.”

Gramercy Books founder and owner Linda Kass is among the small business owners who have found success here. Her shop is on the ground floor of the building where she and her husband, Frank, live.

She praises the city for the work it has done creating parking and the landscape islands that slow traffic while enhancing aesthetics, which benefit all Main Street businesses.

Linda Kass says the city is an ideal location for Gramercy because the community places a high value on education. The bookstore is able to partner with the Bexley Public Library and other businesses, including the Drexel Theatre and Giuseppe’s Ritrovo, for its author visits.

“I think it’s really special to have a local bookstore in a community because it is another gathering place, and I think that Bexley is such a special community itself. There’s just so many things

that exist for families and residents to partake in that it’s another addition to that very special milieu that is Bexley,” she says.

Support System

The city makes a concerted effort to support both new and existing businesses, including through a façade improvement grant program. Its efforts are complemented by the Bexley Area Chamber of Commerce. Executive Director Bryan Drewry says his organization aims to aid businesses with a variety of needs, including helping them find space, offering promotion and support, providing money-saving programs and creating a robust programming lineup, including a breakfast series, happy hour and women in business events. “We’re really trying to be very proactive with our businesses,” he says.

In May, the chamber, the city and the Franklin County Board of Commissioners partnered on a new Ignite Growth economic summit for the east side of Columbus. The goal, Drewry says, was not only to help businesses gain important insights, but also for local officials to learn about the challenges facing these companies and to find ways to support them.

The chamber also created a new initiative to help businesses with needs such as equipment and storefront improvements. In its first year, it bestowed two awards totaling about $7,000. “We

Katalina’s on East Main Street

Cherbourg Bakery

Photo courtesy Raquib Ahmed

BEXLEY

gave them money as a grant program to help them increase their business,” Drewry says.

On the Horizon

As Bexley officials look to the future, one possible area of growth lies on university-owned land along Alum Creek, away from the core campus. “We’ve been in discussions there with what [do] the city map or long-term plans look like,” says Capital President Dave Kaufman, who will conclude a five-year tenure when he retires at the end of July. “There could be some interesting opportunities with that land.

“There’s things looking five to 10 years out that potentially could benefit both Bexley and Capital,” he says. “If you look at our updated footprint, we’ve identified that for potential development.”

Kaufman says since he arrived at Capital in 2020, the school has enjoyed a strong relationship with the city, and he and Mayor Ben Kessler talk regularly. “We’re good neighbors both ways,” he says. “We’ve kind of had an informal principle that whatever happens on Main Street is in [the] best interest of both of us.”

After all, development on Main Street

benefits Bexley residents, as well as Capital faculty, staff and students. And the university itself is an economic driver. When coming to Capital, Kaufman considered its economic impact on Central Ohio. “There was a study done a few years ago, and it came out to be about $170 million a year … so Capital is a significant contributor to the local economy,” he says.

The city and Capital partner on community events, including hosting the Fourth of July celebration on campus, and the university works with Bexley City Schools on shared athletic fields and other efforts, Kaufman says. “It’s been a really, really strong partnership.”

Beyond possible development opportunities with Capital, several other projects are on the horizon for the city, including redevelopment of the former gas station at Chelsea Avenue and East Main. Meyer says the city is working collaboratively with the owner to remediate the site. “We’re looking to the future to have that site be a welcoming, and I think better-fitting, entrance to Bexley for those traveling west,” Meyer says.

Progress is happening on the city’s northern end, too. “The Bexley CIC has acquired property on Cassady Avenue

and is working to redevelop that corridor as thoughtfully as we are developing parts of Main Street, recognizing that that is a major drive-through for people,” Meyer says.

This will include streetscape improvements and potentially restaurant or retail spots, in addition to a mixeduse development featuring affordable housing and a new senior center.

“We are trying to drive more foot traffic and business to all of our commercial corridors, not just Main Street, to strengthen the vibrancy of all that we’ve got, whether that’s Cassady, Main or Livingston,” Meyer says.

The Gramercy Building

COhatch

BEXLEY

Forward Thinking

By focusing on long-term priorities such as sustainability and infrastructure, city leaders are setting Bexley up for continued success.

By Emma Frankart Henterly

No one can predict the future, but with careful planning, Bexley’s city leaders, business owners and residents are shaping a promising tomorrow for themselves and generations to come. Sustainability and accessibility serve as throughlines for nearly all of Bexley’s plans, with forward-thinking initiatives that address everything from climate change to population growth.

Leading by Example

Bexley is no stranger to “green” innovations: According to city leaders, it was the first community in Central Ohio to offer citywide curbside service for recycling (1990) and composting (2019). The city began purchasing renewable energy to power facilities, streetlights

and traffic lights in 2017—the same year it announced the Bexley Zero Waste Plan, a long-term strategy to reduce landfill use by 90 percent by 2040.

“We hope to see more cities prioritize environmental sustainability,” says Sustainability Programs Coordinator Elizabeth Ellman. “We feel it’s a team effort, and it’s something that we are all compelled to do.”

More recently, Bexley launched a universal recycling program that requires commercial, institutional and multifamily properties to have a recycling contract, which the city helped negotiate. The rate, Ellman says, is lower than what many organizations could have secured on their own.

And in 2025, the city renewed its

electric aggregation contract with Dynegy to supply affordable clean energy for residents through their existing service provider. Electric vehicle support is also a priority, with new EV charging stations at Schneider and Jeffrey parks and Drexel and Cassady avenues, joining three already installed at City Hall.

“Right now, we are working on a Sustainability Action Plan to encapsulate the goals we already have and more,” Ellman says. “We’re trying to take a broad view of many aspects of sustainability and funnel it down … to make this plan as user-friendly as possible.” The document incorporates community feedback and more will be sought later this year before being presented to Bexley City Council for approval.

The Bexley Farmers Market is a mainstay of summer.

“Many residents desire to help take care of our planet and those living on it; there’s additional camaraderie among neighbors who participate in our programs and a sense of community helping each other,” Ellman notes, citing as examples resident-led initiatives such as Love Your Alley, a code-enforcement-turned-native-plant-education program, and Circular Thrift, which focuses on reducing textile waste through mending, recirculation and recycling.

Businesses are getting in on the action, too. This year, Kittie’s Café and Swonderful Times Café joined the Okapi Reusables coffee cup rental program. Sustainability is a passion for Kittie’s owners Steve and Diane Herman, so when the Central Ohio Reuse Coalition contacted them about partnering with Okapi, “it fit right in with what we do,” Diane Herman says.

Participants can borrow up to two cups for up to two weeks at a time before returning them to any participating business—currently seven in Central Ohio—to be sanitized. “It’s a really nice program to help encourage people to reuse,” Herman says. “Our planet, our communities—it’s everyone’s responsibility.”

This mindset in Bexley starts young, with an education program that Ellman describes as “one of the most impactful ways we make a difference.”

Each month, 500 students in grades 1, 4 and 7 learn about a different aspect of environmental sustainability.

“Youth will be the most impacted by the climate crisis,” Ellman says. “They deserve to know how to build a more sustainable future for themselves.”

Safety and Accessibility

At just under 2.5 square miles, Bexley is primed for walkability—and city leaders prioritize it in infrastructure projects.

“We’re installing medians to make a more walkable and bike-friendly community,” says Service Department Director Andy Bashore. “Even our [traffic] lights on Main Street, I have them set to max out for pedestrian crossings.”

Safety is paramount, and Bashore is also installing rapid flashing beacons and orange crossing flags at unprotected intersections used by children walking to school.

Wayfinding signage is a key goal for bikeability, Bashore notes; Ellman adds that the 2021 Bike Friendly Bexley plan also recommends education and infrastructure like increased parking, fix-it stations, pavement markings and more.

While new initiatives tend to get the most attention, Bexley doesn’t let less-glamorous aspects of future planning fall by the wayside. Bashore notes that annual infrastructure projects

proactively tackle upkeep for streets, sidewalks, sewer lines and more.

Other efforts, such as the Joint Livingston Avenue Plan—a partnership with the City of Columbus to improve aesthetics and driver and pedestrian safety along a busy corridor with high accident rates—focus on immediate infrastructure improvements and future development plans to ensure accessible roadways.

Bicycle riders pass by the Drexel Theatre.

BEXLEY

Moving Forward, Together

Bexley isn’t content to work in a silo when it comes to accessible public transportation, either. In November 2024, 68 percent of its residents backed Issue 47, the sales tax levy whose passage will support Central Ohio Transit Authority expanded operations and fund a new regional LinkUS transit plan.

LinkUS “represents a transformative investment in transit,” says Bexley resident and COTA board of trustees member Kumi Walker, who notes that the region’s desirability and resulting population increase call for a proactive approach. “Transportation and housing are really important things to invest in ahead of growth … so we can avoid or at least mitigate some of the affordability challenges that loom ahead.”

Among other service and infrastructure improvements, LinkUS will introduce five new bus rapid transit lines with traffic signal priority; high-capacity, zero-emission vehicles; dedicated

transit lanes and more. In Bexley, the city’s East Main Street corridor will be upgraded with a BRT station.

“You can’t really use transit if it’s not reliable,” Walker says. “At COTA, a big thing that we’ve talked about a lot is ‘moving every life forward.’ ” He notes that while not everyone relies on COTA to get around, plenty of Central Ohioans do—and increasing ridership

has benefits for non-riders in the form of reduced roadway congestion and parking demand.

“Great transportation—you feel it if you’re in a community that has it, and you especially feel it if you’re in a community that does not,” Walker says.

“At its core, it’s about access; it’s about affordability; it’s about making sure that everyone has opportunities.”

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Bexley police at a community event

Community Connections

Bexley aims to bring more businesses and amenities that residents crave while maintaining its beloved walkability and homebuyer appeal.

By Peter Tonguette

When Mike Davis moved from New York City to Bexley in 2020, he had a mostly favorable impression of the Central Ohio suburb: It was a wonderful place to live and work, but perhaps lacking a sense of its own potential for economic development.

“I kind of quickly realized there wasn’t much to do in Bexley past 9 p.m.,” says Davis, who saw an untapped market for commercial expansion that could capitalize on the city’s best qualities, especially its dense population and walkability.

“I think Bexley is going through this reinvigoration,” he says. “I looked at that and said, ‘I need to scratch my own itch and create something that I would like to go to.’ ”

Four years later, Davis—the co-owner of Bexley Hospitality—opened The Lion, a cocktail bar that doubles as a coffee shop. “Things are going great,” he says. “What we thought about the community—the people that live here, this pent-up demand—is kind of coming to fruition.”

The success of The Lion, which opened its doors in September 2024, is just one example of how Bexley is growing and evolving to meet residents’ needs. Not content to rest on the city’s reputation and unique heritage, leaders work hard to position it as a place that draws newcomers, residents and businesses alike.

Mayor Ben Kessler touts the city’s “knowability.” “It’s a human-scale

city,” Kessler says. “You can know your neighbors. You could go out into the community, you can bump into people in the grocery store. … It’s large enough that you’re going to find a social group that works for you. It’s small enough that you feel very connected and a part of that community.”

Kessler says officials have been intentional about redevelopment, especially given the city’s compact size and limited business space. “Along Main Street, along North Cassady and along Livingston, on our southern border, are the areas where we have capacity for commercial redevelopment,” he says, noting the city is working on an update of its 2011 Land Use Strategy plan.

Local leaders would like to fill specific

Children at the Fourth of July parade

gaps in the commercial sector, notably in health care. “We want to get much more intentional on encouraging a medical office in Bexley,” Kessler says. “You could say we’re in a little bit of a desert as it pertains to primary-care providers, OB-GYN and pediatrics.” He also sees a hunger for small co-working spaces, as well as additional sit-down restaurants; market research suggests that three more could be added.

Many such ideas are developed at the ground level. “It goes as granular as we hear from a lot from residents who would love a Mexican sit-down restaurant,” Kessler says. “We are subtly and actively trying to figure out how we can match-make that sort of a space.”

Kessler and others would like to add to the city’s retail sector, whose growth has historically been limited by the abundance of institutional land users, including Capital University, schools and places of worship—a strength of the city but also a challenge in redevelopment. “You have this burst of retail energy on one side of [East Main Street], but across the street is a much more passive zone,” he says. “We’re always trying to figure out how we make this more continuously active.” Going forward, he would like to see commerce on both sides of the street. “It’s always going to be small for now,” he says. “It’s going to be a little more boutiquey.”

One thing that won’t change, however, is the city’s grid layout, which is attractive to both business and residents because it encourages foot traffic throughout Bexley. “That grid really does reinforce the connectedness of the community,” Kessler says.

Going Beyond Curb Appeal

Bexley has long been a sought-after destination for homebuyers, not only for the quality and mix of housing options but also the city’s efforts to create an attractive, livable community. It is a 35-year Tree City USA participant, and in 2013 it became the first municipal arboretum accredited by the Morton Register of Arboreta.

“Bexley is certainly a unique opportunity for someone who doesn’t want to live in a huge city, who wants a good school system, who wants to live in an arboretum, who wants to live in a community where we believe in helping

the environment,” says Realtor Sheila Straub of Coldwell Banker Realty, who is also the chair of the Bexley Community Foundation.

The city’s educational abundance, including Capital, Bexley City Schools, Columbus School for Girls and St. Charles Preparatory School, is one of its most distinctive attributes. “That is always going to be one of the core cornerstones of what drives the appeal of our Bexley community,” Kessler says.

Jason Fine, superintendent of Bexley City Schools, cites the importance of a supportive environment that is welcoming to all. “People here genuinely look out for one another, and that spirit shines in our schools and beyond. We often talk about being champions of curiosity, kindness and equity—and what’s remarkable is how those values show up not just in classrooms, but in every

corner of the community.”

The mature and well-maintained real estate stock is an undeniable attraction. “Houses are close together enough that you can really get to know your neighbors, and [they] have real architectural integrity to them and patina,” Kessler says. “You can’t just up and build a community that has the historic character from scratch.”

Even so, leaders aim to make living in Bexley more attainable through the city’s first-ever affordable housing permits, encompassing one development across two sites on North Cassady and East Livingston avenues. The Community Builders Inc. and the Bexley Community Improvement Corp. are partnering on the project. Although the apartments will be open to all age groups, the expectation is that the oneto three-bedroom residences will appeal

The Capital University gateway

An artist at work during Mural Fest

BEXLEY

to senior citizens. “They are going to be much more affordable to someone than a mortgage on a single-family home in Bexley,” Kessler says. “We see that as another way that we can help broaden the entrance to the community.”

Increasing socioeconomic diversity is a priority in the city. “We want to make sure that we continue to be accessible to a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds,” the mayor says.

The city has invested in its parks system in part through major improvements at Schneider Park, a one-time industrial dumpsite that now features a community garden, athletic fields, a splash pad and a playground. “We took an area of land that was just not utilized in any way, shape or form,” says Recreation and Parks Director Michael Price. “Now it’s a gem for us.”

Other improvements are on the horizon. A new pedestrian and bike bridge will facilitate connectivity from the park to Alum Creek Greenway Trail, and a skate park, slated to begin construction in

the fall, will draw more middle and high school students into the park system.

“The mayor and I went and talked to students at the school system to say, ‘What do you want in your park system?’ ” Price says. “We continued to hear, ‘Skate park, skate park, skate park.’ ”

The Recreation and Parks Department also encourages connections through community celebrations.

Annual outdoor events include the autumn-themed Harvest Festival at Jeffrey Park and a movie series on the campus of Capital. The Fourth of July celebration is a magnet for current and former residents. Leaders also encourage residents to hold neighborhood get-togethers by offering block party kits.

“We truly believe in the value of what bringing people together does, whether it’s a street or the entire city,” Price says. “The amount of rentals of that block party kit lets us know that neighborhoods are doing these block parties again. That’s been a really positive thing.”

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The Bexley Public Library

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A Place to Make Their Mark

Columbus remains a draw for young professionals who seek career opportunities combined with a competitive cost of living, amenities and a system of support.

BY SHANNON SHELTON MILLER

After graduating from Wittenberg University in 2014, Westerville native Rachel Ross didn’t envision returning to Central Ohio for at least 10 years. She’d just joined the commercial banking leadership program at Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati and was looking forward to living in different cities during the two-year rotational training period.

Her last rotation was in Columbus. At the end of those two years, she was calling the area her home—again.

“Because of the energy I felt with the team in Central Ohio, how they wrapped their arms around me and wanted me to get connected with the community, I came back to Columbus a lot sooner than I thought,” says Ross, 32. “It was all because of what I felt with the team members here and how inclusive this community is.”

Ross, who now lives in Hilliard and works as a middle market lender in Fifth Third’s commercial banking business, has become part of the region’s efforts to welcome young professionals to Columbus and invest in their long-term success. She’s a past chair of the Fifth Third Bank Young Professionals Business Resource Group, a leader with Young ACG Columbus (a subcommittee of the Association for Corporate Growth Columbus chapter) and a member of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission Emerging Leaders Board.

Public- and private-sector leaders in nearly all major U.S. cities have developed initiatives to attract and retain the “young professional” demographic—roughly defined as individuals in their early 20s to early

or mid-40s—viewing the group as key to a thriving economy.

According to data released in December by the U.S. Census Bureau from the American Community Survey, of the 2.2 million residents living in the Columbus metropolitan statistical area at the end of 2023, 35.6 percent were between the ages of 20-44.

Many who chose Columbus initially as an early-career stop say the connections they’ve found here have encouraged them to stay.

“Columbus was different,” says Ross, who also lived in Dallas during her rotational program. “I would meet with somebody here, and they would instantly say, ‘I want to introduce you to five of my other connections I think you’d hit it off with.’ Even though I was meeting with people who might July 2025 • ColumbusCEO 33

Photo by Tim Johnson

Kendall White, president of Columbus Urban League Young Professionals

be competitors, everyone was trying to help me get to where I needed to be.”

Brian Blankenship, an Ohio State University graduate originally from Cleveland, had a stroke of good fortune when he visited the Fifth Third branch where he banked and mentioned he was job hunting. It was 2008, and he’d just earned a degree in finance during one of the bleakest periods in the 2000s to be looking for work.

He says he was interviewed on the spot and hired as a teller. Now 39 and working as a branch manager in Lewis Center, he co-chairs the young professionals business resource group at the bank that Ross once led. Just as others had connected Ross to resources, she was able to do the same for Blankenship.

“I remember meeting Rachel the first time, and she introduced me to other members,” Blankenship says. “I knew I wanted to run the group one day, and now we’re working on offering the same opportunities for other young professionals here and making sure we’re helping them with their development plans and building mentor-mentee relationships.”

Derek Grosso, who grew up in New York and went to college in Washington, D.C., says he also found a sense of community when he moved to Columbus in 2005 and created the Columbus Young Professionals Club. Even as the city has grown over the past 20 years, he still sees it as a place where young professionals can thrive and build their futures.

“What I found with folks who are not from here, they’re looking to carve their path,” Grosso says. “They’re looking to make their mark. When our organization was founded, it was to give people a sense of community to be able to not just find themselves but find their place and purpose. Columbus is a magnet for a number of these reasons. … There’s a lot of synergy with the amenities here that draw not only young people to the region, but all newcomers in general.”

COLLABORATION AS CURRENCY

That magnet pulled in Kendall White, 28, who moved from Cincinnati to Columbus to attend Ohio Dominican University and decided to stay after his 2018 graduation. He was actively involved in campus organizations,

serving as a peer adviser, Black Student Union president and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity member, and wanted to stay engaged in the community he now considered home.

Some of his community service efforts attracted attention from members of the Columbus Urban League Young Professionals, an auxiliary group of the Columbus Urban League. Within a few years, he was elected vice president and now serves as president of the organization.

“When I looked at national trends and the cost of living here and in other cities, I knew Columbus was the place to be,” says White, who is currently job hunting. He most recently worked as deputy director for the nonprofit organization Ohioans to Stop Executions and is second vice president of Ohio Young Black Democrats. “I’ve been able to develop professional skills and gain leadership opportunities here. … I try to highlight to people I meet that Ohio is a state of opportunities.”

Stories like Ross’ and White’s were what Grosso envisioned when he looked at demographic trends 20 years ago and recognized the fertile landscape for young professionals to thrive in Columbus. He oversaw the growth of the CYP Club to what’s now a 20,000-member organization representing 1,000 local employers, from larger corporations to smaller startups, nonprofits, government and school districts. The club collaborates with up to 150 business members, called “friends of the club,” and about 30 to 40 corporate partners on everything from leadership programs to recreational sports leagues.

Despite being the 15th-most-populous city in the U.S., Grosso thinks Columbus’ “hidden gem” status of decades ago still holds true for many new arrivals. Creating connections across the area has been key to keeping them here.

“I think that that’s one of the things that contributes to the ‘aha’ factor, because people don’t really know Columbus,” Grosso says. “It’s not just the Buckeyes, it’s not just Ohio State. Whether it’s New Albany, Gahanna, Bridge Park in Dublin, Franklinton or German Village, you have all these nice little pockets that people can discover, and unfortunately, a lot of people don’t always discover them.

That’s where we wanted to come in, because a lot of what we try to do is build that sense of community through the club.”

Columbus has long been well positioned for growth as other Midwest cities faced population decline through the loss of manufacturing jobs. With Central Ohio serving as a hub for banking, insurance and other sectors, it developed a service-based economy that helped insulate the region from national economic downturns that caused hardships elsewhere.

Those factors helped make the area an attractive place for young professionals to consider as a permanent home, says Andrew Kingery, founder and CEO of the White Stone Consulting Group, which works in leadership training and other areas.

As facilitator of Elevate Cbus, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce’s career development program, Kingery is well versed in the hiring landscape and what employers are doing to hire and retain young talent. He also cites strong public-private partnerships, lower costs of living compared to comparable-sized cities and a lack of overly political polarization as part of the area’s appeal.

“Having lived in New York, maybe I could get 30 minutes of time from somebody,” Kingery says. “Here, it’s quite easy to get an hour with someone, and I think people here are more accommodating, and you pick up a little more of the ‘Midwest nice.’ You still have a lot of people here driven to high performance—just because they’re kind doesn’t mean they’re any less astute or high performing in the business world.”

Kingery says there’s a spirit of support in Columbus, a feeling Edsha Jones, 34, recognized when she reached out for assistance in 2024 to grow her business.

Besides a short stint in Toledo for college, Jones has called Columbus home her entire life. Growing up on the North Side, she planned to become an aeronautical engineer but found more joy in styling hair. She eventually decided her hobby was her vocational calling and has been a licensed cosmetologist for 17 years. Her business, the Luxury Hair Lab, specializes in hair extensions.

As much as she loved the freedom of having her own business, Jones knew she needed support to sustain her company as a “solopreneur.” In 2023, she joined the Columbus Urban

League Young Professionals. There, she met other members who offered guidance on certifying her business as a woman-owned, minority-owned enterprise, and helped her build platforms to teach other stylists how to grow their businesses.

“Trying to do everything on my own really held me back,” Jones says. “One of my friends and I always say collaboration is the new currency. It’s a way to get things done on a higher level. You never know who wants to be a part of your success story.”

WHAT TODAY’S YPS WANT

Columbus hasn’t been immune to the challenges other areas have faced in keeping young professionals. While the cost of living still falls below that of similarly sized cities on the coasts or in Chicago, an affordable housing shortage threatens to prevent entry-level professionals from putting down roots. The need for more mass transit options has long been cited as an issue as well, which COTA’s regional LinkUS transit initiative aims to address (see “Time of Transition,” Page 7).

The ongoing debate about remote work and return to office could also shape young professionals’ decisions.

“If it’s more than two days a week, that’s where I’m seeing a lot of clients struggle,” Kingery says. “You want to work hard to build a team culture, but if employees are remote more than two days a week and you don’t know your people very well, you haven’t built that culture yet. We have to make sure we’re leveraging remote work to everyone’s advantage—we can use the technology we have by letting people be more productive because they can focus more at home, or they can be close to family when somebody’s sick or take time to run errands.”

Kingery agrees more affordable housing is needed but says Columbus’ business infrastructure remains solid despite changing economic conditions. “Logistically, you can reach 80 percent of the U.S. population in two days of shipping from Columbus,” he says. “We’re well positioned for the e-commerce economy, which is a big win for us, and we’ll have to know how to adapt in the future for something else that will come, such as changes in technology with AI. I’m bullish on this city and this area because the people are outstanding, and I think that’s what really makes a difference.”

White, the Columbus Urban League Young Professionals president, says he believes the state is facing a critical juncture in terms of retaining young professionals, but it also has an opportunity. With layoffs and budget cuts across all sectors this year, he’s seeing more of his peers losing jobs and returning to Ohio from places like Washington, D.C. Providing them with more career development and leadership opportunities could be key to keeping them here.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re Black, white, purple or green; there’s often nobody under 30 in those rooms of leadership,” White says. “We need to keep young talent in the state. We want to make sure we’re the next ones chosen for the next position, whether it’s deputy director or CEO. We need and want those opportunities.”

And even as White continues his own job search, he sees his future in Columbus. “I can’t leave right now,” he says. “I have so many resources and know so many people willing to help.”

Shannon Shelton Miller is a freelance writer.

Participants in a Caffeinated Career Chat for young professionals held in April at Fifth Third Bank’s office in Downtown Columbus (from left): Brian Blankenship, Sean Simon, Rachel Ross and Bettina Byrd

Photo courtesy Fifth Third Bank

Leading the Way

The Columbus Chamber’s Elevate Cbus initiative helps professionals advance their careers through a six-month leadership development program.

Many employees have a strong desire to improve their skills and get better at their jobs. Often, they are among an organization’s top performers.

Central Ohio has a variety of workforce development options, including those offered by colleges and universities, trade associations and for-profit companies. Nonprofit business organizations also are contributing training opportunities, including the Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber’s Elevate Cbus program, which started in 2019, is designed to equip professionals with communication and leadership skills they can use to advance their careers. The six-month development initiative is facilitated by Andrew Kingery, founder and CEO of the White Stone Consulting Group. While many participants are young professionals, Elevate Cbus is open to workers at any career stage.

In partnership with the chamber, Columbus CEO is recognizing the two most recent Elevate Cbus cohorts, who participated in the program over the last year. Information in this story was submitted to the chamber by the participants during their session. Read on to see who participated, and—for a bit of fun—what their favorite local restaurants are.

10TH COHORT

January to June 2025

Nikki Adkins Director of operations, A Plus Staffing

Favorite local restaurant: Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse

Cory Aycock Dispatch supervisor, IMC Co.

Favorite local restaurant: Tacos and Beer

LJ Boggs Account specialist, Columbus Chamber of Commerce

Favorite local

restaurant: La Tavola

Christine Boucher Director, Columbus Region Logistics Council, Columbus Chamber of Commerce

Favorite local restaurant: Any diner, but I love Delaney’s Diner!

Blaique Brown

Litigation associate, Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Favorite local restaurant: Modern Southern Table

Nyota Brown Records and risk manager, FST

The Downtown Columbus skyline along the Scioto River

Photo by Doral Chenoweth/Columbus Dispatch

Logistics Inc.

Favorite local restaurant: Vaso

Nina Cannon

Property accounting manager, Crawford Hoying

Favorite local restaurant: Texas Roadhouse

Savannah Cannon

Senior HR coordinator, CASTO

Favorite local restaurant: Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant

Molly Chapman

Marketing coordinator, Danis

Favorite local restaurant: Did not disclose

Brenden Colopy

Consultant, CGI

Favorite local restaurant: Did not disclose

Nicholas D'Andrea

Executive director, We Amplify Voices

Favorite local restaurant: Moretti’s

Brian Davis

Owner/founder, The Clean Plate Club

Favorite local restaurant: Huli Huli Tiki Lounge

Danny De Los

Santos

Assistant project manager, The Ruhlin Co.

Favorite local restaurant: Joyas

Patrick Dewey

Consultant – software engineer, CGI

Favorite local restaurant: Paulie Gee’s

Anthony DiMichele

Virtual CIO/senior network architect, EasyIT

Favorite local restaurant: The Avenue Steak Tavern

Charbel El Berry

Assistant controller, the W.W. Williams Co.

Favorite local restaurant: Kitchen Social

Clare Fibbi

Mechanical/biomechanics consultant, S-E-A Ltd.

Favorite local restaurant: Graeter’s

Heather Gillespie

Associate creative director, TENFOLD LLC

Favorite local restaurant: Brassica

Dalton Hartley

Associate director of carrier sales, FST Logistics

Favorite local restaurant: Firebirds Wood Fired Grill

Dawn Koch Procurement manager, Central Ohio Transit Authority

Favorite local restaurant: The Guild House

Justin Meek

Project manager, Berglund Construction

Favorite local restaurant: The Avenue Steak Tavern

Aaron Meese

Project manager,

Dupler Office

Favorite local restaurant: Did not disclose

Drew Miller

Senior project manager, Skilken Gold

Favorite local restaurant: Harvest Bar + Kitchen, Clintonville

Bill Mullett

Senior project manager, Ruscilli Construction Co.

Favorite local restaurant: [I] don’t have a favorite as I like to try different places.

Breanne Parker

HR business partner, CASTO

Favorite local restaurant: Fukuryu Ramen

Laurie Radeloff

Senior account manager, Dawson

Favorite local restaurant: Lindey’s

Ethan Ridgeway

Senior financial analyst, the W.W. Williams Co.

Favorite local restaurant: Kitchen Social

Maureen Robins Office manager, Cardinal Transportation Ltd.

Favorite local restaurant: Melting Pot

James Sanderson

Purchasing manager, Together & Co.

Favorite local restaurant: Paulie Gee’s

Hayley Schechter

Property accounting manager, Crawford Hoying

Favorite local restaurant: Cento

Amber Shafer Design manager, Loth Inc.

Favorite local restaurant: Kitchen Social

Josh Shipley

Senior event designer, Together & Co.

Favorite local restaurant: Lindey’s

Emily Spitzer

Bid excellence manager, DHL

Supply Chain

Favorite local restaurant: Harvest Pizzeria

Terri Stevenson Program manager, Columbus Urban League

Favorite local restaurant: Eddie Merlot’s

Kelsey Strope Business development specialist, A Plus Staffing Solutions

Favorite local restaurant: Veritas

Siana Talley

Head of fraud operations strategy, Discover Financial Services

Favorite local restaurant: Flavor 91 Bistro

Londale Towns Therapist, We Amplify Voices

Favorite local restaurant: SuperChef’s (now closed)

Insights & Advice

Some Elevate Cbus participants agreed to answer questions from Columbus CEO offering career pointers to other professionals.

Dalton Hartley, FST Logistics

Best career advice? Focus on building a network around your pursuit.

Justin Meek, Berglund Construction

Best career advice? Setting specific, realistic goals for yourself is key in progressing as a professional. Clearly defined goals act as a sort of compass, guiding your choices and informing your decisions. If you have no compass, you’re likely to end up wandering aimlessly.

Colin Evans, CGI

Best career advice? Feedback is a continuous process. Don’t just wait until you have to, always be seeking feedback on what you can do better, or what you’re already doing well so that you know what you can work on.

Paige Wietholter, Loth Inc.

Best career advice? My best career advice is to seek mentorship in unexpected places and think creatively about networking. You never know when the “”right” person will come along to get you to the next stage of your career.

Christine Boucher, Columbus Chamber of Commerce

Best career advice? Don’t burn your bridges. And, because I believe in manifestation, I strongly encourage young professionals to not hold back if there is something they want in their career, whether that is a job with a particular company, to further their education, or a position that they are wanting to move towards in their journey, let someone know. Put it out in the universe. It doesn’t mean it will happen right away, but you never know.

Bill Mullett, Ruscilli Construction Co.

Best career advice? My next steps are becoming a project executive by title. But really what I am looking for is to become a better leader and role model to peers and other staff. Becoming a trusted advisor and teacher to others to allow them to do better and grow themselves. To me, a leader isn’t just a person that manages and makes sure people do what they are supposed to do but someone that gets them able to make decisions on their own. Also getting staff to understand policies and procedures to allow them to buy in and be more successful as an organization.

Ciara Walker

IT procurement administrator,

Central Ohio

Transit Authority

Favorite local restaurant: Lindey’s

Paige Wietholter

Senior workplace consultant, Loth Inc.

Favorite local restaurant: Tucci’s

9TH COHORT

July to December 2024

Macie Adams

Corporate trainer, Palmer-Donavin

Favorite local restaurant: Local Cantina

Mercedes Aviles Marketing coordinator, Pixel Park

Favorite local restaurant: Comune

Matt Bogan

restaurant: Brassica or Eastern Bay Chinese

Chris Cooper

Project manager, Ruscilli Construction Co.

Favorite local restaurant: Atlas Tavern

Crockett Crow

Senior associate, First Merchants Bank

Favorite local restaurant: The Avenue or The Pearl

Colin Evans Consultant, CGI

Favorite local restaurant: Local Cantina

Grace Figliomeni

Sales manager, Freedom a la Cart

Favorite local restaurant: Third & Hollywood

designer, Dupler Office

Favorite local restaurant: What’s the occasion?

Brunch: Goood

Friends at Jackie O’s. Don’t feel like cooking: Cap City.

Special occasion: It’s a tie between Ocean Club and Jeff Ruby’s.

Morgan Griffith Customer growth coordinator, Crimson Cup

Favorite local restaurant: High Bank Distillery

Kristen Haer Project manager, Wendy’s Quality Supply Chain Co-Op Inc.

Favorite local restaurant: Wendy’s

Stephanie Hall

compliance director, Community Shelter Board

Favorite local restaurant: Depends on the day, and I’m still making my way around but generally any place that serves comfort foods or has really creative dishes. Joyas in Worthington is amazing.

Hailey Kimmel Recruiting lead, Dawson

Favorite local restaurant: The Avenue

Karen Landino Office and events coordinator, Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Favorite local restaurant: Domo

Audit manager, Schneider Downs

Brea Galvin

Senior insurance sales professional, Sylvia A. Garrett & Associates Agency

Favorite local restaurant: Roosters

Loni Boothe

Senior operations manager, CaaStle

Favorite local restaurant: Lindey’s

Ashley Bring

Senior business development, Heapy

Favorite local restaurant: Brassica

Samuel Brody-Boyd Marketing manager, Lower Lights Health

Favorite local

Retail marketing and sales manager, Crimson Cup

Favorite local restaurant: Marcella’s

Tavaunte Gibson Office administrator, Uniglobe Travel Designers

Favorite local restaurant: Terita’s Pizza

Stephanie Gohring Account Manager, PSI

Favorite local restaurant: Texas Roadhouse

Melissa Goines Senior interior

Favorite local restaurant: The Pearl

Corinne Hardwick Senior associate, Rea & Associates

Favorite local restaurant: Bistrolino (now closed)

Erica Howard Director of leadership programs, Columbus Young Professionals Club

Favorite local restaurant: Cap City Fine Diner and Bar

Kirstin Jones Grants and

Sarah Lazzaro Human resources manager, CASTO Favorite local restaurant: Local Cantina

Lindsey Michel OTR dispatch manager, FST Logistics

Favorite local restaurant: Emilio’s

Alecea Nichols Office manager, Lead the Way

Learning Academy

Favorite local restaurant: Condado Tacos

Aaliyah Phounsavath

Marketing specialist, Columbus Chamber of Commerce

Favorite local restaurant:

Brassica, Barcelona, Brown Bag Deli, Loops, Jasmine’s Thai & Sushi, Tai’s Asian Bistro, Daruma, Fox in the Snow Cafe, El Ranchito

Andy Piccolantonio

Managing director of membership and business development, Ohio Restaurant & Hospitality Alliance

Favorite local restaurant: TAT Ristorante Di Famiglia

Stephanie Smiley

Senior associate, Rea & Associates

Favorite local restaurant: Ocean Club

Scott Smith

Assistant vice president of asset management, Crawford Hoying

Favorite local restaurant: Hunan Lion

MaKayla Tieu

Accounting and finance manager, TENFOLD LLC

Favorite local restaurant: Nada (now closed)

Zachery Vanaman

Senior project manager, Messer

Construction

Favorite local restaurant: Lola & Giuseppe’s Trattoria

Daniel Wang

Consultant, CGI

Favorite local restaurant: bb.q Chicken

Angela Warf

Creative director, Hunter Marketing

Favorite local restaurant: Cafe Istanbul

Megan Wilcoxson Manager, marketing and communication, CASTO

Favorite local restaurant: Bendi Wok N Bar

Johnna Woodsmall Office manager, Danis

Favorite local restaurant: The Rail

Bailey Zidar

Operations manager, The Columbus Partnership

Favorite local restaurant: La Poblanita

GET INVOLVED

The Columbus Chamber of Commerce soon will be accepting applicants for its 12th Elevate Cbus session, which will take place January to June 2026. The program is limited to 40 participants. To learn more about the program or to register, go to columbus.org/ programs/elevate-cbus.

LEGAL TRENDS Attorneys Embrace AI

Law firms are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to save their clients and themselves time— and time is money.

BY TIM FERAN

Anyone who keeps abreast of artificial intelligence is familiar with hallucinations. In the legal industry, those imagined “facts” unearthed by generative AI can be particularly dangerous, because they often involve citations to nonexistent cases. While it’s a known hazard, it still requires a cautious approach.

“That’s sort of old news,” says Amy J. Schmitz, the John Deaver Drinko-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Schmitz says most lawyers now know that generative AI “is not built for that job. You always have to verify—that’s required. AI is probably better figuring out recipes than law.”

A January 2024 study by the Stanford Institute for HumanCentered AI—“Large Legal Fictions: Profiling Legal Hallucinations in Large Language Models”—found that "legal hallucinations are alarmingly prevalent.”

“Large language models (LLMs) have the potential to transform the practice of law,” the study says, “but this potential is threatened by the presence of legal hallucinations—responses from these models that are not consistent with legal facts.”

It’s the potential of AI to help—or even revolutionize—the practice of law that has prompted local firms to proceed, however cautiously, with projects that allow them to use the rapidly evolving technology. “It’s important that lawyers do try these tools, to be more efficient and have fewer billable hours,” Schmitz says.

Crucially, she says, many firms are using “closed” systems, which “are trained on legal data, and much more accurate,” than a language model that draws information from almost everything on the internet.

That’s the case at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. “We are using a limited amount of AI external products,” says firm managing partner Michael Martz.

“We weren’t excited about anything currently in the market. That’s why we turned internal, and we’re pleased

[with] what we came up with. It’s better than anything out there.”

Vorys created AIV Labor, an agentic generative AI product specifically designed to address questions about employment laws on every level, from local to federal. “We wanted to look at all practice areas,” Martz says. “There are a lot of good fits in a lot of our practices, but labor employment looked like a great fit for enabling us to fairly quickly develop it.”

Nate Jedinak, director of software, data and innovation for the firm, worked with Martz and a small team to develop the prototype.

The team “very carefully curated Vorys’ database, and other very carefully curated databases,” Martz says. In all, 400 databases were scrupulously examined and vetted. “We’re not picking up data from some lawyer’s blog, only curated, trustworthy sources.”

“That approach, combined with attorneys vetting it, solves the hallucination problem” says Brian Donato, Vorys’ chief information officer. “We stomped out all the hallucinations.”

AIV Labor isn’t the only AI technology that the firm plans to use. Vorys is “looking to use it across all practices fairly quickly,” Martz says. “We’re taking a look at which are right, and prioritizing those practices.”

The closed system approach is

by Getty Images

Photo

“super important in a law firm,” Donato says. “We religiously protect client confidentiality. We can’t have people using Gemini or Chat GPT. We built a secure version of those, so that no client data is exposed.”

“We expect significant cost savings for clients,” Martz says. “Our product can very easily do the work of three or four lawyers, and it takes seconds versus a week or two.”

“Well, maybe several minutes,” Donato says with a laugh.

BENEFITS FOR CLIENTS

Thompson Hine is also working to incorporate AI as a tool to be used by lawyers, not as a replacement for them.

“We’ve invested a good amount of time into custom development, and in a couple areas we’ve had early wins,” says Matt Coatney, the law firm’s chief information officer.

For instance, “at every law firm, streamlining back-office functions is an easy use case to launch,” says Bill Garcia, Thompson Hine’s chief practice innovation officer. “The ROI becomes apparent pretty quickly.”

The idea is to get aligned as much as possible with clients at the outset.”

Bill Garcia, chief practice innovation officer at Thompson Hine

Still, the firm is very careful about AI, Garcia says. “Internally, we have a use policy, and we also have any number of clients who have articulated restrictions for use of AI,” he says. “There are some clients reluctant to have AI used in their engagements at all.”

Thompson Hine has had some success using algorithm-based prediction models. For example, suppose a client walks in the door looking for help navigating a corporate acquisition. How many billable hours and how many lawyers will be needed to make the transaction happen, and at

what cost?

By plugging in various factors—the geographic location of the company involved, the past characteristics of similar deals, and so on—“that allows us to predict how much effort will be required to bring it to its logical conclusion,” Garcia says.

Importantly, the prediction model offers up comparative data, such as: “Here are the kinds of activities typical in your engagement, the historical precedents, and here’s where yours is unlike the historical precedents,” Garcia explains. “And if this set of assumptions does not come about, here’s the impact on the timeline and the staffing, based on precedent.

“That allows us to engage in a conversation very early in the process with a client. The idea is to get aligned as much as possible with clients at the outset. You’re predicting the future, and you want to have the ability to do that on a quick basis, create what-if scenarios—maybe not in real time, but very quick time—and that is really helpful.

“We’ve had really positive reactions

Over a decade of experience helping local and international clients build a strong legal foundation through a proactive and solution-focused approach - in English, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish.

Read. Think. Drink. Repeat.

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness. “ ”

— Dispatch Alum James Thurber (Also the cleverest Columbusite of all time)

The wittiest brew of the summer is available now. Grab it while you can wherever you find your Wolf’s Ridge Brewing favorites.

The Thurber House Museum has been keeping James Thurber’s legacy alive for over 40 years. Wolf’s Ridge and The Dispatch want to celebrate and spread his work to new generations. Scan the QR code to see how you can help continue the mission.

from clients,” Garcia says. Taft Stettinius & Hollister focuses on a careful, responsible approach to generative AI. That means Taft “is not necessarily going to be gen AI trailblazers, developing, maintaining or selling proprietary gen AI platforms. But Taft does and will continue to prioritize finding, assessing and utilizing the appropriate gen AI tools that benefit our work and clients,” says Lyndsay Capeder, Taft’s chief client and innovation officer.

Taft’s most common uses include summaries and synopses of cases, initial legal research and due diligence assessments, contract clause management and starting points for draft outlines.

Capeder notes that, in addition to the firm’s own ethical standards and in alignment with American Bar Association guidance, “no gen AI tools are utilized for substantive client work unless approved by the firm and align with client directives and requirements.”

Taft requires its AI users to complete training that focuses on the risks of such platforms and also advises its clients on the risks and benefits of the technology.

Because Taft serves a broad range of clients, “we also experience a variety of client positions when it comes to gen AI,” Capeder says. That ranges “from clients who are excited and include gen AI within their Taft engagements to clients who have more concerns with the use of gen AI and for which Taft then adheres to such requests and requirements.”

Whether firms are advising clients on how to use AI or using AI in their own work, OSU’s Schmitz says, “there are some pretty cool things that are happening.

“Law firms are using closed systems, and these are very robust AI tools used on legal data,” she says. “They give you the links so you can verify everything. There’s one that literally tells you what it’s going to do to arrive at an answer, and again gives links to verify. They can even tweak a brief for sensibilities of a particular judge.

“So you have this whole new world,” Schmitz says. “I’m impressed, as a tech nerd.”

Tim Feran is a freelance writer.

THOUGHT LEADER

IN THE BEST INTEREST OF

Flat fee pricing allows financial advisors to make the right decisions for their stakeholders.

Clients and employees. It’s really that simple. If it’s in the best interest of our clients or our employees, we try to make sure the answer is always yes. In today’s age where there are so few owner-operated businesses, and private equity ownership dominates the landscape, PDS Planning is proud to celebrate its 40th year as a privately owned business. We have successfully transitioned the company from the founders to the current owners and have no interest in having the business structured any other way. Why is this? I’ll outline just a few reasons why we are so committed to maintaining a local owner-operated company.

Serving Our Stakeholders

First, we don’t answer to thousands of public or private shareholders. At PDS, Rita, Kurt, Jimmy, and I are the shareholders who own the company. This means our primary objective is to serve the stakeholders—our clients and employees. With a relentless focus on such a small community of people, it is easy to make decisions in the best interest of those folks long-term, rather than making strictly financial decisions to meet quarterly expectations of faceless owners of our stock.

Flat Fee Model

Second, along those same lines, it makes it very easy for us to continue using our unique flat fee pricing structure. Conflicts of interest in our business ruin great planning opportunities, which is why we have wholeheartedly embraced our flat fee structure to best serve our clients’ interests. It should not matter whether you have $1 million to invest or $10 million to invest. Your financial planning and portfolio management needs, the professionals who provide those services, and the value they give you should dictate your fee. This

Jamie Menges, CFP®, CPA

is the expectation in every other profession except wealth management, where an arbitrary percentage of the amount of assets that an advisor manages is how they determine their fee. Is there another industry like wealth management where revenue increases are so easily built into the business model? Imagine if your doctor told you to exercise to lead a healthier life and you did, and they were then paid additional dollars simply because you exercised. That would seem kind of odd; after all, you paid them for your wellness visit. How is that scenario any different than an advisor telling you to save money into your accounts they manage, and their fees going up simply because you follow the instructions? We understand our flat fee pricing model is not as lucrative as

“PDS Planning is proud to celebrate its 40th year as a privately owned business.”

the models embraced in our industry. But we know this: We believe it is absolutely in our clients’ best interest.

Locally Owned

Third, we believe it is easier to decide locally how to best enhance the careers of the valuable employees we have at PDS. Rather than having a faraway corporate office, possibly several states from here or even in another country, or a private equity team trying to tell us who should be promoted, how they should be paid, and how they should service their clients, we believe those decisions are best made face-to-face, with our focus on those very stakeholders. This is the work of a true fiduciary.

And by “local” don’t be confused. This does not preclude us from serving clients across the nation. With clients in 36 states, we are proving that people everywhere want an advisor who is focused solely on their best interests, for a fair fee. We look forward to continuing to serve our clients and creating opportunities for our employees right here in Central Ohio. And we have no plans to change this mission.

HEALTH WATCH Building Boom

Central Ohio health care systems are spending billions on new facilities to meet patient demand.

BY SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON

If you throw a rock in Central Ohio, the chances of hitting a health system’s construction project is far from zero.

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, OhioHealth, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Mount Carmel Health System all have multiple local developments in the works, motivated by population growth and increased demand for health care services.

Here’s a look at some of their recent and ongoing projects in Columbus and its suburbs.

OHIOHEALTH EXPANDS GRANT AND BUILDS A WOMEN'S CENTER

On March 3, OhioHealth—the state’s largest health system—opened phase one of its $400 million construction project at Grant Medical Center, Downtown Columbus’ only adult hospital. The 33,000-square-foot Grant Family Medicine building resides on East State Street, across from the main medical center. It contains 50 patient rooms, Grant’s “transition of care” clinic and clinical learning opportunities for 36 family medicine resident physicians.

The rest of OhioHealth’s 310,000-square-foot renovation of its Downtown campus is expected to be completed by 2028. It includes a new medical office building, a five-story parking garage and a new sevenstory trauma center housing an emergency department, trauma bays, 160 patient rooms and two levels of underground parking.

The $250 million, 200,000-squarefoot expansion of OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital is also set to open in 2028. That’s two years earlier than

previous estimates and includes a new six-floor building alongside two four-floor existing ones.

One of the most anticipated of OhioHealth’s projects is the Riverside Methodist Hospital Women’s Center, a $600 million, 555,000-square-foot medical center intended to serve women across their lifespan. The center, off Olentangy River Road, is expected to open in 2027 and is being built with enough concrete to fill 26 Olympic pools and enough structural steel to make 2½ Boeing 747 airplanes.

Not yet underway is a new Comprehensive Cancer Center. OhioHealth’s $226 million, 199,000-square-foot facility is expected to begin construction in 2026. This will move all cancer care from the Bing Cancer Center to the Blom Administrative Campus on OhioHealth Parkway.

Scheduled to open in summer 2025 in Canal Winchester is a 40,000-square-foot, $31 million health center with outpatient medical offices and a freestanding 12-bed emergency department.

NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S PLAN PROGRESSES

At Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the internationally renowned health system continues its $3.3 billion strategic plan announced in 2021.

The new Livingston Orthopedic and Surgery Center, opened in July 2024, is a 272,000-square-foot, six-story project housing surgery and rehabilitation services. The

approximately $179 million facility features 10 operating rooms, more than 50 orthopedic and sports medicine exam rooms, a gait lab and a physical therapy gym along Livingston Avenue.

Still being built is the new 14-story, 850,000-square-foot inpatient tower that will mirror the existing 12-story tower accessible via Parsons Avenue. The new $1.27 billion tower will increase the number of beds in the emergency department, neonatal intensive care unit and pediatric intensive care unit, and will serve as an acute care tower for the sickest and most complex of patients. It is expected to be finished in 2028.

The children’s hospital plans to open locations in Grove City in 2026 and New Albany in 2027.

MOUNT CARMEL'S FIFTH HOSPITAL

Mount Carmel Health System’s investments in two Columbus-area suburbs, at least for now, are complete.

Expansion and facility upgrades to its New Albany location included a new $15 million, 8,100-square-foot facility with a 24/7 emergency department. The eight-bed ED includes five standard emergency rooms, one trauma room, one sexual assault nurse examiner room and a behavioral health room.

Mount Carmel opened its new 240,000-square-foot campus in Dublin near Sawmill Road and Emerald Parkway in April. The $273 million campus includes a 60-bed hospital with a 14-bed emergency department open 24/7, 10 short-stay

Construction of the new women’s center at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, as seen in mid-April

Photo by

Doral Chenoweth/Columbus Dispatch

beds, four operating rooms and an intensive care unit. This is the health system’s fifth hospital in Central Ohio.

OHIO STATE TOWER BOASTS 820 BEDS

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has several ongoing projects, but the biggest one is the $2 billion, 26-story, 1.9-million-square-foot patient tower now under construction.

It will physically connect the current Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute and is expected to open in 2026. The top three floors will be dedicated to women’s care and labor and delivery, with 51 neonatal intensive care beds in partnership with Nationwide Children’s.

The 820-bed tower will have more concrete than Ohio Stadium, enough steel to construct two Eiffel Towers and will be the 10th-tallest building in Columbus.

Still under construction is OSU’s new outpatient care location in Powell across from Olentangy Liberty High School. The $183 million, 200,000-square-foot project is the health system’s third suburban outpatient facility for primary and specialty services. It includes a five-story medical office building and a two-story ambulatory health center expected to open in summer 2026.

Renovations to Ohio State East Hospital are on track to be finished in early 2027. Approximately $22.3 million is going toward renovating operating rooms and adding workspace and storage.

Completed projects include the $42 million, 105,000-square-foot Martha Morehouse Outpatient Care facility renovation in September 2024, adding 8,500 square feet of lab and urgent care space.

In May 2024, OSU finished its “interdisciplinary health sciences center,” a 100,000-square-foot facility bringing together the seven health science colleges—medicine, nursing, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, public health and veterinary medicine—for more collaborative research. The project, alongside a 120,000-square-foot renovation of Hamilton Hall, amounted to $157 million.

Samantha Hendrickson is the medical business and health care reporter for The Columbus Dispatch.

CHARITABLE GIVING

ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE

ECDI is a nonprofit helping small businesses launch and grow with the funding, training, and support they need to succeed. As the top SBA microlender in the U.S. since 2021 and U.S. Treasury-designated CDFI, we serve entrepreneurs in the Ohio region, focusing on startups, restaurants, and “Main Street” businesses. Through our Women’s Business Centers, Food Business Incubation Services, Veteran Business Outreach Center, and Contractor Resource Center programs, we provide a one-stop shop for entrepreneurial resources.

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614-559-0115

ECDI.org

HOME FOR FAMILIES

Founded in 1986, Home for Families (HFF) is one of the largest providers of non-shelter housing for low-income, Columbus-area families and youth experiencing housing crises. We partner with families and youth to strengthen housing and financial stability and bridge education gaps to prevent future homelessness and disrupt poverty cycles. Working alongside landlords, government agencies, and community partners, we provide safe, affordable housing solutions to nearly 1,000 families (2,500+ individuals) annually.

Using a holistic, Housing-First philosophy, we provide housing identification, rent/financial assistance, and intensive case management to families and youth experiencing a severe housing crisis. Our case managers work one-on-one and often behind the scenes with clients on exit strategies from family shelter, creating individualized plans to reduce barriers, increase resources, and promote long-term housing stability.

In addition to housing assistance, we offer a variety of wraparound services to help our clients secure vital resources to improve longterm stability and self-sufficiency. We provide financial, food, and material assistance to holistically help clients maintain stability through unexpected events and help break the cycle of homelessness for good. We also equip children ages 3-13 with essential academic, social, and emotional skills through kindergarten readiness and outof-school programming.

Nearly 90% of the families we serve are led by resilient, single moms under the age of 34, with little to no working income. With family shelter stays at record highs—the average length of stay for families is now 118 days—the need for Home for Families has never been greater.

727 E. Main St. Columbus, OH 43205

614-461-9247

homeforfamilies.org

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Breakdown

BY JULANNE HOHBACH

Downtown Snapshot

Downtown Columbus continues to attract more residents, but a sizable chunk of its office space remains vacant.

That’s according to the annual State of Downtown report from the Capital Crossroads & Discovery Special Improvement Districts. The 2024 report, released in May, takes a statistical look at the city’s core using a variety of data points, including office space, housing, health care, education and hospitality.

The city is making progress on the goal of attracting more residents, with 12,500 people living there in 2024—up 500 from the year prior; in 2005, the area’s population was a mere 4,402.

The news isn’t as good for the Downtown office market, which continues to struggle, with more than a fifth of available class A, B and C space unoccupied.

Investment in the area continues to be strong, with 13 projects worth $174

million completed and another 15 valued at $1 billion underway.

Read more in the SIDs’ full report at downtownservices.org.

BY THE NUMBERS

22.4% office vacancy rate

92,327 workers who visited the office at least once

86.9% apartment occupancy rate

5.2 MILLION unique visitors, who made 28.6 million visits Downtown

$2.3 BILLION

total value of 33 proposed projects, including building construction and work on the Interstate 70-71 interchange

42,644 students at Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus State Community College, Franklin University and Capital University Law School

Source: State of Downtown report

Photo by Doral Chenoweth/Columbus Dispatch

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Trade airport layovers for boardroom takeovers with daily nonstop flights to Los Angeles on American.