Columbus CEO Special Section: New Albany Suburban Growth

A SUBURBAN GROWTH SECTION

On-site at the new Amgen Inc. facility

(from left): Jennifer Chrysler, Sandra Rodriguez-Toledo, Mayor Sloan Spalding and Bill Ebbing

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WELCOME TO NEW ALBANY

New Albany is truly a special place. I’ve called many places home throughout my life, and none of them compares to New Albany. Whether it’s our strategic planning, growing list of leisure and entertainment options, or thriving 9,000-acre business park, there are so many reasons to be excited about living, working and visiting here. But what truly makes this community special is the people.

Community Connects Us

Our official tagline is “Community Connects Us,” and it’s a saying we take to heart. The spirits of cooperation and collaboration are evident throughout New Albany. We are a welcoming community that values partnerships and the well-being of all. Our residents and corporate partners share their time and talents for the betterment of this community. Organizations such as The New Albany Community Foundation, Healthy New Albany and the New Albany Symphony Orchestra help support our guiding pillars of lifelong learning, arts and culture, health and wellness, and environmental sustainability.

New Albany Gets Business

Through our strategic planning process, we are able to create tangible, proactive goals that ensure all development—residential and commercial—aligns with our aspirations, contributes to our quality of life, supports the long-term growth of our community and enhances our regional competitiveness. The result is a business climate that is friendly, supportive and inclusive, from the smallest

merchant to the largest corporation. From our developed infrastructure and shovel-ready sites to our fast-track permitting, we are able to offer advantages to businesses that very few communities can. It is no surprise New Albany is a regional leader in attracting world-class business partners.

Best in Class

New Albany is consistently ranked one of the best places to live in the state, too. The reasons include amenities such as our parks and 55-mile leisure trail network, top-rated schools and outstanding city services. But ultimately, the people here are the reason behind our success. Whether it’s one of our police officers helping to save a citizen’s life during a cardiac event, our business park employees spending a Saturday coaching Miracle League baseball, or neighbors giving their time to serve others at the New Albany Food Pantry, this city is filled with people who put others above self and community first. I encourage you to pay us a visit and see for yourself what makes New Albany so special.

Be well!

CONTENTS

4

BIOTECH: Biotech Boom

A variety of health and life sciences manufacturers, including several new to Ohio, are flourishing in the New Albany International Business Park.

10

AMENITIES: Community Connections

A shared vision, thoughtful planning and collaboration make this city of 11,400 residents a great place to live and work.

27

BUSINESS VERTICALS: Supplier Synergies

A dedicated Personal Care and Beauty Campus within the city’s business park helps companies like Bath & Body Works respond quickly to changing market dynamics and consumer trends.

33

SILICON HEARTLAND: Full Steam Ahead

Intel’s $20 billion investment in New Albany could be the catalyst to jump-start a new wave of highly skilled workers and a new network of suppliers.

37

LIVE, WORK, PLAY: Close to Home

Five local business owners talk about why they choose to live and work in New Albany.

51

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Boosting Small Business

Sloan T. Spalding Mayor of New Albany

The Innovate New Albany incubator provides flexible spaces and services to help nascent companies grow and thrive.

54

SUSTAINABILITY

Environmental efforts pay dividends.

56 EDUCATION

Top-ranked schools emphasize achievement and student well-being.

ON THE COVER: Amgen Inc.’s biomanufacturing plant is under construction at the New Albany International Business Park. Pictured (from left) are: Jennifer Chrysler, director of community development for New Albany; Sandra Rodriguez-Toledo, Amgen vice president of site operations; Mayor Sloan Spalding; and Bill Ebbing, president and CEO of The New Albany Company. Photo by James D. DeCamp

Photo by Robb McCormick Photography

A COLUMBUS CEO SUBURBAN GROWTH SECTION

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Michelle Crossman

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor

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Contributors

Laurie Allen

James D. DeCamp

Mandy Shunnarah

Peter Tonguette

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Production/ Design Director

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BIOTECHNOLOGY

Biotech Boom

A variety of health and life sciences manufacturers, including several new to Ohio, are flourishing in the New Albany International Business Park.

By Peter Tonguette

The New Albany International Business Park is already a hub for health and life sciences, such as pharmaceutical manufacturer American Regent Inc. and online wellness company Hims & Hers Health Inc. But soon, the 9,000acre site will welcome several more tenants making major investments in new facilities—a development that will further enhance its reputation as a growing biotech hot spot.

Although the rapid expansion of such companies might seem sudden, it’s actually the result of decades of work by local officials to diversify New Albany’s business base and establish the infrastructure necessary to accommodate major health and life science companies.

The impending arrival of Amgen Inc., AmplifyBio, Pharmavite and others is just the latest wave of innovation in the business park’s history.

The story begins in the mid-2000s, when most businesses headquartered or operating in New Albany were retailers, says Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s director of community development. “The biggest employers were Abercrombie & Fitch and Justice/Tween Brands,” says Chrysler, who points to the city’s investment in infrastructure as a key to luring other industries. “We really needed to start to think about how we were going to attract different types of businesses to the market and how we were going to then help support them.”

The Personal Care and Beauty Campus—where a group of vendors serving Bath & Body Works established operations—introduced manufacturing to New Albany, but other sectors were needed to assure sustained economic success. “A healthy community has multiple types of economic clusters in order to help sustain the ups and downs,” Chrysler says. “You have certain times in our economy where there are certain industries that are booming, and there are others that aren’t.”

According to city leaders, health and life sciences blossomed in New Albany rather organically. In 2003, a private, physician-owned hospital now known as Mount Carmel New Albany Surgi-

Photo by James D. DeCamp

cal Hospital was an early entrant in the city’s health care space. “The health cluster really started to evolve around them,” says Chrysler. Ancillary businesses began popping up to support the hospital’s patients, such as specialized rehabilitation and assisted living facilities to serve those not yet well enough to go home.

Another pivotal moment came in 2012, when PharmaForce, a pharmaceutical company later acquired by American Regent, opened a local facility. “We really ended up becoming a place where biopharmaceutical companies and health and life science companies that were looking for a location now said: ‘Hey, why are these other companies finding success here?’” Chrysler says.

Keys to Success

As Chrysler points out, “Success tends to breed success,” but New Albany’s track record in luring new businesses is a testament to the time and effort the city spent making itself attractive to both established and newer companies. Infrastructure investments are key, Chrysler says. “The water, roads, sewer, fiber optics—the things that help make the business run every day,” she says. “We’ll look at areas that we know are going to get redeveloped into the future, and it might be three, five or 10 years later. We’ll start working on engineering the roads, the water and the sewer and try to figure out how that place is going to get served.”

When a company comes calling, those plans can be pulled off a shelf, Chrysler says. “Having all the property in the business park, as it got annexed, it immediately got rezoned and all of the entitlements in place,” she says. “That cuts time.”

Promises made and kept are part of what attracted Hims & Hers Health Inc., a telehealth company through which consumers can order prescriptions and personal care products. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company became aware of New Albany as it was seeking to run its own fulfill-

Left: American Regent Inc. Top right: The New Albany community development team, including Cara Denny, Ryan Ohly, Jennifer Chrysler, Sara Zeigler and Steve Mayer Bottom right: The April Pharmavite groundbreaking

Photo by James

D. DeCamp Courtesy Pharmavite

ment operations, says Chief Operating Officer Melissa Baird. “We took an exhaustive search across probably every city in the contiguous U.S.,” Baird says. In addition to transportation considerations, the local labor pool—from which both fulfillment-related and pharmacist jobs could be filled—was particularly attractive, she says. In the end, though, New Albany’s commitment to infrastructure was among the deciding factors.

“New Albany had just built this beautiful new warehousing park, and the building that we found was in the perfect status that we needed,” says Baird, whose company opened a 300,000-square-foot facility in 2020 that employs 500. (Hims & Hers has another fulfillment facility in Phoenix.)

“It was completed but we could still make a few modifications to it,” Baird says. “The town of New Albany was just very helpful in getting us started and making sure that we had everything that we needed.”

Pharmavite, a vitamin manufacturer that produces products for brands including Nature Made, is headquartered in West Hills, California. The company makes vitamins at facilities in California and Alabama, but lacked a Midwest presence until breaking ground on a new facility in New Albany this spring.

As with Hims & Hers, the leaders of Pharmavite were first attracted to Columbus more generally before settling on New Albany specifically. “The Columbus region is thriving and continues to grow,” says site director Brian R. Vogel, who notes the area’s ability to attract talent in the biotechnology, biology and chemistry fields. “That fits really nicely with the products that we produce.”

Pharmavite also embraces the culture of New Albany. “Their mission or vision for the city—the emphasis they put around lifetime learning, sustainability initiatives and ultimately health and wellness—is who we are as a company,” Vogel says. “It was a really good fit for us.”

With an investment of more than $200 million, Pharmavite is building a facility that will encompass some 225,000 square feet and employ about 225 workers when it opens at the end of 2024. “From a permitting perspective, the City of New Albany has just been great to work with—very responsive,” Vogel says. “We’ll be making vitamins next year.”

Pharmavite will manufacture and package its gummy vitamins in New Albany and will also run a researchand-development operation. “We’ll be able to develop new products at the site that we’re manufacturing,” says Vogel, adding this combined operation will give the company the ability to quickly deliver the latest products to consumers.

Pharmaceutical Innovation

Another business park tenant new to Ohio is Amgen Inc., a company based in Thousand Oaks, California, that manufactures biologics to treat severe medical conditions, including cancer and arthritis. “When you think about

tablets and capsules, you manufacture those medicines using synthetic chemicals,” says Sandra Rodriguez-Toledo, vice president of site operations. “When you’re in biological manufacturing, you are using live organisms to manufacture your medicines.”

Amgen conducted a nationwide search in its quest to build a new facility in which to assemble, label and package medication. “New Albany was selected because Ohio provides all the aspects that we were looking for in terms of environmental conditions, in terms of location, in terms of the readiness of the land, in terms of diversity, because talent is the most important thing to make things happen,” Rodriguez-Toledo says.

Projected to open in the first quarter of 2024, the 180,000-square-foot facility represents a $365 million investment and will ultimately employ about 400 workers. “We have opportunity to grow,” Rodriguez Toledo says.

Closer to home, West Jeffersonbased AmplifyBio chose New Albany as the location for its third U.S. site, a

Right: The Hims & Hers building Opposite page: New Albany Company President and CEO Bill Ebbing (left) talks to Sandra RodriguezToledo, vice president of site operations, (right) on a tour of the Amgen Inc. construction site.

350,000-square-foot lab facility. The business, which spun off from Battelle in 2021, aids pharmaceutical companies in learning more about novel drugs under development. “[AmplifyBio] launched as a preclinical CRO [clinical research organization], which is an outsourcing partner that drug development companies contract to test the safety and effectiveness of novel therapeutics, generating the data required by the FDA,” CEO J. Kelly Ganjei says via email.

Ganjei says that since the company was formed, it has also added to its portfolio of services, which now includes analyzing a particular drug’s characteristics so that the manufacturer can better understand how it functions. This is important, Ganjei says, “as more and more drugs are biologic material rather than small molecule compounds.”

In expanding, the company was committed to staying in Central Ohio. What made the New Albany location appealing, Ganjei says, was its “proximity to our headquarters since the services offered there will be comple-

mentary to our safety, efficacy and toxicology testing that happens at the West Jefferson building.

“What will be in New Albany are additional technology platforms, capabilities and connected partnerships that advance that vision of taking novel, safe drugs from concept to commercial,” he says.

About 35 employees will be working at the facility once it comes online, according to Ganjei. “When it comes to the timeline until it’s operational, we are dealing with the same building supply chain challenges as everyone else right now, so we aren’t providing a firm date,” he says. “We expect certain activities to ramp up later this year.”

AmplifyBio is pleased to play a role in the region’s increasingly vibrant biotech field. “We have important collaborative relationships with many of the organizations based here,” Ganjei says. “We all stand to gain from the strength of a growing biotech hub.”

As the New Albany International Business Park increasingly becomes

synonymous with the biotech sector, Ganjei says, it will become easier for companies to attract employees—which, in turn, will attract more tenants.

For its part, beyond providing a modern site with up-to-date infrastructure, New Albany has aimed to replicate in its business park the same environment enjoyed by those who live in the city.

“Leisure trails, street trees, open spaces, protected wetland areas that have been turned into passive parks—those all exist throughout our business park, just like you would see in a residential community,” Chrysler says. As companies become increasingly attentive to their employees’ quality of life, that gives New Albany a decisive advantage.

“Think about the fact that a lot of these companies don’t have a presence in the Midwest or the state of Ohio,” Chrysler says. “They are bringing people from other parts of the country and having to say, ‘We want you to relocate.’ … You have to be able to sell that package to an employee that you want to move with your business.”

Photo by James D. DeCamp

Courtesy VanTrust Real Estate

New Albany International Business Park

Business tenants as of May 31, 2023.

Courtesy The New Albany Company

Community Connections

A shared vision, thoughtful planning and collaboration make this city of 11,400 residents a great place to live and work.

By Laurie Allen

If there were a single word to describe New Albany, it might be connection. In this master-planned community, people connect with ideas, with nature and with one another. They connect amid myriad carefully created spaces, including 2,000 acres of park land, a state-of-the-art performing arts center and world-class amphitheater, an integrated health and wellness facility, and a central hub anchored by schools and a library.

That a community of 11,400 residents can achieve widespread recognition as a top place to live and work is testament to a shared vision, thought-

ful planning and forward-thinking collaboration.

“Here, things start with residents. You don’t see that in every city. Things happen more organically here,” says Craig Mohre, president of The New Albany Community Foundation. That’s not to say programs grow haphazardly, but often are the result of creative collaboration. The foundation, Mohre says, “acts

as a convenor” and has played a pivotal role in several community mainstays, including the New Albany Lecture Series, Safety Town and the building of the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s New Albany branch, that are woven deeply into the fabric of the city.

The top-tier lecture series, which draws internationally known authors and speakers, a walking event that’s

The New Albany Company holds approximately 5,000 acres of land in and around New Albany.

The New Albany Company assembles a team of national planning and design experts to develop a master plan.

The New Albany Company established by Les Wexner and Jack Kessler as a private partnership for the purpose of land acquisition and development.

Community Facilities

Strategic

Village of New Albany chartered with a population of 50.

First brick school built in New Albany.

The first 18 holes of the New Albany Country Club golf course open along with the Bath & Tennis facilities and the Main Clubhouse.

Plan completed by the Village of New Albany with funding from The New Albany Company.

Above: Craig Mohre, president of The New Albany Community Foundation

Right: Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and economist Arthur Laffer at a New Albany Lecture Series event moderated by CNN’s Rana Foroohar on March 8, 2023, at the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts

Photos by James D. DeCamp (2)

Courtesy The New Albany Company Courtesy New Albany Company

Courtesy James D. DeCamp

among the largest in the nation and a business-friendly ecosystem are among the amenities that support New Albany’s four pillars:

• Lifelong learning

• Arts and culture

• Health and wellness

• Sustainable environment

Mohre says the overarching goal is connectedness. “We have all this tech-

nology at our fingertips, yet people feel a little isolated. It’s the shared experiences, when people come together, that builds a sense of community and sense of belonging. It’s what makes communities strong and sustainable.”

As a relatively young community, New Albany offers a unique culture of inclusion, Mayor Sloan Spalding says. “Almost everyone here came

from somewhere else, so there are no cliques. New Albany is such a welcoming community.”

New Albany’s business network is as diverse as it is successful, putting it on par with some of the best tech and commercial hubs in the country.

The New Albany International Business Park, with more than 26 million square feet of commercial space, is one of the largest strategically planned business parks in the country and one of the fastest growing in the Midwest. The site, which sits on more than 9,000 acres, represents more than $28 billion in private investment.

Intel’s $20-plus billion semiconductor complex is the latest in a line of high-profile companies located in the business park, including Amazon, Meta and Google. Other corporate residents include Discover Financial Services, Amgen Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch.

Specialized industry clusters within the New Albany International Business Park have attracted national and multinational enterprises seeking to grow in an environment conducive to innovation, cooperation and commerce. Growth sectors within the park encompass:

• Personal Care and Beauty

• Information Technology and Mission Critical

• Corporate Office and R&D

Plain Township Fire Station 121 in New Albany, funded in part by the New Albany Community Authority, opens.

1995

The

1996

Dedication of the Learning Community Campus, beginning with new high school and middle school buildings on 51 acres of land donated by The New Albany Company.

The New Albany Chamber of Commerce is established.

1997

Business park opens as Discover Financial breaks ground on 325,000square-foot facility on Central College Road. In the ensuing months, Aetna U.S. Healthcare, Express Med, Too Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch announce plans to open facilities in New Albany.

Swickard Woods park, wetlands, and nature preserve created on land adjacent to the schools.

The Rocky Fork-Blacklick Accord planning committee, comprised of representatives from New Albany and Columbus, create land use and planning guidelines for approximately 11,000 acres in northeastern Franklin County.

The New Albany Community Foundation is established.

New Albany Expressway opens in June.

Courtesy Hart

NEW ALBANY MILESTONE TIMELINE

1998

Village of New Albany adopts first 3,600-acre Strategic Plan.

New 2–5 elementary school dedicated on the learning community campus.

1999

Joint Park District, which aligns with the boundaries of the local school district, covering parts of Columbus as well as Plain Township and New Albany, is created.

2000

New Village Hall is dedicated on Main Street.

The New Albany Company begins development of Market Street in the village center.

Left: Lower.com offices in the New Albany International Business Park Bottom: Green space is a priority for city leaders.

• High-Tech Manufacturing and Logistics

• Health and Life Sciences.

Four highway interchanges, triplefeed electric power and a state-ofthe-art municipal broadband network make the park appealing to gamechanging companies.

The complex features park-like settings with natural amenities, such as stream corridors and mature trees. Campuses and buildings are connected to a network of leisure trails. Cohesiveness of design elements, from fencing to grass type, create a feeling of continuity, according to Adrienne Joly, New Albany’s director of administrative services. “It all accumulates into a very nice experience.”

An overgrown stream that once was a barrier between people and places has become a valuable asset, thanks to forethought and planning of New Albany officials. “It’s a very vibrant place, connecting people with nature and each other,” says Joly.

Rose Run Park isn’t a traditional city park but is instead linear, following a creek that flows in and around the New Albany Plain Local Schools campus and city hub Market Square. Rose Run Park

The New Albany Company donates 45 acres at the northwest corner of the learning community campus for a new primary school, athletic fields and playgrounds, Wexner Community Park, and Plain Township Aquatic Center.

2002

New Albany Community Foundation hosts its first Remarkable Evening event to raise money for a public library. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough is the featured speaker.

New middle school dedicated on the learning community campus.

Courtesy The New Albany Company

Photo by James

D. DeCamp

Courtesy The New Albany Company

Plain Township Aquatic Center opens at Swickard Woods.

New K–1 elementary school opens on the learning community campus.

2003

New Albany branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library is dedicated by author David McCullough.

Dedication of New Albany High School academic expansion wing.

The Foundation establishes the New Albany Safety Town Program, with New Albany Women’s Network serving as the community sponsor and Key Bank serving as the corporate sponsor.

2004

The Foundation establishes the annual Jeanne and John G. McCoy Community Service Award to honor a person or persons who have contributed their time, talent and treasure to the New Albany community. The inaugural honorees are Mr. and Mrs. McCoy.

New Albany Symphony Orchestra is founded.

Courtesy City of New Albany

New Albany’s Village Center

2007

Courtesy New Albany Community Foundation

Courtesy New Albany Symphony

opened during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people felt a need to get outside and commune with others, Joly says.

The park is but one example of how government and other leaders move very intentionally in creating spaces within the city, Joly says. “We want to make sure we are thinking comprehensively … and it guided the acquisition of that property.” An expansion plan is in the works.

But Rose Run is just one element of New Albany’s 2,000 acres of park land and 55 miles of leisure trails. The newest, Taylor Farm Park, is being developed on the 100-acre site of a former farm dating back to the 1800s.

Green spaces appear everywhere in the community, including the New Albany International Business Park, with its aesthetically pleasing and cohesive blend of trees, grass and fencing, plus leisure trails throughout.

New Albany is ready.

Whether in the form of water supplies, electrical grids or ramped-up permitting processes, the city boasts a robust, business-friendly infrastructure that can accommodate tight timelines and scaled-up commerce.

“It all starts with our focus on planning,” says Joly. “It allows us to move quickly to create a community that businesses want to be part of. We create a framework that business leaders connect with.”

NEW ALBANY MILESTONE TIMELINE 2008

Rocky Fork Metro Park announced as a collaboration between the Village of New Albany, Plain Township, City of Columbus and Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks. The New Albany Company donates 107 acres in support of the park.

American Electric Power opens first facility in New Albany, providing fiberoptic communications, triple-feed electric capabilities and redundant power to the business park.

Commercial Vehicle Group opens new Corporate Headquarters and Research and Development Center in the New Albany International Business Park.

2010

The nonprofit Healthy New Albany is established with a mission to create a culture of health in the community.

Rose Run Park Courtesy City of New Albany

Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts dedicated in the Village Center.

Courtesy James D. DeCamp

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Besides traditional incentives like roads, sewers, energy and tax abatements, New Albany makes other investments that are a powerful pull for developers. Alignment between elected officials, city staff and other stakeholders provides developers with muchneeded certainty about outcomes, says Andy Weeks, executive vice president of VanTrust Real Estate. “Uncertainty creates risk, and in New Albany, you don’t have that,” Weeks says.

The company has developed eight industrial buildings in New Albany and is expanding in its new VanTrust New Albany Tech Park.

NEW ALBANY MILESTONE TIMELINE

2015

Amazon breaks ground on first data center.

Philip Heit Center opens.

Despite growing its economic engine tremendously in the last 25 years, Mayor Sloan Spalding says New Albany adheres to its master plan with each new development. “We have a great track record of being thoughtful and careful. We have incredible standards.”

Lifelong learning is one of New Albany’s four pillars, and an abundance of opportunities exists for residents and visitors of all ages to participate.

New Albany’s premier lecture series has brought in internationally known

Google breaks ground on 435-acre data center campus and Meta opens its 970,000-square-foot data center in the New Albany International Business Park.

2019

Business Insider names New Albany “Best Suburb in America.”

2021

11-acre Rose Run and Charleen and Charles Hinson Amphitheater are dedicated in New Albany

Amgen begins construction on its $365 million biomanufacturing plant in New Albany.

Courtesy City of New Albany

speakers such as Deepak Chopra, Michael Phelps, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and the late Gen. Colin Powell for conversations with the community on subjects such as mental health, social justice and civil discourse.

A June 6, 2023, panel on national security panel features Ret. Gen. John F. Kelly, former chief of staff for President Donald Trump; retired Adm. James Stavridis, former NATO supreme allied commander Europe; and CNN chief political correspondent Jim Sciutto, cohost of CNN Today.

The series features a daytime program for students and an evening event

Courtesy Intel Corp.

2022 2023

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Left: A performance at the Hinson Amphitheater

Above: Deepak Chopra speaks at the New Albany Lecture Series.

Photos by James D. DeCamp

for the public. New Albany invites students from across Central Ohio, donating books and buses; adults who attend the evening event also are given opportunities to read in advance together.

Lifelong learning and shared cultural experiences occur elsewhere, from cooking classes at the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany to the world-class, $7 million Charleen & Charles Hinson Amphitheater. The amphitheater provides an affordable venue to see national and regional performances in an intimate setting. Like the $15 million Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts, which hosts the lecture series and other programs but is used primarily by New Albany schools, the two-year old amphitheater also does double-duty, hosting community gatherings and special events.

Left: The Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany

Right: A Healthy New Albany Nature Walk

Courtesy The New Albany Company

Health and wellness form one of New Albany’s four pillars and are an essential part of the community’s character.

New Albany’s commitment to accessible fitness and health can be traced to former New York City marathoner Philip Heit, who initiated the New Albany Walking Classic, one of the largest events of its kind in the country.

His namesake, the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany, is a hub for health and wellness, housing the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Health & Fitness Center; OSU primary medicine, sports medicine and physical therapy; Nationwide Children’s Hospital physical therapy and sports medicine; and Healthy New Albany, an umbrella organization providing more than 200 programs, from yoga classes to medical lectures.

Courtesy Sarah Higgisten

The city’s community garden and food pantry complement other health and wellness initiatives.

The Heit Center “connects, in a very forward-thinking way, clinical services to community well-being and whole-person health,” says Healthy New Albany Executive Director Angela Douglas. Outdoor spaces, where residents can run, walk, hike, bike and connect with nature, align with New Albany’s intention to “embody and codify health and wellness into the fabric of the community,” Douglas says. That not only benefits residents, but also acts as a recruitment advantage. In vying for top talent, she says, businesses find that wellness “is more than a nice thing to have, it’s an expectation. We have a tremendous amenity.”

To that end, Healthy New Albany, which already hosts business retreats, is developing workplace wellness programs.

In New Albany, it’s easy to feel centered. Through purposeful planning that began 25 years ago, the city has created a walkable, dynamic village

Photo by James D.

center that brings people together in support of the city’s four pillars: lifelong learning; arts and culture; health and wellness; and sustainable environment and historic preservation.

New Albany’s de facto hub is Market Square, where all the pillars unite. The center includes:

• A 200-acre, K–12 learning campus

• The Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts

• The Charleen & Charles Hinson Amphitheater

• The Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany

• Rose Run Park

• The Charlotte P. Kessler Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library

• Village Hall and the New Albany post office.

Colocating essential community elements “leads to a sense of connection,” says Craig Mohre, president of The New Albany Community Foundation. It also helps to create vital synergies, Mayor Sloan Spalding says. For example, the Heit Center helped drive the development of nearby apartments that have been “wildly successful,” drawing both

• New Albany resident for 22 years.

• Licensed Agent for 25 years.

• Specializing in residential property sales, relocation, and land acquisition.

empty-nesters and young professionals, he says. “Those rooftops are important.”

Spalding says careful planning has created a critical mass of user-friendly activities, which appeals to a growing number of retail stores and restaurants.

Healthy schools are a cornerstone of New Albany’s success and desirability.

Thanks to purposeful planning, every New Albany-Plain Local Schools student attends class on a visually appealing, 200-acre learning campus that includes an 80-acre nature preserve and wetlands area, adjacent to the community’s library and wellness center.

“Every day, 5,000 students are in one place. It creates a vibrancy,” New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding says. “Any potential growth opportunities we entertain are with the thought of a single, central campus. We have almost doubled our population in the last 10 years, but purposefully, at a pace the schools can absorb,” he says.

Courtesy James

D. DeCamp

The New Albany Farmers Market in Market Square

Courtesy The New Albany Company

The Charlotte P. Kessler Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library

The school campus is part of the city’s center, close to a world-class performing arts center, the library and the police station. Three resource officers are in schools every day.

Learning experiences take many forms, including an author-in-residence program sponsored by The New Albany Community Foundation, which also donates books for students to read as part of the New Albany Lecture Series.

Each year, students, faculty, staff and education programs are recognized at the local, state and national levels.

• Every school in the district has been designated a national Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education.

• For the past five years, the district has received an “excellent” rating from the Ohio Department of Education.

• The district consistently ranks within the top 5 percent of schools in Ohio.

Left: The Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts

Courtesy Lorn Spolter

BUSINESS VERTICALS

Supplier Synergies

A dedicated Personal Care and Beauty Campus within the city’s business park helps companies like Bath & Body Works respond quickly to changing market dynamics and consumer trends.

By Peter Tonguette

Out of great recessions sometimes come great ideas.

Amid the economic troubles of the late 2000s, New Albany leaders saw a need to diversify the city’s business base.

“For any community, it’s important not to be overly reliant on one particular sector,” says Bill Ebbing, president and CEO of The New Albany Company. “By diversifying, we’re all less susceptible to economic downturns, we protect the community’s tax base, clearly, and we provide a full range of employment opportunities for Central Ohio.”

Manufacturing was one sector that was lacking in New Albany—and it had been on the wane for some time not only in Ohio, but throughout the country. “There were so many companies that were offshoring jobs,” says Jennifer Chrysler, director of community development for the City of New Albany. “How do we bring this back to the United States? There was a lot of movement around us, with the state and our local partners, around supporting manufacturing.”

At the same time, L Brands—then the owner of Bath & Body Works, the soap, candle and personal care retailer headquartered in New Albany—was checking with its suppliers around the globe to see how they were faring, Chrysler says. “As they made those visits, the idea came together: ‘Wait a minute. Could we take these companies who are located all over the world and bring them into one location?’” she says.

The New Albany Personal Care and Beauty Campus was born.

Susanna Zhu, senior vice president of supply chain operations and commercialization at Bath & Body Works, compares the beauty campus to an orchestra. “We are the conductor, we are the composer, we write the music,” Zhu says, “but then all of our vendors

Axium Packaging, a Bath & Body Works supplier, was one of the first occupants in the Personal Care and Beauty Campus.

Courtesy James D. DeCamp

are playing the same sheet of music to serve our customers. You have people making bottles, making labels, making pumps, and they all come together getting filled.”

A single bold idea not only greatly simplified the company’s supply chain, but also demonstrated that manufacturing could once again flourish in the heartland. “[The beauty campus] was set up a little over 10 years ago to give us that speed to market and agility,” Zhu says. “We started with a couple of vendors. Today, we have 10 strategic partners that are in the park.” More than 50 percent of Bath & Body Works’ finished products are produced in the Personal Care and Beauty Campus.

The arrangement is beneficial for suppliers, too.

“In the old days, we would generally receive purchase orders 70 to 90 days before the in-store date,” says Rod Harl, CEO of Alene Candles, a Bath & Body Works partner and longtime tenant of the beauty campus. “That meant that the buyer was guessing at what was going

to sell well three months in advance and not being able to respond to the market conditions,” he says. “We’ve shortened that dramatically. It lets the people who make the buying decisions [at Bath & Body Works] within a season do refreshes on the product mix based on what’s selling well. That’s not something that any other retail supply chain, at least in our category, is able to do.”

Alene has a legacy factory in New Hampshire and two facilities in New Albany; about 250 people are employed year-round locally, with seasonal surges reaching 600 or 700 workers.

Early Adopters Embrace the Vision

In embarking on such an ambitious undertaking, New Albany had to have its ground game in good shape. It was— literally so.

“We didn’t have to start from scratch,” Chrysler says. “The ground was annexed and zoned, so we were ready to go.”

The appeal of the beauty campus for both the city and Bath & Body Works was obvious, but for suppliers contemplating

Courtesy Bath & Body Works Celebrating g Our20thYear!

whether to move operations, the decision was more complicated. In the end, many leaned on the trust engendered by their longtime customer. “These are not new suppliers [to Bath & Body Works],” Zhu says. “These are vendors who we’ve been partnering with for a long time, and as we looked at how to continue to accelerate our growth from a business perspective, we asked our vendors to come and invest in the beauty park with us.”

Among the earliest businesses to embrace the beauty campus was Accel, a packaging company then located in Lewis Center. “They believed this concept was going to be successful,” says Chrysler, who also points to kdc/one—a Montreal-based company that formulates and manufactures beauty and personal care products for brands including Bath & Body Works—and Voyant Beauty as other early adopters.

“We bought into the vision; we could see the benefits,” kdc/one CEO Nick Whitley says. His company built a $100 million facility in 2012 and expanded four years later.

Data Centers Drive Business

Beyond the Personal Care and Beauty Campus, New Albany has welcomed numerous other businesses to its International Business Park, including clusters of health and life sciences, corporate offices, and research and development ventures.

“It’s the same basic formula for success no matter what the cluster is,” says Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s director of community development. “You have a plan to either put the infrastructure in place, or the infrastructure is already in place in order to have shovel-ready sites.”

The city’s agility is the result of meticulous planning. “We were very intentional about how the business park was designed, and prepared for companies by proactively investing in infrastructure, such as redundant power, fiber, roadways, water and shovel-ready sites,” says The New Albany Company President and CEO Bill Ebbing.

Data centers have a particularly important presence in New Albany. Discover Financial Services paved the way by opening a facility in 2000. More recently, the city has welcomed other providers, including Amazon Web Services, Google and Meta. In turn, these data centers help attract other big-name companies, such as Intel and Amgen Inc., Ebbing says. The end result is a greater diversity of businesses, which makes others more likely to set up shop in New Albany.

“It’s a stamp of approval that the community has everything that’s necessary for any industry to locate in the area,” Ebbing says. “In today’s world, I don’t care what industry you’re in, you’re a technology business.”

“I would say that this supply chain provides a competitive advantage,” Whitley says. “[We have] less truck miles, less transportation, a much more reactive supply chain. Also, importantly for our partner BBW, this is onshore manufacturing.”

Axium Packaging, a company founded in Ontario that produces the bottles, caps and other component packaging for Bath & Body Works, also saw the campus’ potential and built a 110,000-square-foot facility in 2011. At the time, it wasn’t unheard of for vendors to be located adjacent to a client, says CEO Paul Judge. “The difference here was it was multiple suppliers, all part of the same supply chain for one customer,” he says. “It would be more like Honda Marysville [Auto Plant]. Honda is the main anchor customer, and then you have tier one and tier two suppliers scattered around them.”

Axium now considers its eight New Albany buildings, which total 1.1 million square feet, to be its North American headquarters. “The city is a true partner in the success of this park,” says Judge,

whose company employs more 1,200 workers locally. “They put dark fiber lines [in] out of their own pockets. They built the roads, the streets, the infrastructure around it, even before the buildings were ready—things that cities don’t do. … They had already done the hard stuff.”

Job Creation and Supply Chain Speed

In the early years of the beauty campus, more than 4,300 jobs were created—and this amid a recession. “Manufacturing wasn’t even a viable industry in the region before that time,” Chrysler says.

As with any project of scale, there were challenges along the way. For example, officials came to recognize that since New Albany is an outer-ring suburb, they needed to attract workers from elsewhere in Central Ohio and find a means for them to get to the business park. To that end, the city partnered with COTA on a program called SmartRide New Albany. “COTA agreed to use the commuter bus that they brought to New Albany anyway and enhance that service,” Chrysler says. “There are two shuttles in the morning

and two shuttles in the evening, and COTA has an on-demand service that runs to fill in the gaps.”

But if job creation is one metric of the beauty campus’s impact, another is success of Bath & Body Works and its partner companies.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bath & Body Works customers were buying candles and hand sanitizers in huge numbers. Because of its condensed supply chain, the company was able fill orders when other companies struggled. “As the demand increased, having beauty park right here gave us the ability to meet that demand,” Zhu says. “We’re able to shorten our supply chain from thousands of miles to essentially 10 miles between our vendors to our distribution center.”

Even during more normal times, though, Bath & Body Works benefits from its products being manufactured, filled and labeled in one local cluster. In stores, the floor is “reset” with a new product lineup every four to six weeks. “We are really in the fast fashion business,” Zhu

says. “We need to be extremely agile and really have a fast supply chain that can respond to customer requirements.”

Supply can be adjusted even midway through a product’s run because of the benefits of the beauty campus. If, during a typical four-to-six-week period, two of three newly introduced fragrances are selling extremely well, the company can work with its vendors to increase volume during that timeframe, Zhu says.

Although Bath & Body Works remains the nexus of activity on the beauty campus, all of the companies located there benefit from collaboration. “Some of their clients are each other; they all have to work together,” Chrysler says. “The filler has to buy the bottles, which they’re buying from Axium.”

When these companies grow and expand in New Albany, it validates the whole concept behind the beauty campus. “Every single one of the companies in the beauty park has expanded at least

once,” Chrysler says. “It’s one thing to win a project. … But what I think is a true testament to how great it is to do business in Central Ohio is when you have companies that choose to expand. That means that they are making it happen.”

Indeed, the results speak for themselves.

“If we were to expand again, we would look very seriously at New Albany,” Harl says. “They are so easy to do business with.”

Bath & Body Works products

Courtesy Bath & Body Works

We’ve created a state-of-the-art facility where you can access all the health care services you need right in your community. Nagging cough? Walk through our doors for immediate care or see your family doctor. Schedule your physical therapy here and take advantage of specialty services like advanced imaging and outpatient procedures in our surgery center. For nationally ranked care in a community setting, the choice is clear.

SILICON HEARTLAND

Full Steam Ahead

Intel’s $20 billion investment in New Albany could be the catalyst to jump-start a new wave of highly skilled workers and a new network of suppliers.

By Laurie Allen

Rust Belt, no more. Intel’s decision to choose New Albany as the site of its first new semiconductor factory in 40 years presents Ohio with a transformative opportunity to regain and create thousands of jobs, advance critical technology and firmly establish itself as the Silicon Heartland.

“New Albany is proud to be home to Intel. The impact will be felt far and beyond, on both a state and regional level,” says New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding. “We have really grown our economic

engine in the last 25 years, and that’s become evident with the Intel project. We came out on top in a very highly competitive process.”

Located in the Licking County portion of the 9,000-acre New Albany International Business Park, Intel’s $20-billion-plus Ohio One project will create two state-of-the-art chip fabrication plants, or “fabs,” with an estimated completion date in 2025.

The Intel project represents the single largest private sector company

investment in Ohio’s history and is expected to add $2.8 billion to Ohio’s gross annual state product. Planners say it will create tens of thousands of jobs across the state, open new academic pathways, and both recruit and retain highly skilled talent.

Intel site selectors found many reasons to select Central Ohio for its first chip manufacturing complex in the Midwest—among them, the state’s outstanding network of colleges, universities and technical schools, renowned research facilities and a site that met the company’s unique construction and operating needs.

As a master-planned community, “We are in the habit of planning ahead to get out in front of development before it’s at the doorstep,” New Albany City Engineer Ryan Ohly says. “As soon as Intel became a ‘thought,’ we really buckled down. We started treating it as though it were going to happen.” The city invested in traffic studies, talked with and visited other cities that had landed Intel fabs,

VanTrust Real Estate has developed eight industrial buildings in New Albany and is expanding in its new VanTrust Tech Park.

Courtesy Marla Marie

and engaged “some of the best consultants around.”

From a physical infrastructure standpoint, New Albany was well prepared. “We had land, we had energy and we had water,” Spalding says. The city also had a robust network of partners willing and able to make the deal happen. “Intel is the culmination of collaboration between New Albany, [regional development agency] One Columbus, JobsOhio and the state.”

In securing the partnership with Intel, New Albany showcased its ability to coalesce, collaborate and catalyze quickly to accommodate the megaproject.

The community benefits tremendously from a robust alignment between elected officials, city staff and other stakeholders, says Andy Weeks, executive vice president of VanTrust Real Estate, which has developed eight industrial buildings in New Albany and is expanding in its new VanTrust Tech Park. “When you have that kind of alignment, some pretty great things can happen. Intel is evidence of that. It’s a perfect example of how quickly the community mobilized.”

JobsOhio spokesman Ryan Squire says Intel is an example of “the speed of trust. The more trust you have among all invested parties, the faster you can move.” Squire, a New Albany resident, says the community’s vision is well-suit-

ed to Intel and demonstrates a willingness to think bigger. [Intel] needs Ohio to do what it’s done in the past, to invent and find solutions. It’s built into the kids here, too.”

Building a Talent Pipeline

When Intel’s two fabs open in 2025, the complex will employ 3,000 people with an average salary of around $135,000. Before that happens, thousands more workers are needed to develop the site and build the plants.

To support development of the site, Intel is investing $100 million to build a pipeline of talent and bolster research programs in the region. Nearly 90 institutions already are receiving funding to ramp up training programs to meet the need for an estimated 47,000 STEM graduates, Squire says.

In a statement, Intel’s Ohio Public Affairs Director Emily Smith said Intel has made significant commitments to higher education through a $50 million grant program to create new curricula designed to help students from all backgrounds build career skills in STEM fields. “Skilled workers will have the opportunity to learn, study and stay in Ohio,” Smith said.

Construction at the new Intel site

Courtesy Intel Corp.

Stakeholders hope to stem the tide of top talent leaving the state for jobs elsewhere. “We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars educating these in-demand graduates. We want to bring those Buckeyes back home,” Spalding says.

Intel’s long-term plan calls for up to eight semiconductor fabrication plants over a timeline that could span 30 years. For now, Spalding says, “We’re trying to catch our breath. The phone is ringing off the hook” with companies that want to be a part of the juggernaut project.

Like the Honda plant has done in Marysville, Intel is capable of generating not only thousands of direct jobs, but thousands of others for suppliers. One of the 100 or so Ohio suppliers already involved is a laundry services company in Heath that will be in charge of the ultra-sensitive clean suits Intel employees will wear to protect critical research and manufacturing equipment, Spalding says.

In addition to construction jobs and positions directly related to the Intel factory’s operations, Squire says “induced” jobs in sectors like restaurants, hotels and entertainment also will drive economic growth. Workers in highly skilled trades, such as electricians, will gain expertise that is transferable to other fast-growing industries, including electrical vehicles. “Intel provides the critical mass,” he says. “This will have a major impact on the entire state and the Midwest.”

Weeks says VanTrust expects to continue expansion of its 500-acre tech park in order to house Intel suppliers in the coming years. “We’re talking to a variety of interested companies,” he says.

Concurrent with new development opportunities are the daily concerns and details around the massive building project, down to the permitting process. The city has added about a dozen staff to its development department and has stationed permitting specialists in trailers on the Intel site to provide same-day service when possible, Spalding says.

So quickly did the Intel project land in New Albany that planners initially were too busy to think about a groundbreaking ceremony, he recalls. “But when the president of the United States decides he wants to have a groundbreaking [ceremony] in your community, you roll out the red carpet.”

LIVE, WORK, PLAY

Close to Home

Five local business owners talk about why they choose to live and work in New Albany.

By Peter Tonguette

Many of the benefits of living in New Albany are well-known: top-flight schools, robust housing options, scenic parks and endless bike paths.

By the same token, the perks of running a business in the city are obvious, too: supportive, forward-thinking city leaders; a strong consumer base; and numerous opportunities for community engagement.

“We normally talk about ‘quality of life’ for residents: We have this beautiful, master-planned community and all the wonderful things that come along with that,” says Cherie Nelson, executive director of the New Albany Chamber of Commerce. “But that’s important to businesses, too.”

For some entrepreneurs, making one’s home and place of business in New Albany is too good an opportunity to pass up.

Here are five local business owners who chose to do just that.

Photo by James

D. DeCamp

Hudson 29 Kitchen + Drink on Market Street in New Albany

A void for freshly made baked goods and coffee beckoned Fox in the Snow Cafe to New Albany.

The bakery—owned by spouses Lauren Culley and Jeff Excell—opened on Fourth Street in Italian Village in 2014. One of their earliest patrons was Jack Kessler, co-founder and chairman of The New Albany Company.

“He would come in with his wife, Charlotte, and he would always say, ‘When are you coming out to New Albany?’” Culley recalls. “I said, ‘Well, you know, when you have a location for us, you give me a call.’”

One afternoon, Culley got that call: Kessler had identified a space in New Albany’s burgeoning Market and Main area. “We saw it, and the numbers made sense, and the neighborhood made sense, and the community made sense,” Culley says. “I’m really grateful that Jack nudged us in what ended up being the right direction.”

As it turned out, it was the right direction on multiple levels: Within months of opening Fox in the Snow in New Albany in 2019, Culley and Excell—now parents to three young children—moved to the city.

“We were living in the German Village area at the time,” Culley says.

“When we were looking for homes, you start thinking about space and you start thinking about neighbors and you start thinking about schools and you start thinking about all those things related to your kids.”

New Albany checked all the boxes.

“We love living in New Albany so much, and we love our neighborhood so much,” says Culley, who takes pride in Fox in the Snow’s place in the community. While the cafe’s Italian and German Village locations are in more urban environments, the area around Market and Main streets has the walkability and flavor the couple hoped for in a suburban setting. “Downtown New Albany really has turned into that feeling: a small bustling town with a real true city center that people use as a city center,” Culley says. “It’s sort of like the heartbeat of it.”

That business at Fox in the Snow is booming is gratifying personally and professionally for the co-owners. “You’re becoming part of people’s routine and their holiday and their day and their family,” Culley says.

Lauren Culley FOX IN THE SNOW CAFE

Lauren Culley with her husband, Jeff Excell

FILE/Fred Squillante, The Columbus Dispatch

Courtesy Fox in the Snow Cafe

WE’LL BUILD YOUR STUDENT UP, NOT BREAK THEM DOWN.

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Hayley Deeter

HAYLEY GALLERY

Hayley Deeter never envisioned running an art gallery or living in a small city like New Albany, but over the past two decades, she ended up doing both.

The New York native spent 27 years in corporate America; in 2003, she relocated from Chicago to Columbus at the behest of her then-employer. As a single parent, quality schools were a top priority, so she chose New Albany. “I had to get [my children] that same … caliber of education that they would get in Chicago in a private school, and I was able to find it in a public school in New Albany,” Deeter says.

By then, however, Deeter had decided she was ready to call her corporate life quits. “I decided to pursue avenues that would allow me to be here for my kids and also be a role model for my daughter to show that she could do whatever she wants,” says Deeter, a prolific art collector who helped arrange an art auction fundraiser at Temple Beth Shalom in New Albany.

After she auctioned more than $40,000 worth of art in an hour and a half, Deeter recognized there was an appetite for it in her new hometown. “Talk about perfect market research,” she

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Photo by James D. DeCamp

Hayley Deeter in her gallery

says. In 2007, she founded Hayley Gallery, which has occupied three different sites in New Albany, including its present (and, Deeter says, final) location in Market and Main.

Over the years, the gallery has grown by leaps and bounds. “We started out with about 30 artists,” Deeter says. “And today we have 90.” Some 60 percent of its artists are women, 10 percent are from minority communities and another 10 percent are from the LGBTQ community, she adds. “It’s so important to really represent the state that you’re in.”

Deeter attributes her gallery’s success to the community around her. “I feel like I’m in the center of everything, and that’s nice because you can get discovered,” Deeter says.

Deeter is proud of her career detour. “It wasn’t even a glimmer in my eye to be an entrepreneur when I first moved

Leo Ruberto knew the advantages of living in New Albany long before he considered working in the city.

“It was a hidden gem, probably more than it is right now today,” says Ruberto,

Photographer: Stephanie Barnes

here,” she says. And she’s proud to live in New Albany, too. “It’s the longest I’ve ever lived somewhere,” she says. “It’s nice to plant these roots.”

a resident of New Albany since 2006 and the CEO and owner of Feazel Roofing.

Ruberto says the city is a great place to raise a family, pointing to assets such as its walking paths, golf and school system. “It’s a really safe, great place to live,” he says.

When he bought Feazel Roofing in 2013, the company was headquartered in Westerville. Eventually, the business, which employs 280, outgrew its

Photos by James D. DeCamp (2)

corporate offices and was searching for a new location.

“New Albany wasn’t a prerequisite,” Ruberto says. “We looked all over the city [of Columbus]. We were looking for the right fit, the right location.”

New Albany Company President and CEO Bill Ebbing suggested Ruberto look in his own backyard. “He said, ‘Hey, I heard you’re looking for a new space,’” Ruberto says. “We were working heavily with the city of Westerville, because they wanted to keep us. … But they just didn’t have the site that worked well for us.”

As it turned out, New Albany had just the right site on Walton Parkway. “We wanted to have a building that was on a highway,” Ruberto says. “It was the exact right plot for us from a size perspective. … We built it with Daimler and worked with the city.”

The new corporate headquarters opened in early 2020, complementing a facility in Hilliard that houses trucks and equipment.

Although Feazel Roofing does business throughout Central Ohio, Ruberto proudly serves numerous customers in New Albany—including his neighbors.

“Certainly, you don’t want to get yelled at when you go to a barbeque,” he says.

The Feazel Roofing headquarters

Photo by James D. DeCamp

Alan Hinson

Jean Lesnick

Jennifer Hyland Andrea Iacovetta

Kauser Ahmad

Bev Klein

Kathy Daniels

Kandis Hall Scott Siebenaler

Gail Tobias

David Kaucheck

Mark Neff

David Randall

Rob Riddle

Erin Glowacki

Tracy West

Hallie Abel Erin Spalding Karrie Short Morgan Petrides

Jane Kessler Lennox

Karyn Dye

Tara Miller NEW ALBANY BALLET CO.

New Albany is known for encouraging its citizens to walk or bicycle, but one member of the community assures that its young people are always on their toes.

In 1999, New Albany Ballet Co. owner Tara Miller co-founded the dance school with Alisa Bernard to fill a void in arts education. “There are a lot of dance studios [and] competition-type dance studios, but there was no other noncompetition dance studio atmosphere,” Miller says.

The school, which today occupies its own, custom-designed 20,000-squarefoot-plus building, provides training across a panoply of styles to nearly 1,000 students; in addition to ballet, lessons in jazz, tap, hip-hop and contemporary are offered by 14 faculty members. Demand is such that a 6,000-square-foot addition to its building is in the works.

At first, Miller catered to New Albany residents in search of dance education for their children. “You can’t really live in New Albany and not know who we are or have been to us at some point,” says Miller. Today, the school also at-

tracts families from surrounding cities, including Newark, Granville, Dublin and Powell. “We even have a group coming from Zanesville,” she says.

An added attraction is the school’s nonprofit New Albany Children’s Ballet

Photo by James

D. DeCamp

Theatre, which presents nine performances of “The Nutcracker” annually with the New Albany Symphony Orchestra. “BalletMet has professionals doing all their main roles, where we cast students,” says Miller. “We’re fortunate to have support within the New Albany community,” she says, citing the city’s support of performing-arts venues such as the McCoy Center for the Arts and the Hinson Amphitheater.

Miller, a Gahanna native, moved to New Albany shortly after co-founding the New Albany Ballet Co. There, she has raised two daughters, now 17 and 20.

“I could not have found a better community to get married in, own a business in and raise both of my girls,” she says.

Paul Judge AXIUM PACKAGING

Paul Judge never anticipated living or working in the United States, let alone New Albany.

But as the CEO of Axium Packaging, a longtime supplier to Bath & Body Works, he did just that when Bath & Body Works became the anchor to the Personal Care and Beauty Campus in the New Albany International Business Park. Numerous companies critical to the company’s supply chain relocated to be close to their customer, including Axium.

The company, then based in Ontario, made the move in 2011—and

The New Albany Children’s Ballet Theatre performs “The Nutcracker.”

Courtesy Stephanie Barnes

Judge and his wife followed suit. “I didn’t know much about Columbus, candidly,” Judge says. “I had come for meetings for Bath & Body Works. … My wife didn’t know much about it.”

After initially settling in Columbus in 2014, Judge and his wife moved to New Albany the following year. As parents, they were drawn by the schools, the proximity to Axium and, most importantly, the chance to be part of a community of “expatriates,” as Judge calls the mix of residents from out of state or other Central Ohio suburbs. “Unlike a lot of established communities, this was a community still establishing itself,” Judge says. “It’s a discovery mode. We said, ‘What a great opportunity to become a part of a community that’s growing [and] creating what it wants to become.’”

Judge embraces the chance to live and work in the same place, and the sense of civic responsibility it encourages. “The kids go to school 10 minutes from where I work, and I work 10 minutes from where I live,” he says. “What I do in my professional life also impacts my social/community [life]. I can get held to a higher standard maybe, because of that. There’s no anonymity between your professional self and your personal self.

“You want to be able to help and give back,” he says. “You’re appreciative of what you have.”

Photo by James D. DeCamp

Axium Packaging CEO Paul Judge

Some of the world’s most innovative companies all saw the same thing in New Albany. The future.

They saw a business park with a clear vision of tomorrow. They saw the strength of our technological infrastructure. They saw one of the nation’s most robust and affordable fiber optic networks, triple electric feeds and the power of tremendous bandwidth.

They saw what every company wants when looking for a new home. A place that delivers the resources they need to grow. To thrive. And look ahead with confidence. The New Albany International Business Park. Where will your business be tomorrow?

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Boosting Small Business

The Innovate New Albany incubator provides flexible spaces and services to help nascent companies grow and thrive.

By Mandy Shunnarah

For small businesses, startups and nonprofits in the initial years of growth, being in the right environment can make all the difference. Innovate New Albany is a business incubator that understands the needs of early-stage and fast-growing companies and tailors its offerings to what founders and CEOs of up-andcoming organizations need most.

“The business incubator allows small businesses and entrepreneurs to be in the same place with people who have the same goals, so there’s a synergy that occurs between those folks. Whereas if you’re getting your own individual office space you might not have the collaborative capabilities with other entrepreneurs in the same situations you’re in,” says Jackie Russell, the economic development specialist who oversees operations at Innovate New Albany.

That has proven true for C. Emre Koksal, who founded Anchor, an awardwinning cybersecurity software company, alongside Harihara Varma Indukuri. “We’ve had partnerships based on the relationships we’ve built within Innovate New Albany and some of our customers are in the vicinity, so we can host them for meetings,” Koksal says.

While Innovate New Albany has been around for the past decade, the

demand for office space and other offerings has been growing. With the new Intel plant under construction just a few miles away, the incubator is a hot spot for tech entrepreneurs. However, those in other industries also can benefit from the swirl of ideas and cutting-edge thinking that permeate the environment.

“We’re geared towards technology, and over 50 percent of our companies

are technology companies, but there are still companies that fall under the service, product or nonprofit categories. So you’re getting ideas from people in different industry sectors that can add value to your operation that you might not have found if you were in a regular office building,” Russell says.

Beth Gibson, founder of the nonprofit Buddy Up for Life, has lived in New Albany for the past 26 years and

Photo by James D. DeCamp

Innovate New Albany team members

Jackie Russell (left) and Neil Collins (right) with Buddy Up for Life founder Beth Gibson

knew the business incubator was the perfect home for her organization, which helps individuals with Down syndrome access fitness training through tennis lessons and learn independent living skills. “What’s a better place to work than right in your backyard?” Gibson says. “Just because we’re a nonprofit doesn’t mean we’re not a business. We’re all trying to service our customers, and we’re all trying to generate revenue. It’s just that the way in which our organization is structured is nonprofit.”

What sets Innovate New Albany apart is the variety of space it offers for all levels of small business, as well as its programming. The incubator has everything from offices and cubicles to co-working spaces. There’s even an option for businesses that just need a professional mailing ad-

Anchor co-founders Harihara Varma Indukuri (left) and C. Emre Koksal

dress. Conference rooms and events spaces also are available. Gibson says Buddy Up uses “every nook and cranny” at Innovate New Albany for classes, parent meetings and quarterly board meetings, so she knows firsthand that the facility can handle a variety of space needs.

The programming, which is available for free to the public, brings in experts from various fields to share knowledge and resources. These events are called TIGER Talks, an acronym for Technology, Innovation, Growth, Entrepreneurship and Responsibility.

“They’re bringing in different people in the community into our environment on a weekly basis. That’s invaluable because you can do as much social media as you want, but I think word of mouth and building relationships in person really helps,” Gibson says. “It’s been helpful to have the opportunity to meet people in person and share your passion and be able to learn about others and see where you can connect the dots.”

Helping as many entrepreneurs as possible is vital to the city’s economic

development. “New Albany is different in that it thinks big picture, it thinks long term and it thinks strategically,” says Neil Collins, the on-site leader at Innovate New Albany. “We will help anybody because our economy works that way.”

Even outside the incubator’s doors, location makes all the difference. “In

When You Want the Best

New Albany, we move at the speed of business. In the city itself, we permit 25 percent faster than other Ohio communities, which allows our companies to get into the ground sooner. Similarly with Innovate New Albany, we’re able to turn around a lease in a couple of days. We’re operating at their speed and not the speed of government, which makes it really attractive,” Russell says.

For rapidly growing businesses, the ability to scale operations quickly is key—and it’s a factor in why 20 businesses have graduated from Innovate New Albany. A number of those companies sought bigger spaces but chose to stay local.

“The broader Columbus area has been selected as the No. 5 best place to be for software engineers, according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,” Koksal says. “It’s a lively city, a growing city with a lot of motion. This area is being referred to as the Silicon Heartland, and Innovate New Albany happens to be at the heart of it.”

“ You can do as much social media as you want, but I think word of mouth and building relationships in person really helps.”

Beth Gibson, Buddy Up for Life founder

SUSTAINABILITY

Environmental Efforts Pay Dividends

By Joseph Stefanov

As a strategically planned community, we at the City of New Albany proactively look for ways to improve our quality of life. We collaborate with residents and businesses in identifying the services and amenities that matter most and align with our founding pillars: lifelong learning, arts and culture, health and wellness, and environmental sustainability.

Our first three community pillars have long been evident across New Albany. We enjoy them through events such as the New Albany Lecture Series, New Albany Symphony Orchestra performances and the New Albany Walking Classic. We experience them inside facilities such as the McCoy Center for the Arts, Hinson Amphitheater and the Heit Center for Healthy New Albany.

The fourth pillar, environmental sustainability, has been an area of extra focus for us in recent years, and we are proud to report that our efforts are producing encouraging results.

Just a few examples include the following:

• Our city council created a Sustainability Advisory Board to help improve the city’s efforts to be good stewards of our environment.

• We completed a public service complex solar panel project that significantly cuts electricity costs. More importantly, this particular project will protect our environment by annually removing 112 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air. That is the equivalent of planting 2,800 new trees!

• We continue to preserve green space

in our community—acquiring land for active and passive recreational uses. Recent acquisitions include the roughly 100-acre Taylor Farm Park and a 73-acre site at Walnut Street and Bevelhymer Road. Nearly one out

of every five acres of our land is now devoted to parks and green space.

• We instituted a Green Building Incentive Program that reduces building permit fees by up to 25 percent to encourage sustainable development through practices that reduce energy, waste and water consumption.

• We launched a food waste composting program that has diverted more than 50,000 pounds of waste from the landfill since April 2022.

Our sustainability strides have allowed us to achieve silver status from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s Sustainable2050 program. Through this program, MORPC not only recognizes our commitment to environmental sustainability, but also assists us, through collaboration and resources, to do even more.

At the City of New Albany, we are making every effort to lead by example in the area of sustainability. We are committed to protecting our environment to maintain a community and quality of life that residents, businesses and visitors can enjoy for generations to come.

Joseph Stefanov is the New Albany city manager.

Courtesy City of New Albany (2)

Public service solar panels

Enjoy Serenity in Scenic View Estates

Nothing compares to nature’s beauty. This belief is the basis for the creation and design of a new and unique housing community in Pataskala, Ohio. Scenic View Estates will feature 60 new homes on 136 acres in a deeply wooded, secluded enclave. In phase one, 17 lots hit the market. So far, 5 lots have sold with 12 available.

As Columbus expands in population, it has become increasingly difficult to find a private retreat where one can view tall oaks, see vibrantly colored birds, and hear babbling streams. Scenic View Estates offers a natural setting for homeowners to escape from noise, concrete, and congestion and live in luxury homes ensconced in a serene, natural setting.

Limiting the community to 60 homes was a purposeful decision. Preserving the existing natural beauty, as well as the copses of elms and maples, ravines, and quiet environment was something the developers considered vital and sacrosanct. At a time when builders are razing forests and turning cornfields into overcrowded, dense, noisy communities, Scenic View Estates has saved 7,000 trees, benefitting buyers and the environment. The goal is always to preserve the site’s natural beauty. Scenic View Estates’ developer hopes more builders adopt this philosophy in the future.

The property will have six bridges crossing over streams and a 50-foot bridge for traversing a wetland. For residents who wish to stroll, run, bike, walk a dog, or ride to the clubhouse in a golf cart, there is a 3-mile gravel walking path that invites homeowners to feel the natural world around

them and be at one with their tranquil surroundings. Each home will have a scenic view and be separated by wooded areas that ensure privacy, serenity, and seclusion.

Scenic View Estates is a gated community with modern amenities, such as a clubhouse and pool. Lots range in size from over 1 acre to more than 5 acres. Residents have freedom in choosing their housing design and builder. Lots will feature natural gas, electricity, high-speed internet, and city water and sewer service installed via directional boring, which reduces damage to the environment and the natural landscape. While Scenic View Estates offers a retreat from the noise, gridlock, and congestion of large cities and nearby towns, its location offers quick access to Downtown Columbus and the New Albany International Business Park, as well as the Google, Amazon, Intel, and Meta offices. Scenic View Estates has not tried to rival the beauty of nature. It has captured and preserved it so homeowners can smell the roses in spring, enjoy the warmth of summer, view the coruscating colors of fall, and snuggle during winter snows.

Top-Rated Schools Emphasize Achievement and Student Well-Being

By Michael L. Sawyers

New Albany-Plain Local Schools is ever grateful for a community that believes, embraces and supports the core purpose of our schools: “ To create a culture of accountability that achieves the best academic and developmental outcomes for each student .” This focused purpose enables everyone in our school district to put students first and implement measurable outcomes for continuous improvement that enhance student achievement, student growth and student well-being as our community expects.

Successful communities support student achievement in a number of ways, and New Albany is no exception. Our school district’s 120-acre learning campus and 80-acre nature preserve are the center of our community, and our success directly impacts our quality of life and the economic impact of attracting and retaining businesses, as well as residents. More than 5,100 students in grades preK–12 in our care are championed by nearly 700 teachers, administrators and staff, their parents, the City of New Albany, Plain Township, The New Albany Company, The New Albany Community Foundation, our civic leaders, the New Albany Chamber of Commerce and its business partners, resident taxpayers and many others. Life-changing developmental and educational opportunities for our students are possible because of the strength of our community.

This support is evident in our collective achievements. NAPLS is one of 12 school districts in the state to receive five stars, the highest rating possible, on Ohio’s Local School Report Card System. The class of 2023 includes eight National Merit Finalists, 18 Commended

Scholars, four students committed to serve our country in the armed services and 30 students who signed to take their game to the next level in collegiate athletics. Year after year, we celebrate similar achievements that would not be possible without our dedicated faculty, staff and administrators, and our family and community partners.

Our efforts to build an inclusive campus culture continue in order to allow every student to feel safe, supported and connected at school, at home and in our community. Our Culture of Accountability has been built on the foundation that we are each responsible for our behavior, that we “own” our responses to challenges and circumstances, that we are stronger when we work together, and that we will strive to be better every day. “NAPLS is Committed to Fostering an Environment of Kindness, Dignity & Respect.” Go Eagles!

Michael L. Sawyers is the superintendent of New Albany-Plain Local Schools.

Courtesy New Albany-Plain Local Schools (2)

Eagle Pride band

WE PROUDLY SUPPORT OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS

WE PROUDLY SUPPORT OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS

At Encova Insurance, we understand the critical relationship between business and community. We provide commercial, auto, home and life insurance to our policyholders through our more than 2,000 independent agents who serve the neighborhoods in their area. With this unique approach, we cultivate authentic, local insurance services across 28 states and Washington, D.C. Community is the foundation of our business model.

At Encova Insurance, we understand the critical relationship between business and community. We provide commercial, auto, home and life insurance to our policyholders through our more than 2,000 independent agents who serve the neighborhoods in their area. With this unique approach, we cultivate authentic, local insurance services across 28 states and Washington, D.C. Community is the foundation of our business model.

We advocate for the organizations and causes that mirror the values of our company mission, associates, agents and policyholders. Encova proudly supports community initiatives across our footprint to create something greater than ourselves.

We advocate for the organizations and causes that mirror the values of our company mission, associates, agents and policyholders. Encova proudly supports community initiatives across our footprint to create something greater than ourselves.

Thomas|Riddle Group

team of licensed real estate professionals associated with New Albany Realty.