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The Columbus Region lands numerous major high-tech developments, especially from California
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One Columbus, a supplement to Columbus CEO, is published annually by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © 2022, 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.
In a state where business thrives, we’re thrilled to have you join the growing list of forward-thinking companies that have chosen to make Ohio a vital part of their future. newalbanybusiness.org
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The economic development organization for the 11-county Columbus Region. Work ing with local and state partners, we serve as the business location resource for com panies across Central Ohio and around the world as they grow, innovate, and compete within the global economy.
To become the most prosperous region in th United States.
The process of building prosperity requires sustained focus on the social and economic advancement of all residents within the Columbus Region.
The One Columbus mission is to lead a comprehensive regional growth strategy that develops and attracts the world’s most competitive companies, grows a highly adaptive workforce, prepares our communi ties for the future, and inspires corporate, academic and public innovation throughout the 11-county Columbus Region.
President and Executive Vice President, Central Ohio Region, Huntington
Marc D. Reitter, Secretary
President and Chief Operating Officer, AEP Ohio Mark Berven, Treasurer
President and Chief Operating Officer, Nationwide Property & Casualty
Kevin Boyce County Commissioner, Franklin County Board of Commissioners
Corrine Burger
Chief Control Officer, Consumer and Community Banking JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Brian Faust
Chief Financial Officer, JobsOhio Andrew J. Ginther Mayor, City of Columbus Brian Jepson
President, OhioHealth Central Ohio Market
James A. Keller
EVP, Auto Development Center, Honda Development & Manufacturing of America Gregory R. Overmyer
Chief Executive Officer, Overmyer Hall Associates
Robert H. Schottenstein
Chief Executive Officer and President, M/I Homes Rick Szabrak
Director of Economic and Workforce Development, Fairfield County
Dr. Grace Wang
Executive VP for Research, Innovation and Knowledge Enterprise, The Ohio State University
Matthew Bailey Partner, Squire Patton Boggs
Kenny McDonald
President and CEO, Columbus Partnership
Sean Grant
Chief Financial Officer, Columbus Partnership
★The Columbus Region is primed to become one of the most prosperous regions in the United States. While we have shown resiliency and face challenges each day, we’re well-positioned to continue our growth and evolution, and that’s all due to the incredible work by talented folks across the Region telling our story and doing the work. It’s been a time of ac complishment, achievement and advancement, and we can all be proud of the efforts to get here.
Companies across the Region continue to expand, new projects are breaking ground, our communities have launched impactful initiatives, and new enterprises have been funded and started. Once again, this year brought transformational investments in our region, highlighted by Intel’s announcement—the largest manufacturing investment in Ohio history. Emerging industries continue to gain momentum, especially life sciences and insurtech. Throughout our 11-county region, our communities remain competitive places in which to live and work. We have a location that provides unmatched market access, a talented workforce and a culture of collaboration.
One Columbus, our regional economic development organiza tion, is undeniably one of the best in the country. Thank you to the investors who support the efforts of One Columbus—I am confident that we will continue to grow, compete, find critical opportunities and remain a strong, resilient region in the days ahead.
Sue Zazon President and Executive Vice President, Central Ohio Region, Huntington Chairwoman, One Columbus Board of DirectorsPhotos courtesy One Columbus
We live to ensure the Columbus Region is a vibrant place to build businesses and careers. columbusregion.com
Economic growth in the Columbus Region isn’t just about attracting new business. It’s also helping existing companies continue to grow.
By Laurie Allen★From two-year-old start ups to a company founded in 1896, some significant Central Ohio businesses are expand ing inside a flourishing ecosystem that drives and supports growth across all sectors.
Timothy J. Miller, Ph.D., president and co-founder of Forge Biologics, says the Columbus Region boasts many assets that propel the kind of expansion his company has experi enced, including a talented workforce and exemplary academic, health and science centers—along with strong public-private partnerships.
“We have one of the youngest, most well-educated populations, anchored by Ohio State [University] and Nationwide Children’s Hospital,” Miller says. Innovative investors like Drive Capital, which helped finance Forge from the outset, also shape a robust environment. “They all make up a recipe for success.”
Headquartered in Grove City, Forge is a hybrid contract manufac turing and development company that aims to accelerate gene therapy programs from preclinical through clinical and commercial stage manu facturing. Its focus is on viral vectors used in genetic therapy for people, including children, with rare diseases.
Just two years since its inception, Forge has raised more than $240 million in financing, including a $40 million Series A financing in 2020 and a $120 million Series B round in 2021.
“I didn’t anticipate raising Series A and B financing during a pandemic,” Miller says. Nevertheless, the com pany also grew to 240 employees and is on track to grow to 400 with help from a JobsOhio development grant facilitated by economic devel opment organization One Columbus. Forge also secured $80 million worth of financing from Midcap Financial to drive continued expansion and meet the growing demand for gene therapy manufacturing.
Forge is but one example of com panies that chose to locate or expand
in the Columbus Region in recent years, says Justin Bickle, managing director of client services and project management at One Columbus.
Bickle says One Columbus works to understand competing markets and present compelling cases for doing business here, helping make the necessary connections to support workforce development, academic affiliations, incentives, funding and community engagement.
One company that nearly got away is Upstart, one of the nation’s first lending platforms to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to the multi-trillion-dollar credit industry. Bickle says Upstart was “very close” to opening in Chicago but chose Columbus when presented with data about real estate, incentive pack ages and other pluses.
In a 2021 interview with Columbus CEO, Upstart’s Columbus leader, Grant Schneider, said, “There’s a level of depth and thoughtfulness in helping new businesses make con nections that goes beyond quarterly and yearly goals and the number of hires out of universities. The people here are amazing.”
Bickle says retaining successful businesses is just as important as attracting them. “The relationship doesn’t stop once they decide to lo cate or expand here. It’s really impor tant to stay engaged with them.”
One Columbus helped Lancaster Colony/T. Marzetti navigate a major expansion of its Frank Road facility at the outset of the COVID-19 pan
demic, says Charles Mingo, the com pany’s vice president of corporate affairs and environmental, social and governance.
“They put us in a position to con tinue the expansion so that delays were mitigated,” Mingo says. “The world was a little disconnected at that point, and the company had a partner that helped speak a universal language among all those involved.”
The $23 million, 17,000-squarefoot expansion of the Frank Road facility added capacity for three new product lines, rolled out premier ren ovation and will create 20 new jobs. The company previously had moved its headquarters to Polaris in 2017, and in 2019 opened a state-of-the art innovation center in Lewis Center to create, test and refine products, or as Mingo puts it, conduct “the sci ence behind the flavor.”
T. Marzetti is a specialty foods company known for brands such as Marzetti salad dressings and dips, New York Bakery frozen breads and Sister Schubert’s rolls. The compa ny’s origin dates to 1896, when The resa Marzetti opened a restaurant on the East Side of Columbus. Lancaster Colony purchased the company in 1969, and since the early 1970s, its food business has grown at an an nual rate of 11 percent. T. Marzetti employs more than 1,200 people in six manufacturing and distributing facilities in Central Ohio. It also has operations in Kentucky.
As a worldwide recruiter, “We are easily able to sell the fact that
Central Ohio is a great place to live, work and raise a family,” Mingo says. “It’s increasingly becoming the jewel of the Midwest.” Relationships with academic institutions like Ohio State University, where Marzetti staff teach food science, manufacturing and marketing classes, also provide fertile recruiting grounds.
For Quantum Health founder Kara Trott, Central Ohio was the obvious choice when she started the first health care navigation and care co ordination company, now one of the largest in the nation. “Central Ohio is my home,” says Trott, who founded Quantum Health because she saw a need for a more consumer-centric health care experience.
Others saw it, too, as evidenced by annual revenue growth rate of 25 percent and an expanding clientele base. Quantum is one of the 450 largest companies in the country and has more than 1,800 employees— a number is expected to grow to 2,000 next year, according to Trott.
When the company outgrew its Westerville headquarters in 2019, its leaders conducted a nationwide search before deciding to locate in Dublin, where it renovated a building formerly used by Ashland Chemical. Quantum purchased a second build ing as expansion continued.
“We like this campus environment,” Trott says, adding that incentives from the city of Dublin attracted her to the suburban community. The Quantum campus on Blazer Parkway currently has room for the new surge
From expansion to reducing the risk of fraud, we know your business requires custom solutions to meet the moments you’re navigating. Fifth Third has industry experts who understand your challenges, and the tools to make your business more efficient.
Proud to Partner with One Columbus’ Efforts in Growing the Region
Source: One Columbus Announce ments Database, 11-County Columbus Region, Companies with at least two projects announced January 2011–June 2022. One Columbus projects, does not encompass all market activity.
of employees expected in the coming months, she says.
Quantum, which had 650,000 members in 2017, now has more than 2 million and is climbing toward 2.5 million, Trott says. Its clientele is composed primarily of self-insured companies with between 5,000 and 25,000 employees, and in some cases many more, Trott says. “We cover 65 to 70 percent of all people who get benefits from employersponsored health plans.”
Trott, who also serves as board chair and senior adviser at Quantum, says a growing demand for better care coordination, benefits manage ment and patient care has fueled Quantum’s impressive growth. “We’re focused on the total experience—co ordinating care among physicians, working on unpaid claims, and giving patients access to continuity of care. We walk alongside someone through out their health care journey.” The company also consistently reduces employer-client spending, usually in the first year, she says.
In the Columbus Region, growth begets growth, she says. The arrival of Intel, for example, will catalyze em ployment growth as new employees bring family members who also will join the local workforce talent pool.
Bickle says the semiconductor industry is one of several rapidly growing sectors, including life sci ences and automotive (think: electric vehicles) that will build on existing synergies and add depth to the Re gion’s ecosystem.
“The life sciences sector has ex ploded in the last four to five years. We are involved in the development of an ecosystem around the drive to capitalize,” Bickle says. As home to world-class researchers, leadingedge biotechnology facilities and a growing investor base, the Region
Honda of America Mfg., Inc.
DHL
Amazon Data Services, Inc. 4
JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association 4
The Kroger Co. 4
Transportation Research Center Inc. 4
Updox LLC 4
Accenture LLP 3
AMG Industries, LLC 3
Andelyn Biosciences, Inc. 3 Ariel Corp. 3
Axium Plastics, LLC 3
Butler Animal Health Supply, LLC 3
NEX Transport Inc. 3
ODW Logistics, Inc. 3 Quantum Health, Inc. 3
Stanley Electric U.S. Co., Inc. 3 Upstart Network, Inc. 3 zulily, llc 3
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. 2
Ace Hardware Corp. 2 AcuSport Corporation 2
AGC Flat Glass North America, Inc. 2
Aleris Rolled Products, Inc. 2
Allied Mineral Products, Inc. 2 Amazon.com Services, Inc. 2
American Electric Power Transmissions Group 2
Ascena Retail Group, Inc. 2 Autotool, Inc. 2
AVT Technology Solutions LLC 2 Barkbox, Inc. 2
BBI Logistics LLC 2
Beam Technologies Inc. 2
Benchmark Industrial Inc. 2
Bocchi Laboratories Ohio, LLC 2
The Brickman Group Ltd LLC 2
Burrows Paper Corp. 2
C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Co. KG 2 Cheryl & Co. 2
Comresource, Inc. 2
Comresource, Inc. 2
ContactUS, LLC 2
CoverMyMeds LLC 2
Designer Brands Inc. 2
DHL Global Forwarding 2
Ease Logistics Services LLC
Engineered Materials Systems Inc. 2
Engineered Profiles, LLC 2
Exel Inc. 2
ExpressPoint Technology Services, Inc. 2
Feazel Inc. 2
FlightSafety International Inc. 2
Forge Biologics, Inc. 2
G & J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers, Inc. 2
GPS Consumer Direct, Inc. 2
GradLeaders, LLC. 2
G-TEKT North America Corp. 2
HealthSpot, Inc. 2
The Heitmeyer Group, LLC 2
Hexion Inc. 2
Highlights for Children, Inc. 2
Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. 2
Hitachi Astemo Ohio Manufacturing, Inc.
HL-A Co., Inc 2
Hollingsworth Management Services, LLC 2
Honda Logistics North America, Inc.
The Huntington National Bank 2
Information Control Company LLC 2
Jefferson Industries Corp. 2
Kenco Logistic Services, LLC 2
Lancaster Colony Corp. 2
Lightwell Inc.
Lower, LLC 2
Lubrication Specialties, Inc.
Lululemon USA Inc.
Magna Seating of America, Inc.
Mediu, LLC 2
Middle West Spirits, LLC 2
MPW Industrial Services Group, Inc.
is creating a hub for excellence in biotech therapies.
The potential for a formidable commercial-life science alliance is evidenced by the billions of dollars’ worth of investments being made here, he says, citing Andelyn Bio sciences, an affiliate of Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Andelyn, another contract manu facturing organization involved in viral vector production, broke ground earlier this year on a 185,000-squarefoot facility in Columbus’ Innovation District, supported by a $5 million JobsOhio Research and Develop ment Center grant. Andelyn also has received a significant private-sector investment.
Andelyn Biosciences was born out of groundbreaking work at Nation wide Children’s, where the first FDAapproved systemic gene therapy was developed. Andelyn combines the names Andrew and Evelyn, who were among the first children to receive experimental gene therapy there several years ago.
Erandi De Silva, Forge Biologics co-founder and senior vice presi dent of product development, says the Region is rapidly becoming an epicenter for gene therapy and other biotech endeavors.
In addition to its own small clinical pipeline, Forge works with dozens of outside clients to accelerate the development and manufacture of vi ral vectors, and its 200,000-squarefoot headquarters houses some of the world’s largest bioreactors. Forge is poised to become the larg est dedicated adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector manufacturer in the world in the next few years, company leaders say.
“We’ve heard from many inves tors that this really is a big feather in Ohio’s cap,” De Silva says.
De Silva says Forge looked at 25 to 30 other sites before deciding to locate in Grove City. “They’ve been fantastic partners, from the mayor to the development department,” she says. Other assets included rea sonably priced housing, proximity to the airport and building infrastruc ture. “They checked a lot of boxes for us and offered us an opportunity to grow.”
★All the buzz, and rightly so, has been about Intel Corp.’s massive plans for Central Ohio. But there have been plenty of other major developments that will significantly impact the Columbus Region’s economy.
For instance, there’s Hyperion Mo tors Inc. When its leaders decided to move out of Southern California for the southwest edge of Columbus ear lier this year, they sought a friendlier, more business-orientated climate in which to move cutting-edge research and development efforts into the sec ond gear of production. “California’s not ideal for manufacturing, without a lot of government support,” says An gelo Kafantaris, co-founder and CEO of Hyperion Motors, which manufac tures hydrogen fuel-cell products.
The technology company had its 2011 origins in Columbus, but it moved to Orange, California, a few years later in part because the state had some hydrogen fueling stations and other hydrogen-power infra structure in place necessary to sup port its research and development. “We were not eying Ohio,” Kafantaris says about the company’s recent relocation efforts.
That said, Kafantaris had attended high school with an engineering focus in Warren, near Youngstown in north east Ohio, and also went to Ohio State University after going to an engineer ing college in Detroit. Columbus also served as home to some of the ven ture capital sources that have funded the company since its inception.
He also cites Ohio’s steep history in the manufacturing of vehicles and the proximity of Hyperion suppliers and
Ohio State’s Center for Transportation Research. Another plus: The layout of the facility the company purchased— the former Dispatch Printing Co.’s newspaper plant—was conducive to producing fuel-cell membranes. “When you put it together, no other state of fered these factors,” Kafantaris says.
The announcement of that eco nomic win for the Region came soon after Intel revealed it will invest $20 billion in the Licking County section of the New Albany International Business Park. That project is slated to create 3,000 permanent jobs as the rollout of chip production begins in 2025, as well as the expectation that related tech manufacturers and service-sector businesses will follow to serve Intel’s operations. That facility will boost the expansion of chips made in the U.S. to help other American industries—in cluding automakers—gain access to
Hyperion unveiled a prototype of the XP-1, a sports car fueled by hydrogen.
the electronic brains in an ever-grow ing number of products.
Hyperion Motors isn’t alone in find ing fertile ground in greater Columbus. The French electric vehicle battery producer Forsee Power has chosen the former Zaner-Bloser warehouse in Hilliard as its U.S. headquarters; the site also will include research and pro duction operations set to create 150 jobs during the next five years.
And the high-profile pharmaceutical giant Amgen Inc. boosted the region’s biotech aspirations in late 2021 when it began construction of a $365 million production and packaging facility for drug vials and syringes within the New Albany office and industrial park. That facility promises to hire 400 in sup port of the operations, which are set to open in mid-2024.
Count California-based Pharmavite LLC as another biotech company lured to the region. The producer of Nature Made, Equelle and MegaFood prod ucts has a $200 million facility under construction—also within the New
Albany International Business Park.
Director of operations Kara Roeder says the facility will mark Pharmavite’s second production facility outside the two in its home state. The New Albany facility will expand production of its line of Nature Made gummy vitamins, which it also produces in an Alabama plant it opened in 2013 that operates 24 hours, seven days a week. That facility, she says, offers no expansion opportunities on-site.
The New Albany facility of 200,000 to 250,000 square feet will primar ily serve markets in the Midwest and Northeast U.S. It has enough surplus land to grow the manufacturing campus. “We want to ensure we have capacity not just for four or five years, but for possibly 20 or 30 years,” Ro eder says. “We’re setting ourselves up for the long run.”
She says Pharmavite considered 70 markets before narrowing it to three and, ultimately, choosing the New Albany park. Roeder cites the region’s favorable cost of labor, future expansion opportunity on the chosen 40-acre site, and reliable utility service among the reasons the company came to the Columbus Region. Roeder
also notes Ohio State University as an important resource as a research partner and likely source for in-house researchers. The New Albany opera tion, set to open in late 2024, also will include bringing in other research and development partners. “That sets us apart,” Roeder says. “The science be hind the product is so important.”
The choice did not surprise CEO Jeff Bouttelle, a Bowling Green native who earned his bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University. He has held several positions at other Ohio businesses, including Procter & Gamble, Nestle USA, Abbott Nutrition and University Hospitals of Cleveland. Boutelle says he did not tip the scales in the choice of the Columbus Region.
“While the [location] committee came to the decision on its own,” he says, “I am very pleased with the outcome and not at all surprised.”
American Nitrile CEO Jacob Block did not need a full marketing push about the benefits the Columbus Region offered manufacturers. The Bexley
native spent much of his venture capital career as managing partner of the First Avenue Capital firm in New York but saw an opportunity to return medical supply manufacturing to the U.S. in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “How could it be the U.S. shipped all of PPE manufacturing overseas?” he wondered.
Sourcing of gloves for the medi cal market from China became more difficult as the scourge spread in the virus’ (presumed) country of origin. And the option of sourcing natural rubber gloves from Malaysian produc ers became unattractive as prices soared amid broken supply contracts.
“We became very intrigued with the nitrile [glove] market,” says Block, who grew up in the Block Bagels busi ness started by his grandfather, Harold Block. “You can produce the gloves wherever oil [petroleum] is produced,” shortening the product supply chain.
Reshoring the production of es sential gloves for the domestic market begins at American Nitrile this fall in a revamped, 527,000-square-foot dis tribution center first occupied by Pier One Imports (and later Stone Corp. to store cell phone parts) in Grove City. This fall, the first 200 workers of a planned 400-employee operation should begin working on half of the 12 eventual production lines.
The project includes on-site treat ment of the 300 million gallons of wastewater the operation will use annually, with the expectation that half of the reclaimed water will get put back into the manufacturing opera tion. “We’ll be the largest, most ad vanced and greenest glove factory in the world when we go online this fall,” says Block. Once the remaining lines open next summer, the operation will produce 40,000 gloves per line per hour, for an annual production of 3.6 billion medical and nonmedical gloves.
Block credits the region’s labor force, access to water and other strong utility resources, and a favor able regulatory environment for the project’s location in the Columbus Region, as well as a base of local investors who provided nearly 25 percent of the funding. “Columbus,” Block says, “is very favorable to build ing a business.”
American Nitrile CEO Jacob Block did not have to get a full marketing push about the benefits the Columbus Region offered manufacturers.
Creating the foundation for the wave of high-impact businesses moving into the Columbus Region includes the emphasis during the last 30 years of Central Ohio’s location as a logistics and transportation hub at the crossroads of the U.S. east of the Mississippi River. It also has sought to build economic development success on the rise of Ohio State as a leading research university engaged with One Columbus—formerly known as Columbus 2020—and other stakeholders in the business sector and civic and nonprofit arenas to expand into a tech town of sorts.
Matt McQuade, One Columbus’ managing director of business devel opment, credits the successful attrac tion of Amazon Web Services in the mid-2010s as the significant turning point that put greater Columbus on
need
the heart
rich commercial district, UA’s Lane Avenue corridor has it all…a walkable environment surrounded by beautiful, established neighborhoods…hotels,
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access to the region…and all within a community known for its top notch services.
out why so many businesses are choosing to call Upper Arlington
the map of “must consider” locations for global technology companies seek ing expansion sites.
AWS “put us on a lot of people’s radars,” says McQuade, who has spent nearly 12 years with the economic development organization on top of nearly five years in economic develop ment roles with the state of Ohio. Since Amazon’s initial $1 billion commitment, Google Cloud (Alphabet) and Facebook (Meta) have built data farms in the New Albany park, one of the three data farm sites Amazon had secured in the re gion. Google has since signaled plans for an expansion facility on 500 acres off Route 23 just outside the southern rim of Interstate 270 and on another site it has purchased in Lancaster.
Amazon Web Services “really changed the dynamics for the Region, even though we already had a good story,” McQuade says. “We’re nation ally recognized now as a technology community, as well as a landing point for companies on either coast.”
Columbus did, in fact, land in the top 20 potential sites for the highly sought-after HQ2, the project name Amazon gave its site search for a sec ond headquarters as a way to spread its growth from its Seattle campus. The $5 billion project promised 50,000 jobs to the winning city. While Colum bus did not ultimately win, McQuade says the effort provided instruction for more recent successes. “It brought us a tremendous amount of national
media attention,” he says. “It was like we were in a different league.”
Amazon remains an active economic development partner as it continues to grow its tech business and retail distri bution network throughout Ohio. It has two additional sites in Hilliard poised for development beyond the initial campus at Hayden Run Road and Brit ton Parkway, even as it continues to develop its New Albany data campus.
McQuade also says the biotech sector of the regional economy has started to bear fruit after years of outside companies funding research at Battelle, Ohio State and other tech resources and carting off the result ing tech startup to their hometowns for growth. He cites Nationwide Children’s Hospital spinoff Myonexus, which focuses on gene therapy treat ments of rare diseases, as a success story at keeping technology devel oped at those R&D facilities here.
In part, keeping and growing the operation in Columbus rested on lead researcher Dr. Louise Rodino-Klapac’s desire not to move development to Boston. (Sarepta Therapeutics, based in Boston, had acquired Myonexus.)
The growth of biotech production has reached the point where compa nies will consider locating operations where the tech was created. “Now we’re starting to build something of our own,” McQuade says, as the grad uate students and Ph.D.s doing the research become the workforce pool.
“As companies get a foothold in the market, then the growth continues.”
Hyperion Motors’ Kafantaris says the Columbus facility will focus on bringing stationary and mobile hydrogen fuelcell products to market. One of those is the XP-1 Hypercar, a limited-edition, highly fuel-efficient auto designed to demonstrate the practicality of hy drogen as an alternative fuel. It’s also intended to show it has better electric storage technology than the electric vehicles now on the market, which rely on the existing power grid. The tech promises applications for heavy trucks and public transit vehicles, without the drawbacks of current technologies.
He points to broader statewide efforts to boost hydrogen fuel cells, including a cooperative private- and public-sector effort to create the Mid west Hydrogen Center of Excellence through competing for a share of $8 billion of federal funding promoting conversion of natural gas into hydro gen fuel. “The key to hydrogen [fuel] growth is collaboration,” Kafantaris says. “Ohio is in a good position to take advantage of its resources. Hy drogen could become Ohio’s oil.”
And he expects the Columbus Region to receive a good share of the benefits of this advancing technology. “Columbus is a forever young city,” he says, “always attracting the best of the best.”
“Ohio is in a good position to take advantage of its resources. Hydrogen could become Ohio’s oil.”
ANGELO KAFANTARIS, co-founder and CEO of Hyperion MotorsFacebook Data Centers in New Albany Photo by Doral Chenoweth III/Columbus Dispatch
★With a population of more than 2.2 million people, the Columbus Region is a dynamic metropolitan area experiencing unprecedented growth. As home to one of the youngest and most educated populations in the country, its 11 counties are helping shape the future of commerce, technology and education.
The Region is diverse, with a combination of global companies and home-grown businesses, land use ranging from rural to industrial, and an abundance of educational opportunities and natural resources. These counties embrace innovative thinking and are poised to prosper.
KNOWLEDGE IS AN ASSET in Delaware County, which is home to three institutions of higher education: Columbus State Community College (Del aware Campus), Methodist Theological School and Ohio Wesleyan Univer sity. More than half of the county’s residents have a bachelor’s degree.
Despite its inland location 25 miles north of Downtown Columbus, it has 140 miles of shoreline along its rivers, lakes and reservoirs—the most of any county in the state.
AS THE FOURTH-fastest-growing county in Ohio over the past decade, Fairfield County is home to more than 3,000 businesses amid a wide range of community surroundings, both metropolitan and rural.
Fairfield County is home to more than 5,000 acres of parkland and preserves, as well as the scenic Hocking Hills, and the county has a rich history in farming and manufacturing.
FRANKLIN COUNTY is at the epicenter of the state’s political, economic and social presence.
Ohio’s capital city, Columbus, is located in Franklin County, which is home to thriving businesses, outstanding educational institutions
household income
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and strong public-private sector alliances. Rapidly becoming known as a tech hub, Franklin County attracts renowned researchers, entrepreneurs, millennial talent and forward-thinking leaders.
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GIFTED WITH SOME of the finest landscape views in Ohio, Knox County offers a rural lifestyle while being deeply dedicated to the Columbus metro area. The county seat, Mount Vernon, is the largest city and is surrounded by development-minded communities.
Knox County is an educated community, with highly ranked schools and higher education centers, including Kenyon College in Gambier and Mount Vernon Nazarene University.
THE PERFECT MIX of small-town charm and big-city benefits, Licking County offers a high quality of life and low cost of living.
The county’s strong infrastructure, diverse workforce and incentives for new and growing businesses are assets for economic growth. Three universities (including the private, liberal arts college Denison University), two technical schools and more than 20 public and private schools help create a diverse and talented workforce.
HOME TO THRIVING communities like Indian Lake, West Liberty and Bellefontaine, Logan County is situated at the highest point in Ohio, 60 minutes from Downtown Columbus. Industry is expanding and continuing to invest in the county; nearly 10,000 people commute here daily to work. The county is home to the Transportation Research Center Inc., the largest independent vehicle test facility and proving ground in the country.
MARION COUNTY is an innovative and evolving community with a key focus on workforce development. With numerous educational offer ings such as RAMTEC, an industry leader in providing robotics and
MADISON COUNTY
a rich combination of agricultural heritage, a growing business and residential sector, and a strong sense of community.
With 88 percent of its land being operated as farms, Madison County ranks fourth in Ohio for both corn and soybean production. It’s also home to strong local school districts and successful companies in a variety of industries.
HOME TO GLOBAL employers and local companies, Morrow County continues to strengthen its employment and economic base. Its smalltown atmosphere, colorful history and strong manufacturing presence all contribute to its growth.
The county is home to global employers like Dollar Tree and Cardington Yutaka Technologies, as well as home-grown brands like Lubrication Specialists, Inc.
WITH A CURRENT population of more than 59,000, Pickaway County is poised to grow by more than 16,000 residents by the year 2030. The area has rural charm and a strong work ethic, but it keeps all the comforts of being situated in a large metropolitan area. The county has a well-developed transportation and utility infrastructure system that can accommodate most industrial and business needs.
UNION COUNTY is the secondfastest-growing county in Ohio, with a strong emphasis on economic diversification and vitality. Union County provides businesses with many advantages, including a diverse and highly skilled workforce, growing population, and low cost of living and doing business, plus direct access to surrounding metro areas.
