New Albany: A Suburban Growth Section

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A Suburban Growth Section

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Facebook, Google and other leading tech 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?

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The New Albany International Business Park and its Information and Technology Cluster are home to a growing list of leading mission critical facilities. We invite you to join them.

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Welcome to New Albany

T

We Get Business

hese are exciting times in New Albany, from being recognized as one of the best places to live in the United States by 24/7 Wall Street to being named one of Ohio’s “Best Hometowns” by Ohio Magazine.

Our aspirational nature, master planning and community beauty are important, but the biggest keys to our success are the people and companies calling New Albany home. We are a friendly place built on the strongest traditions of smalltown America, where people know their neighbors and genuinely care about their well-being. I’ve never lived in a place where friendships are more valued.

Community Connects Us Our residents and corporate citizens also generously share their talents for the betterment of our community.

Connections abound, from the New Albany Symphony Orchestra to Healthy New Albany to the New Albany Community Foundation. They and so many other organizations promote our

20 Cultivating a Well-Rounded Community 28 Dialogue for Doers

36 Meet Me in New Albany 38 Planning for the Future 40 Why New Albany?

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46 Building a Stronger Future ColumbusCEO l

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pillars of lifelong education, the arts, health and the environment. New Albany is also home to some of Central Ohio’s largest events, including Pelotonia, the New Albany Walking Classic (America’s biggest walking race) and the A&F Challenge, as well as many other community events throughout the year like Honor Ride Ohio during Memorial Day weekend and the ThanksForGiving 4-Miler Thanksgiving Day run and walk.

A Thriving Village Center

8 Room to Grow

42 Great Minds

Google recently announced it will join other Fortune 1000 businesses like Abercrombie & Fitch Co., AEP, Aetna, Bath & Body Works, Discover and Facebook in our New Albany International Business Park, the largest master planned office park in Ohio and one of the largest in the Midwest. As you will read throughout this special section, our flourishing business community gives back in many ways.

The New Albany Chamber of Commerce serves as an advocate for local businesses, hosts community and corporate events and exposes emerging leaders to many different aspects of the community through its Leadership New Albany program.

Our core continues to grow, with an ever-expanding list of restaurants and shops, to an area that is connected to our neighborhoods by more than 45 miles of leisure trails. Rose Run Park, our central park scheduled to later this year, will literally bridge the school learning campus and McCoy Center to our library, restaurants, shops, the Heit Center, new play areas and a gathering space. This park is a reflection of New Albany’s commitment to community, connectivity and the environment.

A+ Schools and City Services Our 200-acre New Albany-Plain Local School learning campus, surrounded by 80 acres of woodlands, wetlands and nature preserves, is nationally recognized and among the top 3 percent of public schools in all of Ohio. Additionally, our city staff go the extra mile to keep New Albany safe and well-maintained, while providing a high level of customer service in the process. I invite you to stop by during one of our upcoming events to see for yourself just how special this place we call home is. Just be prepared to want to call New Albany home yourself!

Mayor Sloan Spalding

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Contributors

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ADVERTISING Advertising Manager

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New Albany: A Suburban Growth Section is published by GateHouse Media, LLC. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © 2019, 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.

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Room to Grow Business sees the future in New Albany.

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by Peter Tonguette

he next time you find yourself in New Albany, take a closer look at what the city has to offer. Sure, the area is synonymous with white horse fences, gently curved walking trails and stately Georgian-style homes, but those features alone do not tell the full story.

Although best known as a famously idyllic residential and country-club community, New Albany has quietly but decisively emerged as a popular place to do business, anchored by the 5,000-acre New

Albany International Business Park.

The business park—which is divvied up into five “innovation clusters,” representing corporate offices, beauty and personal care, IT and mission-critical services, high-tech manufacturing and logistics, and health care—boasts a wide range of notable Central Ohio businesses, among them Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and Bob Evans. Beyond retailers, AEP Transmission is headquartered in the park, as well as manufacturers including Accel Inc. and KDC/Tri-Tech.

“The New Albany business park is just a very attractive spot to put our new facilities for the secure location, as well as the office location—great access to the highways,” says Timothy J. Wells, AEP’s economic and business development manager for Ohio. “It’s certainly a physically attractive location. Lots of amenities, and the amenities continue to grow. One kind of begets the other.”

Currently under construction in the business park are data centers for a trio of high-tech companies: Amazon Web

Photo by James DeCamp

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New Albany officials pose for a groundbreaking photo at the business park.

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Services (AWS), Facebook and Google.

“Ohio has been a terrific location for our data center,” says J.R. Eshem, site manager of Facebook’s data center. “Our specific location in New Albany offers great infrastructure, a strong pool of talent for both construction and operations staff and an amazing set of community partners who have been very supportive and helpful.”

Tara Abraham, co-CEO of the business park-based contract manufacturer Accel Inc., lavishes praise on city officials and their vision. “I’ve never seen a community and a city work so hard to please their businesses,” she says. “They’re trying to build a huge infrastructure to make sure that they can sustain [the] level of corporations that they’re bringing into town.”

Despite the presence of such high-profile companies, city leaders say that the New Albany International Business Park is the closest thing the city has to a hidden gem.

“A lot of residents are surprised to learn that we have a 5,000-acre business park and 15,000 employees,” says Mayor Sloan Spalding, referring to the number of people who work in the city overall. Because of the careful way New Albany was laid out, Spalding adds, the residential and commercial districts don’t overlap in any obvious way.

“You have an expressway sort of dividing the two,” he says. “But, as I remind folks, it’s such a critical part of our community.”

Indeed, the need for strong commercial development was recognized as early as the mid-1980s, when New Albany was still in the planning stages. “For the first five years, there was nothing going on in terms of construction or development activity—it was all focused on the master plan,” says Bill Ebbing, president of The New Albany Company. “By 1991, when the first home was under construction, we

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“The key reason for having the business park: That income provides the lifeblood of the community.”

Joseph Stefanov New Albany city manager

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had acquired about 4,500 acres.”

The goal of the master plan, Ebbing says, was to create a community that was self-sufficient—in other words, that could pay for itself. Income and property taxes generated by commercial development would help support city services; in turn, those services would help make the area attractive to current and future residents.

“Municipalities are heavily dependent on the income tax to provide the revenue that’s necessary for the municipal services,” says New Albany city manager Joseph Stefanov, who points to law enforcement, road maintenance and parks, as well as “things that add to the quality of life above and beyond the basics.”

“We’re up to roughly 45 miles of leisure trail,” Stefanov says. “We’re requiring a community park, a passive park, within a quarter-mile of each residential development. … That’s probably the key reason for having the business park: That income provides the lifeblood of the community in terms of providing its services.”

Without a thriving, vibrant business park, the cost to pay for such amenities likely would fall to residents. “You’re shifting the tax burden [to businesses], and that’s what you want to do,” says Dave Ferguson, a trustee for Plain Township (which includes parts of New Albany).

“You want to take some of the pressure off the schools and not develop with more housing necessarily, but more with businesses that can provide the tax base to generate and support our community.”

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In the early days, however, few anticipated the ultimate size and scale of the business park. “I don’t think any of us knew at the time that New Albany would expand and grow to what it is today, including the business park,” says Ebbing, who adds that city leaders initially anticipated 200 acres for the park, with the room to expand to 1,000 acres.

In 1998, Discover Financial Services became the first outside company to join the New Albany International Business Park, which, at that point, was more dream than reality. “The story goes that our development team drove the team from Discover in a bus out to a cornfield and said, ‘Here’s where we’re going to suggest that you move, and here’s what it could look like—you’re going to have to buy into the vision,’ ” Spalding remembers. “And, thankfully, they did.”

Soon thereafter, Discover was joined by the insurance company Aetna. “We had to do $8 million worth of infrastructure

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for that,” says New Albany City Council Member Colleen Briscoe. “Luckily, we were able to work it so that we would pay the infrastructure out of the revenues from the business campus, and that’s why we were able to do it.”

Yet city leaders quickly recognized the need to diversify the companies represented in the business park.

“From this incremental start, we realized early on that it wasn’t prudent, from a long-term perspective, to be heavily

Market Square

focused in one area,” Stefanov says. “Then you’re subject to economic downturns and changes in markets, so we intentionally wanted to position ourselves to take advantage of other opportunities as they came along.” Added to the mix were retailers including Ascena Retail Group (then Tween Brands) and Abercrombie & Fitch Co., which opened a 500-acre campus in the business park in 2001.

“It gives us the ability to have essentially all of our corporate functions here in one

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Bob Evans Corporate Headquarters

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Photo by Jeffrey Horvath Photography

Proximity to multiuse trails and several highways are boons for companies that call the business park home.

location,” says John Gabrielli, chief human resources officer at Abercrombie & Fitch Co. “Other retailers would have their creative types or their designers in another part of the country—New York, maybe California. We have all of ours here.”

Along the way, infrastructure investments transformed those newly converted cornfields, leading more and more companies to see the park as an ideal place to do business.

When AEP set up shop in New Albany, Ebbing says, the city was “able to leverage that relationship to not only have multiple redundant power sources coming to New Albany, but also put the backbone infrastructure in for the technology—the fiber.”

Today, 96 strands of dark fiber run throughout the International Business Park—a feature that is critical in attracting data centers (like those operated by

“I don’t think any of us knew at the time that New Albany would expand and grow to what it is today, including the business park.”

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Facebook or Google), as well as other companies not necessarily associated with the tech industry. “We found out that just about every company that’s out there considers themselves a technology company,” Ebbing says. “It’s not just the Googles of the world, but Discover Card, certainly, and Abercrombie & Fitch. They can’t do what they do today without being connected across the country and the world.”

Even as city leaders aim to deliver the world to such companies, they seek to retain the homey flavor that sets New Albany apart. “When Discover made the commitment to come to New Albany, we were approximately 3,000 residents,” Stefanov says. “We were a village at that time, and we really had this small-town feel. And we’ve gone to great lengths to try to maintain that.” Today, the city is home to more than 10,000 residents.

As an example of the advantages of pairing big business with a small community, Stefanov points to the accessibility

The business park’s clients also support the hospitality and dining industries in New Albany.

of local officials. “If you are a business in New Albany and you have a concern, you can call the city manager, you can call the development director, you can call the mayor,” he says, “and you’re going to get somebody on the other end of the line.”

In 2012, Axium Plastics opened a threeplant facility totaling 700,000 square feet in a portion of the business park devoted to beauty and personal care. “The city office was bustling with activity and was run as efficiently as a private organization,” says Paul Judge, who manages the com-

pany’s operations and business development. “They were proactive and guided us step-by-step at the time of site selection, permits and plan approvals, zoning. …

The typical red-tape bureaucracy you normally see in a city [or] local government office was missing in New Albany.”

City leaders describe a mutually rewarding relationship between the city and the International Business Park: If the business park helps support the city, the city—and all it has to offer—helps keep it well-stocked with companies.

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Hudson 29 “You obviously can’t do that without focusing on the important details, like having great schools, a vibrant urban core,” Ebbing says. “Having the right kind of roadway system in place, parks, open space, walking trails [really matters].”

For example, the Jeanne B. McCoy Center for the Arts—the performing venue for the New Albany Symphony Orchestra, as well as numerous touring shows, musicians and speakers—is utilized by resident and non-resident employees alike. “That’s a great example of the importance of having these community amenities that not only attract the residents living here but also the employees working here,” Ebbing says.

Workers in the business park also help sustain retail establishments in New Albany, some of which would be unlikely to survive without the park’s daily influx of

“If you are a business in New Albany and you have a concern, you can call the ... mayor, and you’re going to get somebody on the other end of the line.”

Joseph Stefanov City manager, city of New Albany / Suburban Growth l ColumbusCEO

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employees. “When you look at the population during the workday in the New Albany area versus during the nighttime, it’s drastically different,” Ferguson says. “You can’t have all these hotels and restaurants and other types of support organizations without that type of growth, and it’s been really successful.”

Visual and design consistency between residential and commercial areas also is considered to be a top priority.

“I think you experience that same level of quality and that same level of detailing, whether you’re in the business park or in a neighborhood or in the Village Center,” says deputy director of community development Adrienne Joly, who points to the prevalence—in neighborhoods and the International Business Park—of “our iconic horse fencing, really beautiful street trees and landscaping in public spaces.”

As a comparison, Spalding invokes the example of Walt Disney, who sought for uniformity between Disney World

Photo by Lisa Hinson

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Architectural standards at the business park reflect New Albany’s residential aesthetic. and the area that surrounds the famous amusement park. “He bought up sufficient enough land that he could control the environment well beyond the parks,” the mayor says. “We had that opportunity here, where there was enough land assembled that you could really master-plan to a greater extent—not only the environment where the residential was, but beyond that.”

Indeed, city leaders have been choosy in deciding which companies to partner

with. “We have had businesses that have come to us that … basically have been shopping for incentives,” Stefanov says.

“We want companies that are going to put down roots and become a critical member of the community.”

A willingness for a company to become involved in the community is “one of the points we look at when we consider any tax incentives that we might give them,” Briscoe says. “They have interns from the school, they do charitable work, they

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make donations, they support the activities of the community.”

Abercrombie & Fitch Co., which hosts its annual A&F Challenge fundraiser on its business park campus, embeds itself in the city in a variety of ways beyond its signature philanthropic event. “We support the McCoy Center; we support an Independence Day parade; we support Healthy New Albany,” Gabrielli says.

The city has been successful in not only drawing companies to its business park, but getting them to stay and grow: Several of the earliest companies to join the park have expanded their operations on-site.

“After [Discover] located here in 1998, they invested and built a data center here later,” Joly says. “Aetna has expanded;

“I think you experience that same level of detailing, whether you’re in the business park or in a neighborhood or in the Village Center.”

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AEP has expanded just within the last several years, going from about 500 employees to 1,300 employees here soon.”

To avoid overloading the New AlbanyPlain Local School District, city leaders long ago slowed residential growth, but the business park still has plenty of room for expansion—more than 1,100 acres of developable greenfield sites. “I see it all developing,” Briscoe says. “I don’t know that we’ll grow in acreage very much more, at least not in the foreseeable future, but I think that it will not be a terribly long time until you see most of those sites developed.”

For its part, VanTrust Real Estate is betting big on the business park: Later this year, the company will complete a 300,000-square-foot warehouse distribution center aiming to sign up tenants in the light-industrial arena. “It’s designed to be as flexible as possible to appeal to as many different types of companies as possible,” says VanTrust’s executive vice president, Andrew Weeks. “It could be anything from companies that are supplying L Brands or other New Albany-based companies, or it could be a company that has no tie to New Albany.”

For VanTrust, however, the choice to place the center in the New Albany International Business Park was not a difficult one. “We feel there’s already a good story that’s been told there that’s attracted companies,” says Weeks, who echoes many of the city leaders’ sentiments when speaking about New Albany’s appeal. “We think that the city has done a great job with their master planning and with all the infrastructure that’s been placed in service in New Albany.”

Ebbing sees the city remaining committed to high-tech companies. “We have the opportunity to double the amount of technology companies we have in the park today,” he says. “I see that being an ongoing opportunity for us.” He also sees opportunities to add more corporate office space—and, this being New Albany, the proposed site is not your ordinary, run-ofthe-mill vacant lot.

“You might remember the Winding Hollow Golf Course,” Ebbing says. “That has now been folded into the International Business Park and is prime ground for expansion of office.”

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special advertising section

Cultivating a WellRounded Community

Arts, culture, fitness, retail—amenities abound as New Albany evolves.

by Nancy Byron Photo by Lisa Hinson

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ew Albany is no longer just a plucky little village in the midst of a wideopen swath of Ohio farmland. This city of more than 10,000 residents now is home to its own symphony orchestra, an annual speaker series that draws national and international orators, the world headquarters of retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and the largest walking-only race in North America. And those are just the highlights.

Georgian-style homes are found throughout the community.

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“I’ve lived here since 1993 and when I came here, there was very little,” says New Albany City Council Member Mike Durik. “Now I can walk to coffee shops, restaurants, retail shops, parks, walking trails—and I’m three blocks away from a major grocery store.”

Resident and business owner Wil Hollands has noticed the shift, too.

“New Albany has a small-town feel, but it’s really very urban,” says Hollands, who bought and flipped four houses in the city in the past 12 years and now is opening a franchise of Whit’s Frozen Custard there with his partner, Jason George Hollands.

“What’s so good about New Albany is it just has everything you need right there,” he says. “You can live there, you can work there, you can eat there, you can entertain there. The school system is fantastic. It’s a beautiful place to live. It’s in the heart of the Columbus area, so you can be Downtown or anywhere else in minutes. It’s almost the perfect American community.”

Healthy Development One of the big catalysts for growth in the center of town, Durik says, was the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany, a 54,000-square-foot communityuse facility that opened in 2015 on Main Street, adjacent to Market Square.

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Healthy living and the arts are two key community tenets.

“Everything is centered around Market Square,” Hollands says, which is why he chose a storefront in that area for Whit’s.

“Kids go there after school, friends meet each other there, the library is there, the Farmers Market is there. It’s a natural meeting spot.”

The Heit Center spurred another 75,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and office space along nearby Market and Main streets, almost doubling the town’s retail nucleus.

“All that commercial development occurred after we began construction of the Heit Center,” says Scott McAfee, chief communications and marketing officer for New Albany.

The Heit Center itself also is bustling.

The building contains distinct spaces for nearly every conceivable health-related activity, from swimming pools and cooking demonstration kitchens to an outdoor patio and X-ray rooms.

“We have workshops on Urban Zen, yoga, aromatherapy, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart health,” says executive ColumbusCEO l

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director and founder Philip Heit, who also is an emeritus professor of health at Ohio State University. “We have programs for kids, programs for seniors, programs for schools. We want to focus on prevention and make New Albany a model of health for the country.”

Heit also is the founder of the New Albany Walking Club, which gathers at the Heit Center every Sunday at 7:30 a.m. to set out on treks of various lengths along the city’s walking paths before reconvening at the Center for coffee, food and fellowship.

“We’re out there 52 weeks a year,” he says, noting the group has roughly 100 active walkers on its roster. “There’s a camaraderie that’s formed by walking.”

To that end, Heit—a former marathon runner whose aching knees pushed him to try power walking—also was instrumental in starting the nationally acclaimed New Albany Walking Classic 15 years ago.

“I was involved in the early days of the New York Marathon … and I was part of the group that helped start the Columbus Marathon,” he says. “So I thought, if more people walk than run, why isn’t there an event that’s equivalent for walkers?”

The inaugural Walking Classic drew 900 participants. The second nearly doubled in size to 1,700. By year three, or-

ganizers had to cap registration at 3,000, and it has sold out every year since.

“Only 15 percent of the participants live in New Albany. The rest come from all over the country,” Heit says. “The Walking Classic was never just about the walking.

It was about keeping people healthy.”

Paths of Progress With more than 45 miles of leisure paths in New Albany—and more in the works—residents have plenty of opportunities to get or stay healthy, as well as travel easily around town without a car.

“People want to be more centric in where they live these days,” Durik says.

“You can ride your bike just about everywhere here.”

The one exception—over and around Rose Run Creek, the defining natural feature winding through New Albany’s Village Center—is being addressed by the development of Rose Run Park. This park, scheduled to open in late 2019, will provide a long-anticipated connection between Market Square and the New Albany-Plain Local School District’s learning campus.

One main feature of the park will be the Charleen and Charles Hinson Amphithe-

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Photo by James DeCamp Photo by Jack Garner

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“It will be the center of activities during the warm-weather months,” says Craig Mohre, president of the New Albany Community Foundation, which is leading the amphitheater project.

“I think its impact will be similar to what the McCoy Center for the Arts had

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“People want to be more centric in where they live these days. You can ride your bike just about everywhere here.”

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Photo by Teresa Halpern

A rendering of Rose Run Park

when it opened,” Mohre says. “When we first conceptualized that, people thought it wouldn’t get used, but now it’s booked a solid year in advance.”

Mohre lists dozens of potential uses for the amphitheater, including performances by the New Albany Symphony Orchestra, the community band and chorus, dance and theater groups, school music programs and citywide events.

“I think we can also feature different Central Ohio arts groups, whether theater, dance or music,” he adds. “I would love to partner with Otterbein for theater or Dennison, BalletMet, ProMusica. I suspect we’ll fill up a season pretty quickly.”

Rose Run Park also will include walking paths, a pedestrian bridge, a civic green for large events and the first half-mile of what will eventually become a 5-mile protected bike lane to connect New Albany’s leisure trails.

“We have a lot of riders here because of our proximity to the countryside,” says Durik.

Honor Ride Ohio, benefiting wounded veterans, and Pelotonia, the massive bike ride to raise funds for cancer research at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, also draw thousands of cyclists to and through the city each year.

“Pelotonia ends [four of] its ride[s]

“We all work together. We don’t compete with each other.

That’s the beauty of this city.”

Philip Heit Founder/executive director, Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany

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The Founders Day Parade

Participants pose during the ThanksForGiving run/walk. here,” he says. “It’s a very big community event.” Two more routes begin in New Albany, and several more course through the city.

More to Enjoy Mohre hints that New Albany’s widely acclaimed Jefferson Series lectures could make use of the Hinson Amphitheater at some point. In its seventh year, this series has drawn such notable speakers as actresses Glenn Close and Mariel Hemingway; the late astronaut-turnedU.S. Senator John Glenn; media hosts Chris Matthews, Fareed Zakaria and Dr. Sanjay Gupta; and former CIA directors David Petraeus and Gen. Michael Hayden, just to name a few. This year, two former secretaries of state—Gen. Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright—will highlight the speaker panel.

“Every year it gets stronger,” Mohre says. “They all sell out, and there’s a waiting list.”

High school students from throughout Central Ohio also benefit from the series; the Foundation arranges for upwards of 800 students to attend a separate forum with the guest speakers.

“The format for those is usually a little different because the speaker may have just 15 minutes of remarks and the rest is Q-and-A,” Mohre says. “The students really drive the discussion.”

The series spun off from Remarkable Evening, a fundraiser the Foundation first held in 2002 at the home of Les and Abigail Wexner to benefit New Albany’s public library.

“The goal was $1 million, and we raised $1.2 million,” Mohre says. “It was a big success. We’ve done the event [annually] ever since, and the Wexners have been kind enough to open their home for it and underwrite the speaker.”

Thanks to another generous New Albany couple, Barbara and Phil Derrow, the New Albany Center for Civil Discourse and Debate began presenting an additional forum last year intended to address hot-

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Photo rendering courtesy city of New Albany

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button topics in a civilized manner.

“We will present two sides of an issue in a civil, respectful kind of way,” Mohre explains. “You can disagree, but you can still learn from and be respectful to one another.”

Having residents step up to start or support community-enhancing events like these is par for the course in New Albany, many say.

“We’re small enough that residents can help shape their community by getting involved,” Mohre says. “The community garden, Safety Town, the farmers market—a lot of those started when residents said they wanted that and the city said, ‘How can we help you be successful?’ I hope we never lose that.”

“It’s a very welcoming community, and people get so engaged in the programs here,” Durik adds. “Whether it’s the Walking Classic or the food bank or the farmers market—all of these things are done with volunteers. The involvement of everyone in the community makes those things happen.”

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A half-dozen other community events—Taste of New Albany, Springfest, Independence Day, the A&F Challenge music festival/fundraiser, the ThanksForGiving 4-miler run/walk, Founders Day in May—also bring residents together throughout the year.

“We have a major parade for Founders Day that goes through the center of town,” Durik says. “We really want to recognize and celebrate the founding of New Albany.

There’s a lot of history here.”

The A&F Challenge is another big draw that raises more than $3 million annually for the SeriousFun Children’s Network.

“It’s a big party for a wonderful cause,” McAfee says. “Abercrombie & Fitch Co. gives back through programs that change lives.”

“There’s certainly a culture of giving here that I don’t see in every other community,” Mohre says. “It’s not just the residents, either, but the companies.

They support different things happening in the community.”

Wil Hollands says he plans to sponsor some local events at Whit’s in the future, but for now, his franchise is taking a different approach to community involvement: incorporating other local, and even home-based, businesses into his shop’s offerings.

“We’re going to partner with [Golden Pineapple Hospitality, owned by] a resident who makes gluten-free products,” he says. “There’s another resident who [owns American Nut Co.; they do] beautiful roasted nuts, and we’ll carry those in our store as well. We will also have products from Just Pies, with whole pies in a pie case, but also serving a slice of pie à la mode with fresh custard, and even incorporating some of the pie flavors into some of our products.”

“We all work together,” Heit says. “We don’t compete with each other. That’s the beauty of this city.”

“A lot of people see the white horsefencing, the country club and golf course, but what really sets us apart is the people,” Durik adds. “You can put in a lot of houses, you can put up a lot of buildings, but it’s the people that make it a community.”

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special advertising section

Dialogue for Doers

How New Albany’s pillar of lifelong learning creates space for residents to thrive.

S

by Emma Frankart Henterly

ince the initial stages of its master planning, New Albany has focused on four pillars: lifelong learning, arts and culture, health and wellness, and environmental sustainability. The community’s emphasis on the first has fostered a standout culture of innovation and growth.

From the nationally acclaimed Jefferson Series, which introduces students and adults to renowned speakers, to the student-organized TEDxNewAlbany, to educational opportunities designed for senior citizens at the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany, the community is focused on disseminating knowledge at every age and stage of life.

“I would go back to Ralph Johnson,”

says Craig Mohre, president of the New Albany Community Foundation, which organizes the Jefferson Series. “Ralph was our superintendent in the ’90s and early 2000s, and he was kind of a transformational figure for New Albany. He’s the one that really advanced the notion that learning is not just during school years; it’s a lifelong endeavor.”

Johnson was the architect for the New Albany-Plain Local School District’s 200-acre Learning Community Campus.

There, all of the district’s facilities are consolidated into a collegiate-esque hub of knowledge. Johnson also strived to improve the district’s standing, taking it from one of Franklin County’s lowest-performing academic programs to one of the highest-rated districts in the state upon

his retirement in 2005.

But, as Johnson and leadership in New Albany emphasize, an impressive K-12 program is just the beginning.

Building a Foundation For many young professionals, education is not top-of-mind. Fresh out of college and ready to start building a career, these 20- and 30-somethings may be reluctant to dive back into anything resembling a classroom.

Unless they’re members of New Albany Young Professionals.

“The biggest thing is that we want to connect, learn and serve,” says NAYP president Alexandra Reese. “We have our

Actress Glenn Close speaks to students during a Jefferson Series Student Lecture.

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ELITE acronym—Engage, Lead, Impact, Transform and Excel. But I think the way we really capture those is by connecting young professionals to other professionals, engaging with the community and providing service and professional development opportunities.”

Reese points to a number of ways that the 250-member organization achieves this mission. The organization’s Mastering Adulting conference in 2018 is one such example. There, young professionals connected with one another and learned about topics including networking, personal branding and more.

“We’re putting more planning into it this year so that we can have an even bigger one next year,” Reese notes. “We really want to incorporate different things, from ‘how do you speak to people with different pronouns … and how to use that in your workplace’ to ‘how to change a tire.’

We really want to equip young professionals with [the knowledge] to do different, diverse things that people just aren’t able to go out and teach themselves.”

Also new last year was Bagels with the Bosses, a program that’s continued this year in which CEOs of local companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Exhibitpro and more join young professionals over coffee and bagels.

“It’s a very intimate setting. I think we had maybe 20, 25 people at each one [last year], and it was really so that we could have a conversation with the leader

“We really want to equip young professionals with [the knowledge] to do different, diverse things that people just aren’t able to go out and teach themselves.”

Alexandra Reese President, New Albany Young Professionals

of the organization,” says Reese. “Afterward, we would tour the facilities so we could get to learn about the business as well.” This year’s three-session series kicked off in August with Ken Benvenuto of TeamDynamix.

Supporting all of these efforts is the New Albany Chamber of Commerce; Reese says that executive director Cherie Nelson has been a wonderful ally.

“She’s constantly building relationships in the community, so as soon as we say we want to do some sort of event, she’s right there to be our cheerleader,” Reese says.

“She’s really good at bringing in people who are excited to [collaborate].”

Continued Growth Personal and professional development shouldn’t end as you age out of the YP demographic, and in New Albany, they certainly don’t. The Chamber of Commerce offers a multitude of learning experiences designed to benefit all ages.

For the mid- or late-career professional, there’s Leadership New Albany, says Nelson. The eight-month program, now in its second year, begins with a full-day retreat. Thereafter, participants attend one half-day session per month, each with a specific focus ranging from the city’s master planning and economic development to service, education and entrepreneurship.

Additionally, one hour of each session is devoted to Focus 3’s Lead Now leadership training.

“Part of the benefit of a program like this is not just what you learn— although that’s pretty huge—but it’s also connecting with your class,” says Nelson. “And that can be life-changing, to make those connections.” To support the intimacy that fosters those types of connections, she adds, each cohort is limited to 25 participants.

On a larger scale, the Chamber’s C-Suite Speaker Series luncheons bring CEOs, CFOs, COOs and other C-suite executives from top Central Ohio companies to engage with the New Albany business community, Nelson says.

“We try to seek out really interesting, provocative, compelling speakers that [attendees] can learn something from,” Nelson explains. Past speakers have included restaurateur Cameron Mitchell, White Castle president and CEO Lisa Ingram, and Columbus Partnership president and CEO Alex Fischer.

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Photo by James DeCamp

The Jefferson Series’ national security panel, moderated by Dr. Fareed Zakaria, featured several prominent U.S. security experts.

“Usually there’s anywhere from 70 to 90 people,” all New Albany Chamber members, in attendance, Nelson says. “We’ve gotten away a bit from the ‘speaker at a podium’ thing and more to a fireside chat format, and that seems to be really popular.”

Also popular are a host of professional and personal development events at Innovate New Albany, a hub for innovators and entrepreneurs in the city. Branded

as TIGER events—the acronym standing for Technology, Innovation, Growth, Entrepreneurship and Responsibility— the events tend to focus on tech topics, says Innovate New Albany publicist and recruiter Neil Collins.

The events started four years ago with TIGER Talks, says Collins; while the program had a slow start, it’s evolved into a popular trio of events. Each event—TIGER Talks, TIGER Tales and TIGER Workshops—focuses on “a topic that’s for the modern business economy, the innovation economy,” says Collins.

“It has to connect to one of those five [TIGER elements]. Fortunately, a lot of them connect to three or four of them,

Photo by James DeCamp

Left to right, Pelotonia president Doug Ulman, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Jennifer Spalding and Mayor Sloan Spalding

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so that’s cool when it happens.”

Collins aims to schedule at least three TIGER events each month. Talks take a lecture approach, inviting a subject matter expert to give a one-hour presentation with practical insights, best practices and predictions over a Friday lunch.

The Tales are more story-based, as an entrepreneur shares personal anecdotes of the trials and errors that led to their success, also over lunch on Fridays. The final component, TIGER Workshops, are comprehensive, hands-on training sessions for valuable business tools, held Wednesday mornings.

On tap for the fall, Collins says, are Eleventh Candle Co. owner Amber Runyon, who will present a TIGER Tale on Sept. 6, and a TIGER Talk from Lindsay Karas Stencel of NCT Ventures on Oct. 18.

“I think we’ll pack the house for that one,” Collins says. “When you think of [venture capitalism], you think of older men—and she’s a young woman with lots of energy, and she brings different things to the party than most people in the venture capital world.”

Advanced Education The familiar adage about old dogs and new tricks means nothing in New Albany, where learning opportunities abound well into residents’ golden years.

Nationwide Children’s is in New Albany.

To request an appointment with Nationwide Children’s Hospital at the Heit Center, call (614) 722-6200 or visit NationwideChildrens.org/New-Albany.

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The expertise of Nationwide Children’s Hospital can be found right nearby at the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany. Our pediatric and adolescent specialists deliver a range of outpatient services for kids and teens at this state-of-the-art facility, including:

Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany 150 W. Main St., New Albany, OH 43054

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Photo by Jeffrey Horvath Photography

At the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany, a city-funded program called Studio 55 focuses specifically on seniors.

“We’ll have tai chi, or we’ll have chair yoga, or we’ll have meditation, or we’ll have lectures on different health topics,” says Philip Heit, the center’s namesake, executive director and founder. “It’s all about learning. It’s all about being given the skills that you could use throughout the life cycle.”

The Center’s integrated wellness program offers a range of modalities for healthful living. Participatory classes such as Urban Zen and aromatherapy are popular, as are more educational lectures and programs on such topics as heart health, arthritis and more.

“So for example, we’ll have the Ross Heart Hospital at Ohio State University come down,” Heit says, “while our chef prepares a heart-healthy meal [in the demonstration kitchen], which we then distribute to everyone in the audience. …

Gene Smith and Renee Shumate at the New Albany Chamber’s C-Suite Luncheon We have dietitians talking about kinds of foods to eat to promote heart health and to answer questions from the audience.”

The demonstration kitchen, called the M/I Homes SmartStyle Kitchen for the benefactor that made it possible, features overhead cameras that allow audience members to watch the chef’s actions on a projector, so no detail is missed.

“You name the topic, and we have a program for it,” Heit says. “We’re constantly having people exposed to healthful

ways to learn and to practice. … It doesn’t matter what age you are.”

Another vital lesson for seniors is how to safely navigate the digital world, which is why New Albany Young Professionals organized Tutor A Boomer. The service project at the Wesley Woods at New Albany senior living facility featured a presentation on technology from staff at New Albany-based Buckeye Interactive and one-on-one lessons between residents and NAYP volunteers. Reese calls

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the event one of her favorites.

“We as young professionals were able to partner up with one of them and really just walk them through how to use their smartphones and tablets,” Reese explains.

“It was a great experience. They enjoyed it. No one got frustrated. … All they needed was that little bit of time, and they’re already safer on the internet.”

Coming Together New Albany Young Professionals’ cross-generational volunteerism extends in the other direction, as well, with the group’s early November event at LifeTown Columbus.

Located in the Lori Schottenstein Chabad Center in New Albany, LifeTown is an indoor, simulated city where youth with disabilities can practice social and life skills. Volunteers—in this case, NAYP members—role-play as bankers, retail store clerks, medical center staff and more to help participants learn basic life tasks and financial literacy skills.

This type of collaborative alignment of various educational opportunities may seem remarkable, but partnership and

multigenerational learning opportunities are par for the course in New Albany.

“It’s a really engaged community, and a community of action,” says Jack Kessler, co-founder and chairman of The New Albany Company. “I think the leadership has been there to point in that direction,

“We try to seek out really interesting, provocative, compelling speakers that [attendees] can learn something from.”

Cherie Nelson Executive director, New Albany Chamber of Commerce

but people that live here … have bought into the [idea] and endorse it and embrace it and live the life.”

Take, for example, TEDxNewAlbany— an independently organized TED event that’s run entirely by high school students.

It began in 2014 as a small gathering of students in New Albany High School’s mini-theater, but has since blossomed into a well-attended community event at the McCoy Center for the Arts.

Co-executive director Bilan Yakoub, a senior at NAHS, says about 500 guests showed up for this year’s event, which featured 10 Central Ohio speakers ranging from high school student Naomi Patel and Palestinian American lawyer Jana Al-Akhras to nonprofit leader Nellie Corriveau and Yakoub’s father, Abdi Farah, who traveled to America as a refugee and now works as a senior policy adviser for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Yakoub, who’s in her second year of co-directing the event, says it offers something for all ages and interests.

“TEDxNewAlbany supports that lifelong [learning] through the wide range of perspectives from the people we have giving the talks,” she says. “It’s people who

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Photo by Lorn Spolter

Doris Kearns Goodwin with New Albany students

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are at different stages of their lives trying to share information, what they’ve gone through to help other people move forth and inspire [them].”

Perhaps the biggest cross-generational learning event, and the city’s signature speaker series, is The Jefferson Series.

“One of our missions is to promote lifelong learning and education, so we decided, let’s launch a lecture series,” says Craig Mohre, president of the New Albany Community Foundation, which organizes the series. “We had an Ohio State graduate student do some benchmarking for us, and we believe it’s one of the top 10 lecture series in the

“One of our missions is to promote lifelong learning and education, so we decided, let’s launch a lecture series.”

Craig Mohre President, New Albany Community Foundation

country … [based on] the caliber of the speakers we’re bringing in.”

Past speakers have ranged from actress Glenn Close and journalist Elizabeth Vargas to CNN correspondent and neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta and Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and National Security Agency. On tap this year are former secretaries of state Madeline Albright and Gen. Colin Powell, who will sit with CNN host Fareed Zakaria on a panel about China, and Olympic gold medalist and mental health advocate Michael Phelps, among others.

While The Jefferson Series is accessible to the public at large, the New Albany Community Foundation takes the concept a step further with its companion student lecture series, which invites the speakers to participate in a free, studentexclusive engagement.

“We invite schools from all over Central Ohio—inner-city, suburban, rural, public, private,” says Mohre. “It’s not unusual for us to have over 20 schools represented at a lecture.” The program donates books authored by the speaker in advance to familiarize attendees with the subject matter and even offers transportation for schools who may struggle to get students to the event.

In many ways, the Jefferson Series encapsulates the city of New Albany’s fervent dedication to making lifelong learning accessible to all.

“We can provide a platform for community dialogues, lifelong learning and the open exchange of ideas,” Mohre says.

“Part of community-building is the shared experience—residents coming together to share in experiencing a lecture or a concert, and that’s what we like to facilitate. It helps build community bonds.”

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Photograph by Peter Aaron

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Meet Me in New Albany A look at some of the city’s best corporate meeting spaces

The Estate at New Albany 5216 Forest Dr., 614-255-6455 theestatenewalbany.biz Situated on 5 wooded acres, the venue features a patio, two private suites, a grand foyer with a 28-foot fireplace and a Great Hall.

Number of spaces: 3 Guest capacity: 40-370 Amenities: In-house catering; state-

of-the-art technology and multimedia equipment; secure, complimentary Wi-Fi; abundant on-site parking; convenient location adjacent to three modern hotels

Courtyard Marriott New Albany 5211 Forest Dr., 614-855-1505 marriott.com

site catering; private courtyard with fire pit and seating that’s accessible from the Buckeye Meeting Room

Hampton Inn & Suites New Albany Columbus 5220 Forest Dr., 614-855-8335 newalbanysuites.hamptoninn.com Conveniently situated near Routes 161 and 62 and just a short drive from downtown New Albany, Easton Town Center and the airport, this hotel offers friendly, professional service.

Number of spaces: 2 Guest capacity: 18-50 Amenities: 55-inch HDTV in the New Albany Conference Room that can be connected to a laptop for presentations; projection screen and digital projector; conference phone

Offering flexibility for all guests. The Bistro is the spot for breakfast, drinks or dinner during your event.

NOAH’S Event Venue of New Albany

Number of spaces: 2 Guest capacity: 20-50 Amenities: Full-service bar and on-

175 East Main St., 614-943-9866 noahseventvenue.com Classic, customizable and convenient, with spacious architecture, granite

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conference tables and state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment. It’s great for professional retreats, conferences and all kinds of corporate events.

Number of spaces: 4 Guest capacity: 20-350 Amenities: Stage and large windows

in the Main Hall; complimentary setup and takedown of tables, chairs and AV equipment; complimentary access to prep kitchen; add-on beverage packages

New Albany Country Club 1 Club Lane, 614-939-8533 nacc.com Creating memories through exceptional service, exquisite food and extraordinary events, allowing members and guests to sit back, relax and enjoy. A recent redecoration created a classic, contemporary atmosphere.

Number of spaces: 8 Guest capacity: 12-350 Amenities: Jack Nicklaus-designed 27hole golf course; on-site and off-property catering; ample complimentary parking; balconies off ballroom spaces; close proximity to hotels and airport

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Number of spaces: 3 Guest capacity: 125-300 Amenities: Choose from house menus

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Planning for the Future New Albany updates its five-year strategic plan.

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By Rebecca Walters

ometimes even the best-laid plans fall short. But when it comes to strategic planning, New Albany officials are confident they have come up with the right formula for controlled, sustainable growth that benefits both residents and businesses alike.

“New Albany has a strong history of strategic planning, dating back to 1998,” says Adrienne Joly, deputy director of community development for New Albany.

“Because we’ve grown so quickly, it’s im-

portant to check in every five or so years.”

Because New Albany has just recently begun working in earnest on its next five-year strategic plan, called Engage New Albany, city officials say it’s too soon to say what exactly will make the Top 10 list in terms of initiatives, projects and programs.

However, the city will adhere to its established four pillars—lifelong learning, arts and culture, health and wellness, and environmental sustainability—to ensure each is reflected in any initia-

tives moving forward, says New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding.

One of the key ingredients in New Albany’s recipe for success has been, and continues to be, gathering input and insight from community members.

“This year’s outreach is even more robust than in years past,” says Stephen Mayer, development services manager for the city. It will consist of a total of three public workshops, the first of which was held in late July. In addition, information will be collected and disseminated at

Careful planning allows for a Main Street that’s both vibrant and cohesive.

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“Engaging the community empowers everyone and gives them ownership over the future of New Albany.“ Sloan Spalding Mayor of New Albany

Photo by Lisa Hinson

Amenities like multiuse paths and a farmers market are key priorities.

Photo by Jeff Krugh

public events and neighborhood gatherings, as well as through social media and the city’s website.

“Community outreach, engagement and feedback will help drive the strategic plan,” says councilmember Marlene Brisk, who has been a resident for 15 years.

Spalding echoes those sentiments: “Engaging the community empowers everyone and gives them ownership over the future of New Albany. We’ll listen to as many comments as we can, and then MKSK will help us instill a clear path to see what we’ll adopt, set realistic expectations and make sure we have the resources to fund initiatives.”

MKSK is a landscape architecture and urban design planner that has been working with New Albany and its strategic planning since 1998.

“The biggest tug-of-war is providing amenities that residents want and maintaining the small-town feel that they love,” Brisk says.

For example, one school campus serves the entire community—and city officials want to keep it that way.

“We want to maintain one school campus, so that we don’t have a divided community,” Spalding says.

New Albany’s Village Center is another example of how New Albany is constantly striving to find balance, according to Spalding and city council members. Designed as a gathering place with walkable streets, civic attractions, restaurants, public parks and the Rose Run Corridor Greenway, the Village Center is a hub of activity.

With that activity comes traffic congestion and infrastructure challenges. But the city has learned from those challenges, Spalding says, and it will employ the

knowledge it has gained in future planning.

City officials have identified four “areas of consideration” they want to address as part of Engage New Albany. They include: • Land use: planning uses, density and form • Thoroughfare/transportation: identifying areas of concern and addressing future growth to mitigate congestion and accommodate multiple modes • Focused site planning: identifying areas for future growth and developing specific plans to encourage appropriate uses • Sustainability: measuring success and developing effective initiatives to achieve continued progress “Slow, sustainable growth is the goal over the next 10 years,” says Spalding, who estimates New Albany’s population will be about 13,000 at full residential

build-out over the next decade, compared to around 10,700 today.

“One of the great things about New Albany is that there is an appetite for sustainability from both residents and businesses,” adds New Albany City Council Member Kasey Kist.

The city has 45 miles of leisure paths and trails for walking and biking, has installed LED street lights and designated bike lanes on several streets, and has partnered with COTA to offer SmartRide, a “last mile” shuttle to get riders from the last bus stop to area businesses.

“New Albany is an aspirational place to live,” continues Kist, a resident of 15 years. “We’ve done good things in the past and want to do even more. The goal is to go above and beyond to preserve that balance and maintain a rural feel.”

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Why New Albany?

On July 16, New Albany Chamber of Commerce executive director Cherie Nelson moderated a panel of city leaders. The panel explored the idea of “Why New Albany?”—that is, what makes the city such a desirable location for businesses and residents alike. Read an abridged version of their conversation below.

Can you share your company’s selection process and what brought you to New Albany?

Andrew Alexander: Red Roof has 700 properties and is now a global business, so it was very important for us to have accessibility to the airport and increased visibility for our brand. New Albany met both of those needs. We’ve been here for a year and have heard nothing but

great feedback from the employees. Our location along the expressway has also put us more in the consciousness of the community. It’s been fulfilling for our team to be able to take advantage of all of the amenities here in New Albany.

Park] presented a unique opportunity to be located in a revolutionary-type supply chain where all the suppliers are in close proximity and can respond very quickly to our customers’ needs. That was a big attraction for our company.

Ian Kalinosky: KDC is a manufacturer of soaps and fragrances. In 2010 we were looking to expand, and the beauty park [at the New Albany International Business

Lori Miller: We began our search in 2011. We needed a place to develop an exhibit design center for our customers, as well as space for our growing team

Cherie Nelson (foreground) moderates the panel with local business and government leaders at Red Roof’s New Albany headquarters.

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and fabrication warehouse. New Albany wasn’t on our radar initially, but working with The New Albany Company and the city of New Albany and understanding their vision for the [business] park got us excited and made it easy for us to make the decision to locate there.

Photo by Lisa Hinson

Mayor, is that consistent with the feedback that your economic development team hears from companies located here?

Sloan Spalding: Absolutely. Andrew, Ian and Lori bring up three important aspects of why businesses choose New Albany: opportunity for growth, geography and visibility. New Albany is uniquely placed for growth opportunity, being on the northeast side of [Central Ohio], close to the airport.

New Albany is a very unique environment. We have a developer who has put a lot of resources together to create lasting value; businesses have an opportunity to locate and expand; and we have a forward-looking city council and staff committed to putting infrastructure in place prospectively. We like to say that we can move at the speed of business, and it’s true.

We talk a lot about collaboration in New Albany. What has been your experience with collaboration, either when your company moved here or as it evolves here?

AA: It’s really nice to be a part of a community that is so welcoming and collaborative. No sooner did we arrive in New Albany than our friends at Bob Evans

Panel Participants

Andrew Alexander President, Red Roof

Ian Kalinosky

President of Specialty Retail KDC/One

Lori Miller

CEO, Exhibitpro

Sloan Spalding Mayor of New Albany

Left to right: Ian Kalinosky, Lori Miller, Andrew Alexander, Cherie Nelson and Sloan Spalding approached us, and we’ve already entered into some test projects with them at our hotels. And that is just a testament to the fact that the businesses in this community are looking to work with each other.

Workforce is one of the most important parts of any company.

Can you speak to the quality and quantity of your workforce now, as well as what you see for the future?

IK: KDC now has 13 plants in three countries, and with the thriving economy, hiring and retaining employees is critical everywhere. I think the difference here in New Albany is that KDC has been able to create a really strong core of leaders within our business. Our decision to reinvest and expand here in 2015 was largely based on the strength of our leadership core and our team of employees.

LM: We have almost doubled our workforce since coming to New Albany.

We have a very diverse base of employees, from true craftsmen who build exhibits to warehouse employees, designers and customer service representatives. We’re very proud of our top-notch team.

What is the long-range strategy for data centers—why they’re great, why we love them and want them, and why they choose New Albany?

SS: The relationship we were able to cultivate with Facebook over a number of years led to them coming

to our community. We have a unique environment where we have redundant electricity, redundant fiber optic capability, a great partner in AEP, plentiful water, plentiful land, and luckily we are in a geographic location where there are not a lot of natural disasters. Those factors create an environment where data centers want to [locate], and we’re going to see additional growth in that area. One of the great things about data centers is they don’t have a great deal of employees, so the amount of service and traffic is reduced. At the same time, we also have a unique financial arrangement with the data centers that helps support our community and schools through revenue generation.

Can you comment on your confidence in the value of your company’s investment in New Albany, and how the master planning factors into that?

AA: When we’re recruiting top-level talent, we have confidence, because we know that we can bring them to this community—and the opportunities for them to raise their family near where they’re working is a huge plus. It can help any business that’s located here get the right talent, even if that talent has to move from a different location. You would think it’s a tough sell from either coast; it’s not as tough as you think, when they come see the affordability and the pleasant environment of the Midwest. We’ve had some great success in getting talent to come to Columbus, primarily because of New Albany and what it has to offer.

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Great Minds

New Albany is a hub for innovators and entrepreneurs.

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By Brandon Heath and Nicholas Youngblood

wide variety of businesses, from international retailers to smalltime startups, have decided to call New Albany home, and for good reason. The city is carefully planned, with input from local residents and business leaders, to ensure that it remains a place where industry can prosper and community can blossom.

Data centers for Facebook, Google and Amazon prove that the city is more than a little tech-friendly. At the end of the day, innovation is the name of the game.

Here are a few of the business leaders who are making a name for themselves as innovators in New Albany.

Neil Collins Publicist/recruiter Innovate New Albany

8000 Walton Parkway, Ste. 200 614-315-3357 innovatenewalbany.org

For almost four years, Neil Collins has been a recruiter for Innovate New Albany, a business whose sole focus is bringing ingenuity to the city. Since 2010, Innovate New Albany has been a hub for small businesses in the city, with low-cost,

low-commitment office spaces, coworking spaces, conference rooms and more.

In his time there, Collins has stressed that Innovate New Albany is not just an incubator, but “a hub for innovators and entrepreneurs.”

“I choose those two words specifically because we want to be for the innovation economy,” Collins says. “We want to be helpful or valuable to anyone in the innovation economy.” Going forward, the plan is to organize more events that allow tenants to connect with the big players in town. “I think an economy functions more effectively if the large, established businesses and the small, entrepreneurial businesses know about one another and understand each other better,” he says.

Innovate New Albany has many successful graduates from the space who continue to thrive in the city. (Read on for two examples.) Collins attributes this to the fantastic quality of life in New Albany that makes businesses and young professionals alike want to come to the city and stay there. It’s a community built with intention, designed as a great place to live and work, he says.

Kerri Mollard

CEO, Mollard Consulting 3 N. High St., Ste. 200 614-484-1600 mollardconsulting.com

Neil Collins

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In 2003, Kerri Mollard founded Mollard Consulting, a consulting firm that helps local nonfprofit organizations achieve their goals. No two nonprofits

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Kerri Mollard

Dan Snyder

Photo courtesy Kerri Mollard

Photo courtesy Dan Snyder

are the same, and Mollard is proud of the individualized approach her business takes to each one. Since 2010, Mollard Consulting has operated out of New Albany, a place that Mollard feels matches her own company’s values.

“They take a very tailored approach,” she says of the similarities. “They are not cookie-cutter by any stretch of the imagination. New Albany knows what its niche is, and it plays to its strength.”

One advantage New Albany offers is support structure. For the first three years after relocating from Columbus, Mollard Consulting was housed in Innovate New Albany, where the low overhead allowed the business to flourish. Even after leaving Innovate New Albany, Mollard says the support of New Albany leadership helped her business grow. The special treatment you would expect for big fish like Abercrombie & Fitch Co. or Justice, she notes, is extended to any business that wants to call the city home. “There are leaders in New Albany who care about how we’re doing,” Mollard says. “I don’t know that we would have found that if we were in different communities.”

he co-founded Homeside Financial, a mortgage lender, at Easton Town Center.

Since then, the business has grown to 500 employees across 30 offices. When consolidating Homeside’s multiple Central Ohio locations, Snyder felt New Albany was the obvious choice. “It’s really a modern place that’s tech-focused,” he says.

Snyder now is concentrating on Lower, a “techy lender” that uses artificial intelligence to determine not only whether its clients are qualif ied to buy a home, but whether they should. He says basing his newest company in New Albany was a no-brainer. Lower is a company with

Brad Griffith

President, Buckeye Interactive 8000 Walton Parkway, Ste. 290 614-289-7900 buckeyeinteractive.com

Dan Snyder CEO, Lower

7775 Walton Parkway, Ste. 400 833-920-2273 lower.com

Dan Snyder didn’t start his entrepreneurial journey in New Albany, but it’s a place he has fallen in love with. In 2013,

an almost entirely millennial workforce, so Snyder wanted a place his employees would grow into. “Leadership within New Albany is second to none, just from a community standpoint,” he says. “And they’re really doing everything possible to make it really a live-work community, and that’s what my folks love.”

Snyder says the attention New Albany leadership gave Lower, in addition to their thoughtful plans for growth, have convinced him that no matter how it develops, Lower is here to stay.

“Everything has green arrows pointing up for New Albany,” he says.

Brad Griffith Photo courtesy Brad Griffith

Digital branding is a key aspect of many successful companies, but small businesses and nonprofits often lack the skills or resources to take advantage of this vital tool. Buckeye Interactive, an Innovate New Albany graduate, helps close that gap by managing—and teaching staff how to manage—digital platforms for established companies, startups and nonprofit organizations within New Albany. This includes running the websites for the city of New Albany and the New Albany Chamber of Commerce.

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Photo courtesy Keith Berend

Dr. Keith Berend President, White Fence Surgical Suites

7277 Smith’s Mill Road, Ste. 300 855-677-5005 whitefencesurg.com

Vice president, JIS Orthopedics 7277 Smith’s Mill Road, Ste. 200 614-221-6331 jointimplantsurgeons.com

The ingenuity of New Albany doesn’t stop at business practices or city planning. Dr. Keith Berend, a top orthopedic surgeon in the nation who leads two New Albany surgical offices, is bringing medical innovations to the city as well. Both of his New Albany practices have become pioneers of effective and safe surgical protocols for joint replacement. “We provide local service at a global reputation level,” Berend says, adding that not only are his practices on the forefront of innovations in protocol, they also have performed more minimally invasive, outpatient joint replacement surgeries than any other practice in the world.

Since JIS Orthopedics moved to New Albany in 2005, Berend has seen the impact of innovation throughout the city.

While he didn’t find his start here, it’s a place that’s easy to call home. “There are multiple entrepreneurs and businesses that are innovators in the community,” Berend says. “New Albany is so open and welcoming. We’re a giving community with our roots committed to technology, learning, family and education.”

Dr. Keith Berend

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The company is led by Brad Griffith, who is the driving force behind Buckeye Interactive’s business strategy and business development.

“We are focused around growth and creating strategies to help maintain brand recognition,” Griffith says. Two of Buckeye Interactive’s notable clients are Healthy New Albany, a nonprofit organization that works to help improve the fitness ColumbusCEO l

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and physical well-being of New Albany residents, and Innovate New Albany, which Griffith praises as “New Albany’s incubator for start-ups and technology.”

Buckeye Interactive helps maintain their websites and grow their digital platforms by teaching employees such skills as content editing and application development, giving them the tools needed to thrive online.

Tammy Krings

Founder, CEO and leadership coach, ATG 7775 Walton Parkway, Ste. 100 614-901-4100 atgtravel.com

Tammy Krings founded ATG, a business travel management company with a focus on global business travel, in New Albany in 1995. Since then, she has grown her

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Tammy Krings

company into a worldwide operation.

Krings has devised a fresh approach to travel that uses 21st-century tech to give its clients the smoothest experience possible, all while keeping a careful eye on the financials.

“Our mission is to serve two masters,” Krings says. “First, the corporation itself and the people making sure the traveler is using the company’s money wisely.

Second is the traveler or the booker of the trip. We put together the best plans for the customer.” ATG has helped innovate new technologies for business travelers, including the Travel Vortal, which gives travelers access to a variety of apps that help organize the logistics of their trip.

Adapting modern solutions to an age-old dilemma has paid off for Krings.

With offices in 107 countries, ATG has a wide global reach that started right here at home. “Just like in ‘Horton Hears a Who,’ we are a little speck,” she says. “We made New Albany that little speck, and when people hear that name, it gains lots of worldwide exposure.”

Photo courtesy Tammy Krings

Sandy Diggs

Sandy Diggs

Photo by Tim Johnson

Agent/owner, Sandy Diggs Insurance and Financial Services 3 N. High St., Ste. 100 614-855-1014 sandydiggs.com

To an outsider, Sandy Diggs Insurance and Financial Services may look like any other State Farm Insurance agency. However, the small office in the heart of New Albany offers so much more. Headed by Sandy Diggs, who has spent 30 years with State Farm, the agency not only provides insurance, but also offers financial services and products from Quicken Loans, mortgages through Rocket Mortgage and even virtual banking.

“We provide the opportunity to serve all needs, not just insurance,” says Diggs.

“Customers don’t want five different professionals. We make everything streamlined and simple so that customers can do one-stop shopping online.” In addition to owning her agency, Diggs has spent three years on the executive board at the New Albany Chamber of Commerce, where she got what she calls a bird’s-eye view of New Albany’s inner workings and the strategy to attract larger companies to the city.

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Building a Stronger Future

A letter from the superintendent of the New Albany-Plain Local School District

“T

By Michael Sawyers

he greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” These immortal words of Coretta Scott King resonate with me as I observe and benefit from the daily impact that our greater community’s actions have within the New AlbanyPlain Local School District. Partnerships, true collaboration and high expectations make organizations great, and we are fortunate to have that and more in the heart of our community.

The New Albany-Plain Local Schools are 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 is the center of our community, and our success directly impacts the quality of life and economic impact of attracting and retaining businesses and residents. Fortunately, more than 5,000 students are championed by parents, the New Albany Community Foundation, civic leaders, business partners, resident taxpayers and others. Life-changing developmental and educational opportunities for our students are possible because of the strength of our community.

Author Noah Feldman (center) with NAHS students and principal Kenneth Kramer (far left), Michael Sawyers (tan suit), the NAPLS school board and Craig Mohre (far right)

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While high-quality instructional practices and rigorous curricula and expectations drive academic achievement and growth priorities for our students every day, we also are fortunate to have a community that recognizes that such achievements also require well-being programming for students. We expanded our school district well-being initiative to incorporate a caring community that provides resources to help maximize the mental and physical well-being of each student. Our well-being efforts in our classrooms; on the stage, fields or courts; or outside of our schools are strengthened by our partnerships with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany, the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Concord Counseling and the greater community’s efforts for Healthy New Albany.

Additionally, the implementation of The R Factor into our daily school culture instills common language and behavioral disciplines for students that have the power to positively impact outcomes at school, at home, in our community and in life. We challenge students to understand the power of their “R” (Response) when navigating “E’s” (Events) that occur to create their desired “O’s” (Outcomes).

We remain grateful for the myriad of academic, philanthropic and financial supports received from the city of New Albany, Plain Township, the New Albany Community Foundation, business partners, parents and taxpayers alike. The foundation of a strong school district is grounded within a strong community, and the New Albany-Plain Local Schools are proud to have the incredible strength and support of our community.

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