TIm

This sounds like a genetic disorder haha.

That land right off 161 just south of Alexandria that is (was?) for sale for ages is looking like it would have been a great purchase now! It'll probably be a housing development in the next 10 years now.

And for something positive for once!

They aren't manufacturing jobs though, they are highly skilled engineering and technician jobs which likely require at least a bachelors degree to even get an interview. These aren't potato chips! This factory will likely have some of the most advanced technology in the world in it and with that level of advanced technology you need highly skilled well trained workers to maintain and operate everything and that generally comes with a pretty darn decent salary. They are not going to be assembly line jobs, those generally lower paying manufacturing jobs are what's going to be automated and the people making $135K are going to be operating and maintaining that equipment.

Technically they have 30 days to respond to any of those requests so they are completely within their rights to not yet provide those documents if they were only requested earlier this month. And "slow walking" really isn't the right term to use here. More like waiting until the end of their response period aka what they do normally in just about every government organization. Snail speed is the only speed. I'm a former government employee and that was standard practice for document requests. Currently do a lot of contract working helping people through government regulations and I get responses to things on day 29 routinely. Las Vegas in particular can suck it, they were the absolute worst about that and would wait 30 days to answer simple questions!

It's going to be like Mad Max and the Fury Road in this thread every time some news gets announced. Who will be the first to post it?!

The render and the existing building almost even look the same! It's like they just added an additional story and bigger windows to the existing cube.

That looks really cool and is a way better use of the space than that tiny used car lot is. A used car lot can go anywhere, it shouldn't be on the main drag in the most walkable area of the neighborhood. The parcel is so damn small though, going to be a challenge going through the approval process I imagine. Like this render even looks like it would take up every square inch of the lot and somehow there is also going to be parking for 30 cars?! I don't even know if the used car lot can even fit 30 cars! They usually have like 15-20 out there it seems.

Oh the contractors, home builders, landscapers, plumbers, electricians etc etc must be salivating right now. It's basically guaranteed business for the next 10+ years with all the spinoff developments this will create along with everything that was already in the works. I know Licking Memorial has been doing everything they can to establish a major presence on the western edge of Licking County over the years from some people I know who are involved in those type of administrative activities at LMH. Their entire long term plan was to build up a significant presence right on the county line so other hospitals and health care systems can't encroach on their territory. Also thank you to whoever capitalized the words in the tile of this thread, that was really bugging me but I didn't want to call out our OP after they were kind enough to make the thread!

That's going to be such a convenient way to get over the river!

To add onto your first point, this isn't the only "big thing" happening in Columbus right now either. There are a number of other developments which are predicted to create tons and tons of jobs, mostly in STEM related fields. We have the new hospital at OSU and the OSU west campus expansion which I believe together are predicted to create another 10,000 jobs. They will absolutely be attracting people from all over the country in a variety of different fields to these jobs as well as there being a huge opportunity for Ohioans to take these jobs as well. My company is fully remote but based in Ohio. We have hired more than one out of state employee since making that switch too remote permanent sometime in 2020. But if you live in Ohio and have applicable experience, even if on paper it may not be as good as the other candidates, you will at least get an interview, especially if you live in Columbus. We basically always interview people living in Ohio and I imagine other Ohio companies do similar things. Certainly doesn't guarantee anyone a job, but it is a tiny leg up on those applying from out of state.

The former High Lands Golf Course in Pataskala appears as if it will be turned into a new single family housing development. Land needs to be rezoned for residential and it seems as if they'll be fairly large lots of 2-4 acres each so I'd expect them to be expensive homes.

Honestly the public needs to be way more present at those types of meetings anyways. I use to serve on my hometowns Board of Health (different state) and often there was not a single person in attendance at our meetings so we got to make decisions with 0 public input. And the only time anyone would show up is to complain. These meetings would benefit from more people coming out in support of those on the boards (assuming they have good ideas). Sometimes a few other voices is all it takes for some of these decision makers to change their minds. There is nowhere you can have more impact as an individual than in local politics honestly.

Pretty funny, but if you go on the front page of the Newark Advocate website right now about 80% of the articles are related to this development. It was not like that this morning haha.

The Village of Granville absolutely should try to maintain its quaint old small town feel while still being progressive and growing economically, but Granville Township needs to get their act in order. They are going to miss out on A LOT of money if they remain so anti development in the township. I know Johnstown, Newark and Heath will happily accept new incoming developments and Pataskala seems to have gotten on track to allow development while also making sure it won't be a burden on the towns services (fire, schools, water, sewer etc.) by making developers pay for some of the upgrades. Licking County has been booming and they knew they were going to continue to boom, but we might be talking about an atomic bomb level of boom now! I have to imagine developers, contractors, plumbers, electricians etc. are all salivating right now.

Johnstown really is a nice town. Has the charming little downtown area, is close to Columbus but also close to "nowhere" so you can get away from it all, they care about their school system and they aren't a bunch of anti-development NIMBYs. They are excellent at planning for the future for being such a small town, I just hope this isn't too overwhelming for them and they don't get steamrolled by big money.

New article from the Dispatch about this development. This one says $20bn and 3,000 jobs so we should probably take any numbers with a grain of salt right now. https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2022/01/14/factory-built-land-annexed-into-new-albany/6524507001/

I would not be surprised if the factory itself is a lot more than $1bn. The new OSU hospital expansion is almost $2bn and I have to imagine this facility will have an enormous footprint and be outfitted with the most state of the art (aka expensive) technology. All speculation, but what else am I going to do?!

Industries are so desperate for these chips right now too. It has probably never been easier to guarantee you'd get a full return on possibly up to $100 billion dollars in investment.

And Johnstown is fairly pro-development for being a small town. I'm sure they're going to be a little upset they have to start thinking about upgrading the school AGAIN though haha. Johnstown will be some hot real estate for anyone working at whatever all the final businesses in this new development are (assuming it isn't exclusively just the chip factory).

Not just the city, for the entirety of Ohio!

May or may not have been the "boss" I was referencing. I know where he gets his groceries so maybe I'll just camp out there!

Ah shoot! Well it's too late now haha. I saw "sue" and went scorched earth. Article is both in the Newark Advocate and The Dispatch for anyone who pays for either of those and is interested. The quotes imply the powers that be in LC know exactly what this is for as well which is interesting. I used up my free articles so I can't go get them now. LOTS of speculation. One of my parents "boss" is one of those quoted in the article so maybe I'll try pressuring them to put the squeeze on and get us some insider info!

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A "food hall" where there are tons of little stalls selling small batch or local versions of specialty foods would be awesome. We don't need them all to be food service, a retail component similar to the few spots in the middle of North Market would be awesome. Not to mention, people might have time to kill while waiting for food so set up a damn handmade picture frame stall in the middle or something.