Luvcbus

As some suburbs of Columbus ban marijuana businesses, Reynoldsburg aims to welcome dispensary "The city's planning and zoning board approved a conditional use and variance earlier this month for Certified Cultivators to operate a marijuana dispensary at 7365-7369 E. Livingston Ave. Reynoldsburg Mayor Joe Begeny said city residents have been asking for a dispensary for years. He said there wasn't an opportunity for a medical dispensary, based on the limited number of licenses available. But when the city redid its zoning code in 2020, it allowed for medical marijuana dispensaries. Ahead of the Ohio Issue 2 vote in November, the city preemptively updated the code to allow for adult-use dispensaries. Reynoldsburg's zoning code states that marijuana businesses are not allowed within 500 feet of another marijuana facility or within 500 feet of a park, residential district or school. The state prohibits dispensaries from being located within 500 feet of a school, church, public library, public playground or public park. Because of those regulations, Begeny said city officials believe this will likely be the only dispensary in the city. However, he added city officials believe another dispensary will be located just outside the city, on the Columbus part of Main Street." https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2024/09/22/reynoldsburg-aims-to-welcome-marijuana-dispensary/75211590007/

Park district plans to purchase 60 acres of Camp Lazarus "Preservation Parks has signed an agreement to purchase 60 acres of Camp Lazarus in the city of Delaware. The acreage is located at the intersection of Winter Road and U.S. Route 23 adjacent to the main Camp Lazarus and Seymour Woods State Nature Preserve. The forested land includes pine groves, maple, oak, sycamore, and hickory trees as well as an abundant understory of spicebush and several small wetlands. A small parking lot is anticipated to be constructed in an existing clearing, accessed from Winter Road. Future visitors will enjoy scenic hiking trails, a picnic area and restrooms. This purchase will also provide opportunities for trail connections to Seymour Woods State Nature Preserve and roughly 125 acres of parkland north of Camp Lazarus." https://www.delgazette.com/2024/09/17/park-district-plans-to-purchase-60-acres-of-camp-lazarus/

Closing in on the 20th superload... LOAD 18 AND 19 TO INTEL IN NEW ALBANY The eighteenth and nineteenth of nearly two dozen “superloads” will depart the dock site in Adams County on Friday, September 20 and Saturday, September 21. Both loads will be delivered at different times on Sunday, September 22. Cargo: Absorbers Height: 17’4” Width: 18′ Length: 86’ Weight: 129,000 pounds https://siliconheartland.newalbanyohio.org/2024/07/01/upcoming-superload-deliveries/

Upper Arlington seeks grant for major traffic project at Five Points intersection "A resolution that could lead to a major traffic overhaul involving one of Upper Arlington’s busiest intersections was passed at Monday’s City Council meeting. Government leaders voted to move forward with a Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission grant application that could significantly change the Five Points intersection, which includes Tremont Road, Northwest Boulevard and Fishinger Road. In materials prepared for the meeting, the city provided a history of the junction noting that it “evolved in the 1940s when Northwest Boulevard was extended north from Ridgeview Road.” Over time, area development increased traffic prompting several studies confirming congestion issues, according to the city. The traffic engineering firm behind the study described the intersection on its website as “one of the City of Upper Arlington’s busiest and most confusing due to the awkward approach angle of Northwest Boulevard, commercial drive access issues, and signal timing.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/upper-arlington-seeks-grant-major-163000214.html

Westerville to develop Africa Road area ...“In 2023, the city acquired four tracts of land totaling 88 acres east of Africa Road for economic development purposes, with the intent to develop the land for commercial use and job growth,” said Westerville’s website. “The city has initiated East of Africa Land roadway and other infrastructure planning for the site, including utility, stormwater, greenway and park design.” For reference, the property is below OhioHealth and Polaris Parkway on Africa Road, which ends at County Line Road. It is across from Central Ohio Primary Care Physicians (COPC) to the west, and the Ashton Village and Courtyards at Village Crossing subdivisions to the east. Once built out, Westar Boulevard to the south would be extended across Africa, meeting up with an extended Hoff Road at a roundabout and connecting to the north with Polaris Parkway. Two future traffic signals would go in on Africa Road and one along Polaris Park “The subject site is adjacent to Westerville’s successful mixed employment center of Westar Place,” the city said. “This area has generated nearly 10,000 jobs and is home to new and growing amenities, as well as multiple companies, including the North American headquarters of DHL Supply Chain and the corporate headquarters of Vertiv, Lancaster Colony and COPC.” Documents provided by the city show the owner of the four parcels (55, 31, 1 and .75 acres) to be Westerville Industry and Commerce Corporation. The existing land use is Agricultural and Residential, and the existing zoning is Planned Development, meaning commercial, office, and industrial uses. The land would also have parks and open space in what the city calls a “mixed employment center/neighborhood.” https://www.delgazette.com/2024/09/17/westerville-to-develop-africa-road-area/

Mixed-use development planned for 35-acre property in Canal Winchester "Canal Winchester property is planned for a mixed-use development featuring apartments and commercial buildings. Developers Serenity Capital Management and Kulkarni Properties received rezoning approval for a 244-unit multifamily complex and four commercial outlots at the southeast corner of Diley and Busey roads. Canal Winchester City Council approved the rezoning request in September 2023, and the developers have spent the last 15 months preparing the site for construction. A conceptual plan shows 13 apartment buildings, a clubhouse and an outdoor pool that will be constructed on 10.9 acres. The outlots will be located on 5.5 acres with frontage along Diley Road. The roughly 16-acre parcel is part of a larger development that will include additional commercial space. An additional 19 acres next to the residential site will be marketed to retailers. Construction of internal roadways will begin "soon," Feathers said. The city also is building an extension of Greengate Boulevard, which will bisect the future commercial development and residential and outlot parcel. The extension will begin construction in early 2025." https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2024/09/19/canal-winchester-apartments-commercial-development.html

Intel strikes multibillion-dollar deal with Amazon, boosting New Albany project "Intel on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to its $28 billion project in New Albany and said it has struck a new multiyear, multibillion-dollar partnership with Amazon, one of its Licking County neighbors. The company did not specify how many years or billions of dollars the Amazon partnership was for beyond that the chips will power artificial intelligence applications based on Intel's most advanced technology. The partnership with Amazon comes after Amazon's announcement a year ago that it will spend $7.8 billion to build out its data center operations in central Ohio. Amazon has invested $10.3 billion in Ohio since 2015. The two said the collaboration underscores their commitment to accelerating U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing and creating a vibrant artificial intelligence ecosystem in Ohio. Intel said it will explore the potential for further designs with Amazon to be produced by Intel using its most advanced chips that are expected to be produced in New Albany. Separately on Monday, Intel announced that it has qualified for up to $3 billion in additional federal aid to make chips for the U.S. military." https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2024/09/16/intel-reaffirms-support-for-licking-county-strikes-amazon-partnership/75254324007/

Columbus has one of the hottest labor markets in the nation, study shows Columbus has one of the hottest labor markets in America right now. While the job market isn’t all around so hot nationally, according to national data tracked by ADP’s Pay Insights report and the National Employment Report, Columbus is on fire. Columbus came in at the 7th “Hottest U.S. Labor Market,” 89% stronger than the other measured metros, with a hiring rate at 5.4%, which was 98% stronger than the other cities analyzed. Denver took the #1 spot, Oklahoma City at #2, Las Vegas as #3, and #4 is Seattle, #5 Portland, and #6, Sacramento. Notably, many of these cities also have some of the hottest housing markets right now, too. Columbus in particular has been considered the #1 Hottest Housing Market in the nation for almost a year now. https://614now.com/2024/hot-topics/this-ohio-city-has-one-of-the-hottest-labor-markets-in-the-nation-study-shows

"Design work on a new 65,000-square-foot hospital on the site of the Adena Fayette Medical Center is nearly complete, the Record Herald reported. Construction on the new hospital is set to start in summer 2025. The new facility includes a new progressive care unit, dedicated trauma room and an on-site retail pharmacy." https://www.dispatch.com/

From September 13, 2024: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2024/09/13/columbus-traffic-i-70-westbound-downtown-closed-friday-saturday-sunday-monday/75202968007/

35,000 square foot indoor playground opening in former movie theater on the northwest side Fun City Adventure Park is officially opening at 2570 Bethel Rd. This giant, 35,000 square foot indoor playground signed a lease last October. There’s currently 13 other Fun City’s nationwide. The other parks boast giant ball pits, indoor slides, indoor bumper cars, ninja obstacle courses, and trampoline parks. Fun City hasn't released an opening date, but the sign is officially up on the building. https://614now.com/2024/culture/35000-square-foot-indoor-playground-opening-in-movie-theater-that-closed-last-year

Forsee Power opens North American headquarters, EV battery plant in Hilliard "Forsee Power will inaugurate its new Hilliard facility on Thursday, marking the establishment of its North American headquarters. The France-based company is holding a grand opening event for the new HQ and smart battery systems manufacturing plant at 4555 Lyman Dr. The $13 million investment will expand Forsee's production capacity to 3 GWh by 2027, according to the company. It plans to hire 150 employees for the nearly 140,000-square-foot building, which will be utilized for research and development and EV battery manufacturing. The space also will include offices." https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2024/09/12/forsee-power-north-american-headquarters-hilliard.html

Ideas Presented for Henderson Road Include Roundabouts, Path "A portion of Henderson Road that serves as the northern border of Upper Arlington could get a significant redesign. The suburb has been holding public meetings and gathering feedback on the concept from residents as part of its Envision Henderson initiative. The Henderson “Boulevard” concept, first presented in August, calls for filling in the existing center turn lane with a landscaped median, building a shared-use path along the northern side of the street, and replacing traffic lights at Reed Road and Gettysburg Road with roundabouts. The shared-use path would provide options for pedestrians and cyclists who currently face many challenges navigating the corridor (there is no sidewalk or path on the north side of Henderson between Reed and Gettysburg), and the median and roundabouts would eliminate the often-dangerous conflicts that occur on the street when cars turn left into one of the many curb cuts that provide access to businesses. If the city decides to move forward with changes to the street, several steps would still be required before any work could begin. First, since the roadway itself is actually located within the City of Columbus, a process is underway to transfer it to Upper Arlington. That transfer will require both cities to pass ordinances, and for those ordinances to be submitted to Franklin County for approval." https://columbusunderground.com/ideas-presented-for-henderson-road-include-roundabouts-path/

Small update on the latest superload moving through central Ohio: 17TH SUPER LOAD MOVE UPDATE: "The super load finished Friday, September 13, at Rickenbacker due to making good time during the move. There will be NO move on Saturday, September 14. The super load will move again through Columbus to the intel site in Licking County on Sunday." https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OHDOT/bulletins/3b5981b

Ran across a small update on progress at Intel's Ohio One campus. According to the article, there are now more than 2,000 construction workers on site each day: "Construction continues at the plant’s site in New Albany, a Columbus suburb, where company officials said more than 2,000 construction workers are on site daily. Two weeks ago, state officials celebrated the delivery of a “super load” 364,000 pound tank from a dock on the Ohio River in Adams County to the construction site that required temporary road blocks and a police escort. And this week, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved an agreement between Intel and American Electric Power, a Columbus-area utility company. AEP agreed to build a $95 million electrical substation to power the plant..." Full article found here: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/09/theres-no-sign-that-anything-is-not-going-to-happen-here-dewine-responds-to-intels-business-woes.html

Long-awaited Whitehall project could start this year on former Woodcliff condo site "Construction could begin this fall on redeveloping the former Woodcliff condominium site on the corner of Hamilton Road and East Broad Street in Whitehall. The 50-acre site was prepped for development last year, when the last of 317 dilapidated condos were demolished on the property. In place of the condos, a $250-million mixed-use development called the Rockwell District is planned. The site was cleared and the main entrance into the site off Hamilton Road has been built, along with sidewalks and infrastructure into the property. The project would be built in three phases. The first would include 360 apartments and 18,000 square feet of retail space on the southwest corner of the site, where Broad and Hamilton meet. Including additional phases, the development could eventually include 1,000 residences, 75,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, along with some office space, all connected to the 80-acre Whitehall Community Park next door." https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/real-estate/2024/08/29/whitehalls-woodcliff-condo-redevelopment-could-start-this-year/74923246007/

Columbus developer Brad DeHays buys Westerville Road site, plans modular apartments "Columbus developer Brad DeHays has plans for the nearly 2 acres of vacant land he purchased at the corner of Innis and Westerville roads. The developer plans to build a modular apartment project with about 70 apartments at the site, located at 3377 Westerville Road. The site is across Innis Road from DeHays' Connect Housing Blocks facility, which opened last year. DeHays has been planning an apartment project in a joint venture with nonprofit Alvis on the same site as the facility and will build a second apartment building at the site across the street. The apartments across the street could be built in a joint venture with a different nonprofit, DeHays told me. That project is still in the planning stages and could break ground at the end of 2025. Building with modular units reduces the time it takes to construct a new apartment complex by about 60%, DeHays said. With a late 2025 start, this project would wrap up in early 2026." https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2024/08/29/innis-road.html

New Columbus zoning code goes into effect today "The new zoning code, the culmination of years of research, work and months of public outreach, creates six new mixed-use districts along 31 key corridors in Columbus. Some 12,300 parcels are touched by the new code. Kevin Wheeler, Columbus' assistant director for growth policy, said housing, transit, local businesses and equity drove the changes. Projects already proposed on parcels along those 31 corridors will be evaluated using the old code. Any new projects won't be heard until Columbus City Council gets back from its August break. They will fall under the new zoning code. The new code has eliminated the need for most variances, unless the proposed project does not meet new design standards. If a proposed project meets the standards and fits within the guidelines of the new mixed-use districts, there should be no need to apply for a variance. Sites that sit in historic or design review districts will still need to follow those design guidelines." https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2024/08/28/zoning.html

Airport authority approves $359 million to start the CMH terminal project "Foundations will soon be laid for the new John Glenn Columbus International Airport terminal project. The Columbus Regional Airport Authority board approved on Tuesday spending an additional $359 million for construction company Hensel Phelps to begin demolition, grading, structural steel, deep foundations and more for the building pad of the $2 billion project. The solid vote of approval signals this project is moving forward and is nearly ready for takeoff," spokeswoman Breann Almos said in an email. The airport authority has approved more than $790 million since first entering into a contract with Hensel Phelps for pre-construction services in June 2023. The airport authority also has funded other ancillary terminal expenses, including a $443,000 contract with Lewis Center's Nelcore Construction to expand the green lot to accommodate airport employees who use the blue lot and a $178.8 million contract with Westerville-based CK Construction Group Inc. for a new multi-level parking garage." https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2024/08/28/cmh-airport-359-million-more-foundation-terminal.html

Highway construction stalls $100 million Hoster Brewing redevelopment in Brewery District ..."The redevelopment of the former Hoster Brewing Co. complex on South Front Street just south of Interstate 70/71 is still planned but hit some roadblocks, including the 70/71 construction and the closing of Front Street over the highway. Announced in 2019, the project originally called for the eight buildings on the site, dating from roughly 1887 to 1967, to be reborn as a hotel, offices, event space, shops, residences and restaurants. The project was approved for $5 million in state historic-preservation tax credits, but quickly hit a pandemic roadblock. Then, in October 2022, the Front Street bridge over Interstate 70/71 closed as part of the 70/71 Downtown Ramp Up project, along with the eastbound exit into the Brewery District, severely limiting access to the Hoster site... ...The Front Street bridge is now scheduled to reopen in August next year, along with a ramp from eastbound 70/71 that will empty out on Fulton and Front streets, on the north side of the freeway, according to ODOT. "We're just monitoring the timetable for ODOT. That's driving our construction schedule", he said. McCabe expects the final project to have far fewer offices and be without a hotel, but he said final plans haven't been crafted and everything's in play." https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2024/08/27/hoster-brewing-project-to-proceed-after-front-street-bridge-reopens/74887262007/

Intel brings "Big Bird" cranes to its Ohio One construction site "The big red cranes at Intel’s construction are getting some company — even bigger cranes that Intel is calling the “Big Birds” because of their bright yellow color. These two Big Birds, called LR 11350 crawler cranes, are almost built and ready for work. They will be used primarily to lift and place the 24’ x 24’ concrete floor pieces for the fabs. These types of cranes have a maximum radius of 538 feet (about the length of 1½ football fields), a load capacity of 3 million pounds and a maximum hoist height of 722 feet (taller than two Statues of Liberty). Because of the cranes’ height, Intel must get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration before using them. These two cranes will be followed later this year and early next year with more large crawler cranes, which will lift the trusses to the top of the fab, and additional precast cranes." https://siliconheartland.newalbanyohio.org/latest-news/

Fischer Homes announces $150 million project in Marysville "Fischer Homes is starting a massive project in Marysville. The Erlanger, Kentucky-based company's affiliate, Grand Communities LLC, is building the $150 million residential development called Skybrook. The development will go up on 120 acres and include 345 homes built over eight years. Thirty homesites have been sold to date, according to a press release from Fischer Homes." https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2024/08/23/fischer-homes-skybrook-marysville-ohio.html

NSF-funded center to drive development of US natural rubber industry "The Ohio State University has been awarded $26 million in federal funding to jumpstart natural rubber production in the United States and enhance workforce development to fuel the new domestic industry. The U.S. National Science Foundation announced funding today (Aug. 21, 2024) for the creation of the “Transformation of American Rubber through Domestic Innovation for Supply Security” (TARDISS) Engineering Research Center (ERC). The first round of funding will last for five years, with the ability to renew for another $26 million for five additional years. The ERC will harness the power of nature, creating bridges between engineering, biology and agriculture, to revolutionize alternative natural rubber production from domestic crops: guayule, the TK “rubber” dandelion and mountain gum. The initiative will also help create jobs, train a new and diverse engineering and agricultural workforce, and ease supply chain issues by building a domestic rubber supply. Disease and high demand threaten the tropical rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis, the world’s primary natural rubber source. In 2019, 10% of the natural rubber supply was lost to disease – and the risk for transmission of South American leaf blight to Southeast Asia has increased with the expansion of direct airline travel between Brazil and China. Collapse of the global supply would disrupt entire economies around the world, researchers predict." https://news.osu.edu/nsf-funded-center-to-drive-development-of-us-natural-rubber-industry/

"The city’s parks and recreation department is working on a master plan for Fancyburg Park, a 25-acre park on the western side of Upper Arlington. The initial phase of of the planning process includes a review of the park’s usage and amenities — which includes baseball diamonds, a playground and a nature area — as well as soliciting public feedback on the current facilities and ideas for improvement." An online survey, which is open through August 31, is available at surveymonkey.com/r/FancyburgPark. https://www.dispatch.com/

"At a Service Committee meeting, the city’s chief engineer introduced a resolution to cooperate with Owens Corning and split the costs with the city for a project to build a new bridge at Riverside Drive. The motion passed unanimously and will be sent to the full council." https://www.dispatch.com/