NiSource Inc.’s planned spinoff of its pipeline subsidiary has spelled a new lease in New Albany.

Columbia Pipeline Group signed a 10-year lease with developer Daimler Group Inc. and its partners to move into Water’s Edge III, a 43,000-square-foot, speculative office building in the New Albany International Business Park.

Mike Banas, a spokesman for NiSource (NYSE:NI), told me 90 employees will relocate from downtown Columbus this year when the Houston-based pipeline division is spun off into a separate public company, with plans to hire 60 more workers.

“We have to staff up,” he said Tuesday.

The New Albany offices will house the company’s corporate services group, which includes such activities as information technology, finance and supply chain – “services that go across the enterprise,” Banas said.

New Albany spokesman Scott McAfee said the city expects Columbia Pipeline’s annual payroll to total $15 million.

“NiSource is not getting any additional incentives over and above the incentives originally provided to the developer,” he said, referring to a 15-year, 100 percent property tax abatement for Daimler.

NiSource has had a big influence on the regional office market in the last several months. Its Columbus Gas distribution division moved to the Arena District in November after more than 30 years at 200 Civic Center Drive in downtown Columbus, although it still has 35,000 square feet on two full floors there in a short-term deal. The workers moving to New Albany will be from both locations, and the company said it still will have 800 employees in Columbus after the shift.

NiSource’s new master limited partnership, Columbia Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE:CPPL), raised $1.1 billion through an initial public offering in February and will become part of Columbia Pipeline Group after the spinoff from NiSource.

Daimler real estate agent Greg Weber represented the landlord. Continental Realty Ltd. agent Wayne Harer joined the Cushman & Wakefield office in Chicago in representing the energy company.

Daimler hasn’t indicated what it will build next in New Albany where it typically launches a new project soon after leasing out an office property.

“Not sure on the next plan of attack in New Albany,” Weber wrote in an email. “We are exploring several options.”

By Brian R. Ball
Columbus Business First

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Axium Plastics is ready to expand for the second time in New Albany’s International Personal Care and Beauty Campus, according to company officials.

Ven Bhindwallam, controller for Axium, said company officials intend to add 90,000 square feet to the facility by December.

He said the expansion is needed to store more materials for customers.

Axium Plastics, based in Mississauga, Ontario, manufactures plastic containers ranging in size from 0.5 ounce to 40 ounces for the food, personal-care, health-care and automotive industries.

Bhindwallam said the company manufactured 1.6 billion bottles last year at the New Albany facility.

He said called the site “strategic,” saying it is within driving distance of 40 percent of the population in Chicago, New York and New Jersey.

Bhindwallam said the company brought its pharmaceutical line to New Albany and continues to incorporate different lines at the location.

L Brands is building a facility in the same business park. Bhindwallam said Axium needs to expand to provide more products for L Brands because Axium produces about 70 percent of the bottles sold by Bath & Body Works.

He said Axium also works with Bocchi Laboratories, which is in the same business park.

Bocchi Laboratories, based in Santa Clarita, Calif., manufactures products for the health and beauty industries. It produces items for Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.

Axium built a 110,000-square-foot facility in 2011 and expanded by 90,000 square feet in 2012, said Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s community-development director.

Chrysler said the company has exceeded all the city’s benchmarks for the development.

Bhindwallam said Axium has more than 200 full-time employees working three shifts, seven days a week, at the site.

He said the annual payroll is $7.5 million.

New Albany City Council on Feb. 24 voted 5-0 to provide a 15-year, 100 percent property-tax abatement on the new expansion. City Council members Chip Fellows and Colleen Briscoe were absent.

New Albany spokesman Scott McAfee said city officials could not estimate the value of the incentive.

He said it is difficult to estimate how an expansion would increase the value of a building.

Chrysler said Axium is investing $10.4 million in the expansion and would create 20 jobs with an estimated annual payroll of $600,000.

Chrysler estimated the expansion would generate $95,100 annually in income-tax revenue.

Per revenue-sharing agreements, each year the New Albany Community Authority would receive $33,500 for infrastructure-debt payments and the Johnstown-Monroe school district and the city’s general fund would receive $30,800 apiece from the income-tax revenue.

By Lori Wince
This Week News

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NEW ALBANY – Pretty soon, all remaining unemployed Licking County residents could theoretically find a job in or near the New Albany Personal Care and Beauty Campus.

Half of the 14 companies already there or coming to the area north of the Ohio 161-Beech Road interchange, in Licking County, are expanding or building new facilities.

The growing companies will bring more than 1,700 jobs to Licking County, including about 600 new positions and 1,100 transferred from other locations. The growth will increase employment to about 3,000 in the beauty campus and nearby American Electric Power.

All but about 100 of those jobs have been created since 2011. More than 9,000 people work in the 3,000-acre New Albany International Business Park in Licking and Franklin counties.

Licking County, with a steadily decreasing unemployment rate at 4 percent in November, has 3,400 people looking for work and without a job.

“We assist a lot of companies in the beauty park with their recruitment,” said Windy Murphy, supervisor of business services for OhioMeansJobs/Licking County. “We really try hard to include the names of the employers in our job fairs.”

Of course, applicants must either have the jobs skills or be able to acquire the skills to get hired. And transportation could be an obstacle for some to make the 20-minute drive from Newark.

But with job creation soaring and unemployment decreasing, opportunities appear plentiful for those looking for work.

“The drive really isn’t that far, especially with the (highway) improvements that have been made,” Murphy said. “We don’t have a lot of people that say it’s too far.”

The seven expanding companies will make a combined investment of $264.7 million during 2014 to 2016, adding almost 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space.

The 14 New Albany companies in Licking County represent close to $400 million in private investment on about 1,000 acres in Licking County.

Pending annexations will increase the business park to 4,000 acres, with almost half in Licking County.

L Brands, AEP

The largest Licking County developments are L Brands and AEP.

L Brands, parent company of Victoria’s Secret, PINK, Bath & Body Works, La Senza and Henri Bendel, is building an 860,000-square-foot facility, including a distribution center opening late this year and an office section opening in 2016.

“Adding a third campus in New Albany will complement our operations in Reynoldsburg and on Morse Road and will support our goals of doubling the size of our business and continuing our international growth,” said Tammy Roberts Myers, L Brands’ vice president of communications.

The L Brands complex will include about 500 employees transferred from the Reynoldsburg distribution center and about 100 new employees, Myers said.

AEP, one of the largest electric utilities in the country, based in Columbus, announced it will build a 195,000-square-foot transmission headquarters just west of Beech Road next to its transmission operations center.

The AEP headquarters will bring 660 employees from Gahanna and Columbus, in addition to the 140 employees already at the operations center.

The $39 million facility will be completed in 2016.

Bocchi Laboratories, a California-based contract manufacturer of health, beauty and personal care products, will employ 300 after it completes its 130,000-square-foot facility at the beauty campus in 2016.

KDC

Knowlton Development Corp., which manufactures personal care products, will spend $16 million to add 59,000 square feet to its existing 250,000-square-foot facility in the beauty campus, just east of Beech Road.

“We’ve seen a great opportunity to expand our business,” Division President Ian Kalinosky said. “Our setup in New Albany has been a great success for the company.

“The beauty park concept and the key suppliers right down the street really helps. The business climate is very supportive and friendly. It’s a fantastic opportunity to expand into different areas.”

The additional space will allow KDC to enter the market of fine fragrances and perfumes, Kalinosky said.

KDC opened in New Albany in 2012. It also has a facility in Virginia and two in Canada. The expansion will add 60 jobs to the existing workforce of 300.

Exhibitpro

Exhibitpro, which provides custom and modular trade show exhibits, opened its new 54,000-square-foot multiuse facility a year ago on the northeast edge of the beauty campus.

The company moved its operation from the Polaris area. The location is further away from some clients, but the move to the beauty campus has been worth it, Vice President Greg Lindsey said.

“We looked at a lot of different areas,” Lindsey said. “You don’t have to navigate through a town or city to get to the office park. If this concept were not here, I don’t think we’d considered New Albany.

“It’s worked out even better for us than we had anticipated. All of the feedback from clients and employees has all been positive.”

The $3.5 million facility includes a showroom, design department and fabrication area. Exhibitpro is a contract vendor for Bath & Body Works and has done small projects with other clients in the beauty park.

“It certainly has really helped us,” Lindsey said. “We didn’t have a staging area (at Polaris). This is climate-controlled. We know 99 percent of this is show ready before it leaves.”

Anomatic

Anomatic, a Newark-based provider of metal packaging components for cosmetic industry, will complete a 70,000-square-foot addition to its New Albany facility later this year.

Nearly all of the additional space will be for manufacturing, allowing the company to add a high-tech process of vaccuum metalizing, a way of giving a metallic appearance to glass or plastic, President and CEO Scott Rusch said.

“It’s a very efficient machine we will be purchasing and installing,” Rusch said. “The latest and greatest of technology.

“We see this having great application for shaped parts. It’s difficult to make out of aluminum, but it can be made out of injected molded plastic.”

The company, which employs 580 people in Newark and 120 in New Albany, will add 70 employees to the New Albany operation.

“We’ve had some success out here,” Rusch said. “Business has been growing the last few years. I think (business) is very much influenced by being in this park.”

Magnanni

Magnanni, a family-owned company producing fine men’s dress shoes for more than 50 years in Spain, moved into its 15,000-square-foot beauty campus facility in December.

There are 10 employees at the facility and a couple more may be added within a year.

After moving its U.S. headquarters from Dallas to Akron to Columbus to New Albany, Chief Financial Officer Paul Roehrenback said the sales and distribution center will be a permanent site.

“This will be long-term, with an opportunity to expand the warehouse portion,” Roehrenback said. “It’s been wonderful. We’ve organized ourselves better and are more efficient.

“It’s a very convenient location for distribution purposes and travel purposes. Everything is very convenient from here.”

The company, which also makes belts and wallets, does business with Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.

By Kent Mallett
From the Newark Advocate

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Filling space was up and vacancy rates were down to close out a strong year for the Columbus office market.

Data from CBRE Group Inc. (NYSE:CBG) show metro area vacancies declining from 16.2 percent in the last quarter of 2013 to 15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. Net absorption was a positive 689,510 square feet over the past four quarters.

View the full article at Columbus Business First.

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The billionaire who single-handedly changed how America shops has an inner sanctum as enigmatic as he is: the corner of a nondescript office building in Columbus, Ohio, across the road from a garbage dump, behind a security gate festooned with “Do Not Enter” signs. While the communal spaces are properly blinged-out with pink walls, lacy bits of lingerie and a big screen rolling endless tape of nearly naked supermodels, the chamber itself is a confused mess of binders and papers straight out of The Absent-Minded Professor. Nearly every surface is devoted to knickknacks–a 3-foot-long pencil here, an Ohio State Monopoly board there–or stacks of books.

The irony seems lost on Leslie “Les” Wexner, who built Victoria’s Secret, Pink, Express and The Limited into one of America’s alltime great retail fortunes. “When I was a kid, before my first store, they talked about stores as theater and retail as theater. It still is,” says the 77-year-old, attired casually in gray slacks and a blue oxford. “Retailing is a free form of entertainment.”

Yet this impresario shuns the spotlight. He’s the CEO of a large publicly traded company, yet he rarely speaks on earnings calls. One of the legends of his industry, yet he almost never speaks to the press. Wexner is so elusive that most assume the brains of Victoria’s Secret is surely some female visionary in the mold of a Sara Blakely or Tory Burch, or else a Hugh Hefner lothario type.

In reality Wexner–net worth: $6.2 billion, good enough to make No. 80 on The Forbes 400–is an introspective guy who has been questioning his every move for decades. His professional success results from a compulsive restlessness and dissatisfaction that steer him away from the herd. His first great insight was focusing on a few products (The Limited) at the apex of the department store age. He expanded nationally when the biggest retail stores were regional concerns. When most competitors rushed overseas, he held back. And in his biggest score of all, he reimagined the lingerie business as a wholesome enterprise that could thrive next to the food court and the multiplex, rather than the boudoir and the peep show.

Being a chronic contrarian is not easy. About to open his first store at age 26, Wexner woke up screaming every night. In his 30s he was a distraught millionaire, searching for a purpose greater than adding more zeroes to his net worth. The money came easier than the fulfillment, and by his 50s he was running more than a dozen businesses, five of them doing sales of $1 billion or more. Then, characteristically, he decided he had it all wrong and from 1998 to 2007 spun off or sold The Limited, Limited Too, Abercrombie & Fitch, Express, Lane Bryant and Lerner New York. He kept Victoria’s Secret, betting that the brand’s emotional resonance would support higher margins in an increasingly commoditized apparel space.

“What I worry about is a fear that you won’t have the idea or that you have figured it out wrong,” he says.

Wexner now owns the only three bra labels that matter: Victoria’s Secret, Pink and La Senza. Together they make up 41% of America’s $13.2 billion lingerie market. Their next closest competitor, if you can call it that, has a 1% market share. Bath & Body Works, the world’s largest beauty retailer, is his, too. He holds all of them under his thriving parent company, L Brands.

L Brands’ 2,949 wholly owned stores sell over $11 billion worth of bras, panties, soaps and other such products a year. Same-store sales have increased in each of the last 19 quarters. Brilliant marketing, especially the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show , accounts for some of this success. But in the disembodied era of e-commerce, hands-on customer service matters, too. Shoppers can buy quality T-shirts and pants from a multitude of different retailers, both online and off, but bras are different. Eighty percent of women in America wear the wrong-size bra. Computers can’t measure them for a proper fit, and employees at, say, Target won’t. But Victoria’s Secret workers do, and women pay the company back with loyalty. Ninety-nine percent of L Brands stores turned a profit in 2013, and Victoria’s Secret’s operating margins are 17%, triple the industry average. In defiance of e-commerce evangelists, he opened 50 new locations in the last year. His online business is not the focus, but it’s doing just fine, accounting for $1.5 billion of his annual sales.

Those numbers have translated into huge gains on the stock market, where L Brands shares have shot up 11% in the last year, twice as much as the S&P retail index. Over the last five years L Brands shares have returned nearly 500%, more than almost any other retailer in North America (the two exceptions: Under Armour and G-III Apparel). “They’ve done such an unbelievable job dominating the market,” says Wells Fargo retail analyst Paul Lejuez. “I can’t think of anyone who has been more successful.”

And there are billions more waiting for Wexner outside of America’s borders. Victoria’s Secret is already famous around the world, not because of its stores but because of its scantily clad models, who hail from every continent except Antarctica. Viewers tune in from 192 countries around the world to watch the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on TV each year.

Yet Wexner has barely begun expanding Victoria’s Secret stores worldwide. “Our priority is our domestic business, but we could see that our international business could be as big or even bigger,” Wexner says. In 2012 Victoria’s Secret expanded its wholly owned stores beyond North America, opening two locations in London. Five more stores have since popped up in the U.K., and together they’re already grossing over $100 million.

Wexner is also taking the brand into Asia and the Middle East through a new franchise model, with virtually no risk for L Brands. Wexner has more than 600 franchised stores around the world. L Brands invests no capital in the stores and is virtually guaranteed to turn a profit from day one, charging an outsized royalty of between 10% and 15%. The opportunity is big enough that, for the first time ever, Wexner is moving the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show outside of the United States, taking it to London this December. “They’re only scratching the surface of international expansion,” says Matthew McClintock, retail analyst at Barclays, who envisions a $10 billion business overseas within a decade. “It’s a gold mine.”

WEXNER’S REFLEXIVE questioning drew him into retail in the first place. After getting his undergrad degree at Ohio State in 1959, he dropped out of its law school and returned home to help around the small family store, Leslie’s, named after him. When his father left on vacation, Wexner tried to solve the riddle of why his dad had always worked so hard but never made any money. He found a stack of invoices, and on a piece of scrap paper began tallying the cost and profit from each item in the store.

The numbers added up to a counter-intuitive conclusion. Although big-ticket items like dresses and coats looked like they had huge margins, they actually made no money because they sat on racks forever. All of the store’s profit came from less glamorous items like shirts and pants. Wexner’s parents returned home to find that their son, with nearly no professional experience, thought he could run their store better than they could. Wexner told his dad to take out the coats and replace them with more blouses and pants. His dad told him to get a job.

He did, founding a rival store to his father’s with a $5,000 loan from his aunt in 1963. He put a limited selection of clothing in the store–only the shirts and pants that flew off shelves–and named the place The Limited. Wexner signed a lease for a second store before even opening his first, convinced that if the idea worked in one store it would work in another. Before selling a single shirt, he already owed his landlords $1 million. He had nightmares every night and eventually started getting belly pains. The doctor told him he was too young to have a stomach ulcer, but the X-ray clearly showed the hole that fear had eaten through his stomach.

He made $20,000 of profit in his first year, twice as much as his dad’s best. The secret was his focus on only a few products, a revolutionary idea at the time. Wexner says that Steve Jobs (or presumably it was Jobs–”what’s-his-name from Apple,” Wexner says off-handedly) was one of many to credit The Limited boss with inventing specialty retail. “Probably did,” he shrugs.

Curious about how far his idea could take him, Wexner bought a U.S. map and a compass. He drew a circle to see everywhere he could get from Columbus in a day. Commercial airlines had just started using jets in the 1950s, significantly extending the radius of Wexner’s compass and bringing 70% of the U.S. population within two hours of headquarters. Leveraging his centralized location and jet travel, Wexner decided he could build a national chain. By 1973 Wexner was well on his way, with 41 stores selling $26 million worth of pants, skirts and blouses.

Having proven that narrowly focused stores appealed to female customers, he set about creating new companies, built in The Limited’s mold. He launched Express in 1980, targeting younger women with more colorful, casual clothes. And he also got curious about a small chain of lingerie shops he had seen in San Francisco called Victoria’s Secret. He never could find out much about them because their owner, Roy Raymond, clammed up every time Wexner started to ask questions. But in 1982 Raymond called up Wexner and finally wanted to talk. Raymond was on the verge of bankruptcy and was hoping Wexner would buy his six stores before the sheriff took them. “I literally flew out that afternoon and met him in the evening and bought the business,” says Wexner. “I didn’t know anything about it.”

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Foresight, thoughtful planning and a holistic sense of community have guided the development of New Albany for more than two decades.

“Our master plan is a public-private partnership that brings to life our guiding principles of what a community should be. It’s a blueprint that focuses on the concepts of lifelong learning, arts and culture, the environment, and health and wellness,” says William Ebbing, president of the New Albany Company. The real estate development company was founded by L Brands Chairman and CEO Les Wexner and his friend and business partner Jack Kessler, a central Ohio developer.

The evidence of such planning is seen everywhere in New Albany, including the New Albany International Business Park. As Ohio’s largest master-planned corporate business park, it is designed to inspire creativity, discovery and commerce.

“The land-use decisions we make every day must support the master plan concepts. That’s how our business park emerged and why it’s so different from those in other communities,” says Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s director of community development.

The business park encompasses 3,600 acres, of which 1,800 are developed. Seven million square feet of space is built or under construction. Nearly 15,000 employees of 40-plus enterprises report to work at the business park.

That degree of success demonstrates how well New Albany collaborates with a host of organizations: its school district, area chambers of commerce, JobsOhio, TechColumbus and Columbus 2020 to name but a few. The cooperation, trust and mutual respect between the parties has grown as New Albany has grown.

“We can attract more businesses which, in turn, employ more people and produce more products. It’s a true collaboration. The business park, like every other piece in the master plan, works in concert with each other to create a top-notch quality of life,” says Thomas Rubey, vice president of the New Albany Company.

New Albany International Business Park
New Albany is rightfully proud of its reputation of being a help, not a hindrance, to companies who choose to locate in its business park. “We’re very aggressive in hitting timetables. We’ve expedited our development process and changed our laws to help companies locate here as quickly and painlessly as possible, all without sacrificing what’s legally required, our community standards and quality of life,” says Mayor Nancy Ferguson.

“We say New Albany works at the speed of business, not the speed of government,” adds Chrysler.

Residents understand the value of bringing businesses to New Albany. “About 75 to 80 percent of our general revenue comes from the income tax on our businesses, and the business park is a large part of that. It helps the city provide a lot of services not only to our businesses, but also to our residents, that we probably couldn’t afford to do otherwise,” Ferguson says.

The business park’s concentration of use has led to the development of clusters of companies. “Our innovation campuses are focused on information and technology, healthcare, and the beauty and personal care industries. We’re also attracting businesses who are locating in our corporate headquarters and research and development campus,” Ebbing says.

These national and multinational firms create synergy from their similar energy and security concerns, complimentary capabilities and shared supply chains.

The business park offers the requisite shovel-ready commercial sites with streets, lighting and New Albany’s signature white fence. But it is the infrastructure that gets the attention of developers.

American Electric Power installed dual-feed electric capabilities when it sited its own mission critical data center there in 2008. The redundant electric service is fed by two underground lines from separate substations, making the business park a stable, secure and high performing commercial location.

AEP also manages New Albany Net, the city-owned 96-strand high speed fiber optic network that serves the business park. WoW! Internet, Cable and Phone provides the broadband connectivity.

Three state highway exchanges make it easy to enter and exit the business park. Port Columbus International Airport is a 15-minute drive away, while Rickenbacker International Port Authority, a cargo-dedicated airport featuring a foreign trade zone, is about 30 minutes away. Three major railroads serve central Ohio and move goods in and out with ease.

“New Albany is within 500 miles of more than 50 percent of North America’s population. Companies take note of that,” Ebbing says.

Central Ohio’s skilled workforce is highly sought after and is frequently cited as a reason for locating in New Albany. To expand the number of potential business park employees, the Central Ohio Transit Authority will offer an extensive new bus route and shuttle network beginning in September 2014. New Albany also is working with area technical colleges and universities to create certification and educational programs tailored to the business park’s innovation campus sectors. “Companies will have a pipeline of job candidates and students will have a real world place to train,” Chrysler says.

The business park isn’t all about work, though. Employees find the green spaces to be a respite. “Our running and biking trails go right through the business park, connecting it to the restaurants, shops and library in our downtown,” Chrysler says.

Information and Technology Innovation Campus
New Albany is attracting information technology firms on two fronts. “Some locate their mission critical facilities here and others (are) locating their call centers or operations centers here. Redundant and robust infrastructure is a must for them,” Ebbing says.

Discover Financial Services built both types of facilities at the Information and Technology Innovation Campus.

“Discover was a vote of confidence for us. The business park was just a cornfield when we initially talked with them in 1997. No utilities. No roads. Just a vision,” Ebbing says.

Director of card member services Dana Blakeman says Discover has had a long- standing relationship with Ohio since 1985. “At that time we had two call centers. In 2000, we began our relationship with New Albany and consolidated them,” she says. Discover’s 325,000 square-foot operations center employs nearly 1,600 workers.

Ohio was in the mix again when Discover began exploring sites for its data center in 2012. New Albany won the bid. That 97,000-square-foot facility opened in 2013. “Our New Albany call center is one of several across the country, but our data center provides enterprise-wide support,” Blakeman says.

“New Albany is already a data cen- ter hub that understands the industry’s changing business climate. They understand that the infrastructure, support and skill set we need differ from other industries, and the business park is built accordingly,” Blakeman says.

Discover’s decision took into account more than a building site, though. “The relationship we have with New Albany is the difference. They reached out to us as a partner and were extremely attentive during both projects. And they share Dis- cover’s core values of collaboration and respect,” Blakeman says.

Healthcare Innovation Campus
Healthcare-related institutions also are choosing the business park.

Mount Carmel New Albany provides orthopedic, neurologic and musculoskeletal care for inpatients and outpatients. It opened in 2003 and expanded in 2010. The 130,000-square-foot facility features eight operating rooms and 60 patient rooms. Not surprisingly, associated medical offices have been built around it.

In 2013, PharmaForce, Inc. added to its Hilliard and Worthington operations when it built an 81,000-square-foot facility in New Albany.

“We’re a sterile pharmaceutical research and development and manufacturing com- pany. The business park houses our corporate administrative offices, research and development laboratories and a manufacturing plant. Our New Albany plant isn’t an approved commercial manufacturing facility yet, but we hope to have FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval in early 2015,” says Stephanie Glover, senior manager, operations support.

PharmaForce took many factors into consideration during the site selection process. “What really made New Albany stand out for us is its forward-thinking approach. There’s an attitude of ‘what’s next’ that is a different way of thinking from other communities,” Glover says. “Since we’ve been in business here, New Albany has been very supportive and fully engaged in making sure we have what we need to be successful.”

International Personal Care and Beauty Campus
This highly-integrated supply chain hub supports companies which contract with major brands of cosmetic and personal care products. The businesses benefit from complementary capabilities, common supply chain contractors and creative synergies.

“We call it the international beauty campus because the companies are headquartered in Canada, China, Great Britain and Mexico, in addition to several states. For many of them, New Albany is their first location in Ohio,” Ebbing says.

These firms are part of the vertical supply chain and represent various aspects of the manufacturing process. “At the business park, they can send a product 1.6 miles and in less than 10 days it goes from an idea to the retailer’s shelf. It’s amazing how they work together to better serve their end customers,” Ebbing says.

Anomatic Corporation manufactures and assembles anodized aluminum components, such as perfume caps, razor handles and mascara tops.

“We needed to expand our anodizing capacity, because we ran out room at our Newark facility,” says President Scott Rusch. “We learned that New Albany was attracting a group of companies that supply materials to the beauty industry. We were excited about the prospect of bringing key suppliers together.”

In 2012, Anomatic moved into a 75,000-square-foot facility that also houses its Innovation and Design Center.

“Locating multiple suppliers at the same site adds to efficiency, speed to market and makes sense economically,” Rusch says. “I’m not aware of any other place in the world that has this level of collaboration. I fully expect more companies to come here and continue to round out the capabilities in the personal care and cosmetic packaging industry.”

Also in 2012, KDC/Tri-Tech Lab opened the doors to its 200,000-square-foot facility. It manufactures soaps, sanitizers and fragrance products. The Canadian company was searching for a centrally located American site when it learned of New Albany. “The concept of an agile, integrated supply chain is unique and was a major attraction. We wanted to be part of it,” says Ian Kalinosky, division president of KDC Columbus and KDC Lynchburg.

KDC’s New Albany operation is focused on growth. “We’ve had two successful years and our ability to expand here is significant. It’s very exciting,” Kalinosky says. The company is benefiting from interaction with its business park neighbors. “We collaborate on potential new customer opportunities, new products and now we’re starting to address workforce development,” Kalinosky says. “It’s very unusual to find such willingness to work together on these types of issues.”

Corporate Headquarters and Research and Development Campus
In 1998, Aetna US Healthcare opened its regional operations center at the business park. “We committed to the development early on. New Albany has grown considerably since then, and so has our business,” says Nitin Bhargava, president of the insurer’s Ohio operations.

Aetna consolidated multiple Ohio offices to the New Albany site, and it continues to fold in additional acquisitions. The 210,000-square-foot building houses almost 1,100 people who work in claims, operations, customer service, sales and marketing, medical management and the executive offices.

Aetna was attracted to New Albany because of the development concept of the business park.

“We also like that it’s easy for employees and visitors to get in and out of our office. The location is close to areas where many of our employees live, and downtown Columbus is not far away,” Bhargava says.

Aetna also is committed to community involvement.

“New Albany is a hub of health and wellness causes that are a good fit for Aetna,” Bhargava says. “You can’t be in a community without being for the community.”

Lisa Hooker is a freelance writer.

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When he explains how he and Leslie H. Wexner developed the fields of New Albany into a growing city filled with million-dollar homes and a vast business park, Jack Kessler makes it sounds simple.

“Back then, Les and I lived in Bexley,” Kessler said of the mid-1980s. “And Les said, ‘I need to build a home in the country.’ ”

The power couple — Wexner is the founder of L Brands, Kessler is a developer who joined Wexner to form the New Albany Co. — began spending their weekends driving the perimeter of Columbus, scouting locations. Muirfield looked promising; so did Gahanna.

“Les said, ‘Gahanna is great, but we can’t do much to change it. It’s already built. New Albany, we can change,’ ” Kessler said.

They have indeed changed New Albany, turning it into a Shangri-La for the wealthy and a home for scores of businesses.

And now, say Kessler and William Ebbing, president of the New Albany Co., it’s time for the next phase of the project: an expansion of the city’s center. The goal is more restaurants and retail, and to better connect the heart of the city to the nearby homes and business park.

“The core is critical to our future, to further the economic development of the business park,” Ebbing said. “How do we attract the young professionals and take the business park to the next level?”

Building an urbanlike core in a suburban setting is the goal of several communities in central Ohio and beyond. Dublin’s mixed-use Bridge Street Project is another example.

These are called “edge cities” and are becoming more common, said Bernadette Hanlon, a professor of urban planning at Ohio State University’s Knowlton School of Architecture. “There’s this sense, this desire to create more walkable spaces out in the suburbs,” she said.

While New Albany is not unique in this goal, “In terms of privatization, it is pretty unique,” Hanlon said. There aren’t too many other communities created by two men.

Photo Credit: The Columbus Dispatch

New projects

New projects planned in New Albany at or near the intersection of Market and Main streets include:

• The $13 million Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany, a 55,000-square-foot hub for health and wellness programs. The city is building it in partnership with Healthy New Albany, Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

• The $6 million Market & Main building, a 27,000-square-foot office building that will include a restaurant and retail tenants on the first floor. It is a joint venture of the New Albany Co. and the Daimler Group, another local developer.

• Strait’s Farm, a 51-home, $24 million residential development designed for homeowners looking to downsize and be closer to the city center. M/I Homes will develop the project on land purchased from the New Albany Co.

• A $3 million roundabout at Market and Main streets, designed to spur commercial growth.

• A $45 million school-expansion project.

All five projects are under construction and are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

“Infrastructure development in the core is so important,” said Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s director of community development. “We’ve spent $8 million so far, and counting.”

These improvements will come too late for the Johnson’s Real Ice Cream shop on Market Street. The franchisee in the Market Square complex closed the shop about a year ago, said Matt Wilcoxon, vice president of sales of the Bexley-based company.

“The traffic pattern wasn’t enough,” Wilcoxon said. “I always felt there weren’t enough draws, other than the Starbucks and Rusty Bucket (in Market Square), to get people there. … If they get more food-based shops and restaurants in, that will make it a destination.”

The new projects are designed to develop “critical mass,” said Courtney Orr, executive director of the New Albany Chamber of Commerce. “What’s special here is this is a growing community.”

New Albany grows

Wexner and Kessler formed the New Albany Co. in 1986 and began buying large lots of land for a project initially dubbed Wexley.

The New Albany Co. purchased more than 300 lots, Kessler said, dividing several into 1,800 smaller parcels for homes. About 1,400 Georgian-styled homes that have met specific design requirements have been built to date.

Wexner and Kessler built their own homes in New Albany.

“We started selling lots to our friends, and we identified people we thought were leaders,” Kessler said. “We got Bobby Rahal and John G. McCoy to live here.”

Rahal is a past Indianapolis 500 winner, and McCoy was the CEO of the former Banc One Corp., now part of JPMorgan Chase. Rahal’s home was built in 1995 and recently sold for $2.25 million.

“Then, we had to fix the school system,” Kessler said. “Then we were worried about taxes, so we started a business park.” They also built a golf course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, as well as a country club and an arts center.

The success of the company’s New Albany Business Park has fueled the city’s continued growth.

The business park generated $460 in tax revenues in 1997, the year it opened. The 2013 total was $11.6 million, money that is used in part to pay for the city’s schools and infrastructure improvements.

The 3,000-acre park in Franklin and Licking counties is home to companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Discover, Bob Evans Farms and Accel. There are 12,000 employees, Chrysler said, adding that 3,000 acres remain available for development.

The Beauty & Personal Care Campus on the eastern edge of the business park has been the biggest addition in recent years. Beauty and health-care products are manufactured, packaged and shipped from the 1.4 million-square-foot facility, which includes about 10 companies and 1,500 employees.

“We very much tout ourselves as a community for entrepreneurs started by an entrepreneur,” Chrysler said of Wexner.

The city has attracted successful entrepreneurs and executives.

“New Albany is way above both local and national (income) averages,” said Bill LaFayette, owner of the local economics consulting firm Regionomics.

The national and Franklin County median household incomes are $50,700 and $53,046 respectively, he said, according to statistics compiled from the American Community Survey. The New Albany median income is $161,314.

New Albany seems poised for growth. In addition to the additional acreage in its business park, the New Albany Co. has about 400 empty lots available for homes.

These homes will be expensive. The median sales price of a New Albany home in 2013 was $459,500, the highest in the area.

“Because of the land costs and the architectural requirements, you can’t build one for under $400,000,” Kessler said.

The New Albany Co. owns an additional 40 undeveloped acres in the city center that Ebbing said will “be developed in a mixed-use way, with more of a focus on restaurants and medical services and other retail opportunities.”

The success and continued growth of New Albany is due in large part to the vision and entrepreneurial spirit of its founders, he said.

“Les is a visionary, and his image of what this community should be has allowed us to get here,” Ebbing said.

By Steve Wartenberg, The Columbus Dispatch

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Dallas and New Albany, OH – January 7, 2014 – Compass Datacenters has acquired a property in suburban Columbus, Ohio that will serve as a campus for the company’s first data center facilities in Ohio. The 9.2 acre parcel of land, which closed for $1.93 million, is located within the 3,000 acre New Albany Business Park that is designed as a hub for corporate headquarters, technology firms and other companies in the fast-growing Columbus region. The property will be developed into a Compass Datacenters campus that will house up to five dedicated, Tier III and LEED Gold certified 1.2 MW data center facilities for enterprise customers and service providers. Upon completion of the buildout, private investment in the campus is expected to exceed $60 million.

“We chose the Columbus market as the location for our next data center development because multiple firms have expressed an interest in having a facility in this area, indicating that there is strong demand for data center space in Columbus. We are investing in New Albany to provide companies with the ability to obtain data center facilities they traditionally could only get by developing in a larger market such as Chicago and New York or through a lengthy and costly process of building a facility themselves,” said Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass Datacenters. “Our feature-rich product includes all of the must-haves that enterprise customers and services providers look for in a mission critical facility.”

“Data centers are a key part of the infrastructure for the economy today because they provide the home for computing systems that are at the heart of so many businesses’ operations. Communities that have great data center facilities often serve as a magnet for companies who invest, grow and create jobs. New Albany Business Park is recognized in Ohio as a hub for data centers and other mission critical facilities, and we’re pleased to welcome Compass as it joins other leading brands that have a data center presence in New Albany, such as Nationwide Insurance, TJX, Motorist Insurance, Abercrombie & Fitch and American Electric Power,” said Bill Ebbing, President of the New Albany Company.

“Compass has earned a national reputation for being a leader in the data center industry. We welcome the company to our business community and appreciate its investment in our community,” said New Albany Mayor Nancy Ferguson. “Data centers have a significant impact on an area’s economic health, not only through the direct investment of building of facilities but also through the impact these technology buildings play in helping companies grow and support new jobs. We want the world to know that New Albany is a great place to work and do business, and Compass’ investment here will make this an even more attractive place for companies who want grow.”

Crosby added: “The local government and business community in New Albany have been an ideal partner in this process, and I want to extend my thanks to Mayor Ferguson and her staff, Bill Ebbing and the team at the New Albany Company, and everyone else who has played a role in helping us make this investment and bring this technology infrastructure to the region.”

About Compass Datacenters
Compass Datacenters builds natural disaster-resistant, Tier III-certified, LEED Gold, dedicated data centers where customers need them without forcing them to sacrifice features or performance. The innovative design of its facilities make it possible for Compass Datacenters to deliver state-of-the-art solutions that enhance control and simplify capacity planning for customers anywhere in the United States, serving the vast majority of companies that are not located in the few markets where geographically-constrained data center facilities are currently concentrated. For more information, visit www.compassdatacenters.com.

About the New Albany Business Park
The New Albany Business Park consists of more than 3,000 acres in one of the country’s largest master-planned business parks in the region and one of the fastest growing in the country. The Business Park currently has more than 12,000 employees in its multiple campuses that can accommodate a range of facilities from global headquarters, to large scale distribution and light manufacturing facilities as well as data centers and R&D facilities. The New Albany Business Park contains shovel-ready sites, highway accessibility, advanced fiber optics network and dual feed electric capacity. The Total private investment in the park is currently $1.5 billion.

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Bob Evans Farms Inc. now is a New Albany company.

The restaurant and food products chain has completed its years-in-the-works move to a new corporate headquarters in the northeast suburb having opened the $40 million complex on time and on budget.

The total campus is 40 acres looking out along state Route 161 (look for the signature silo) and includes three buildings – a 137,542-square-foot main building, a 24,420-square-foot shipping and receiving building and a 13,530-square-foot training building.

Dan Eaton, Columbus Business First.

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The Daimler Group is constructing two buildings in New Albany.

Bill Ebbing, New Albany Co. president, said during the Sept. 19 New Albany Chamber of Commerce meeting the company is working with Daimler to build a 26,000-square foot building at Market Street and Johnstown Road that will include a Mellow Mushroom pizzeria and a second restaurant, which has yet to be announced.

View the full article at This Week News.

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