Initiatives

2022 – A Year of Accomplishment

Economic development leads city’s achievements in past year

January 2022 started off with a bang when Intel announced its intention to invest up to $100 billion in the New Albany International Business Park (more information is available at newalbanysiliconheartland. com). This project is being celebrated throughout Ohio because Intel is creating an entirely new business sector for our state. Intel has also committed more than $50 million in state education grants to help prepare Ohio’s first generation of workers for the state’s emerging semiconductor industry.

Intel’s announcement was followed by other companies that committed to either build or expand operations in New Albany, including: • Van Trust, which has developed eight different projects in our business park representing more than $350 million in investment; • AmplifyBio, a biotechnology company focusing on cell and gene therapy products, is investing $150 million and creating 130 jobs; • Amazon.com, which opened its $250 million fulfillment center this past summer, creating 1,000 jobs; • Pharmavite, a popular vitamin brand, chose New Albany among more than 70 sites across the country to invest $200 million and create 225 jobs; and • Meta and Google continue to expand their data center operations, and multiple other data center builders announced projects here in New Albany.

These projects followed the big news in 2021 that Amgen was building its $375 million facility, creating 400 jobs. That project is still on schedule to open in 2023.

The New Albany International Business Park now represents more than $29 billion in private investment, 21 million square feet of commercial space and 24,000 employees. These jobs generate local income tax revenues which pay for approximately 85 percent of municipal services like police protection, road maintenance and leisure trails, without increasing the tax burden on our residents.

Hinson Amphitheater

Our newest community treasure, the Hinson Amphitheater, played host to its first full season of events in 2022, from local concerts and movies to nationally known acts sponsored by the New Albany Community Foundation coming to entertain our community.

Resident Survey

Saperstein Associates conducted our resident survey this summer. Feedback showed that nearly 90 percent of respondents believe that New Albany is headed in the right direction and the city also received high marks for police protection, snow removal, trash collection, maintaining architectural standards, managing growth, keeping residents apprised of important issues, and developing park lands and leisure trails. More information is available at newalbanyohio. org/answers/survey.

Parks & Trails

parks and playgrounds is paying off. The Sumption Park and James River’s playgrounds are now complete, the Byington and North of Woods playgrounds should be complete by the time you read this column, and Lambton and Planter’s Grove playgrounds are scheduled for completion by Summer 2023.

Taylor Farm Park saw lots of upgrades throughout 2022 and is expected to be open in Spring 2023; construction should begin on our Veterans Memorial in late 2023, and we replaced about 3.5 miles of our 55-plus-mile leisure trail network.

Sustainability

The City of New Albany, through the recommendation of the Sustainability Advisory Board, implemented a food composting program with three drop-off locations throughout town that is now used by more than 10 percent of the community, resulting in nearly 20,000 pounds of food being diverted from the landfill (for more information about this service, please visit newalbanyohio.org/answers/waste-andrecycling.) New Albany also hosted an electronic waste drive, which generated four box truck and trailer loads worth of electronic waste to be recycled. In October, New Albany achieved a silver-tiered certification from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s Sustainable2050 program.

NAPD/School Partnership

One last note of interest: The New Albany-Plain Local School District is now funding an additional school resource officer (SRO) to supplement the two SRO positions on campus that have been funded by the city for many years. This brings the total number of SROs on campus to three. City Council appreciates this important partnership with school leadership. Our most important community asset is our students, and we value our strong working relationship with our school district to help create a safe learning environment in which our children can thrive.

Scott McAfee is the chief communications and marketing officer for the City of New Albany.