Meeting the Needs of an Expanded Market

When I was tapped to be the BIA Executive Director at the end of 2017, our advocacy efforts primarily focused on Delaware County, with a little bit of Union County (primarily Jerome Township) and the City of Columbus (mostly utility related).

My how things have changed. According to the latest Zonda Marker report, only three of the top ten bestselling communities are currently in Delaware County, as builders have continued to look for opportunities in other parts of central Ohio to meet the significant market demand that exists in our region.

The expanding market view of our members has meant that builders, developers and the BIA need to have increased relationships in areas we may not have previously had. The leadership of our Builders and Developers Council (Nicki Martin / Treplus Communities, Jeff Miller / CESO, and Mike Reeves / KimleyHorn) has smartly broken the Council’s work into working groups, which allows for a more focused approach in our advocacy efforts.

If your company is doing work in one of the counties that the BIA represents (Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Hocking, Knox, Licking, Madison, Marion, Perry, Pickaway and Union) or even in areas adjacent to those counties, chances are there is a group of BIA members who are too. We must work together as these growing areas implement policies to help meet the needs of their changing communities. These groups will be crucial to the future policy effectiveness of the BIA.

Moreover, the leadership of our organization understands the need for the BIA to be at the table in these discussions. As such, at the time of writing this, the BIA is currently searching for the Association’s first full-time in-house government affairs manager. This position will augment and work collaboratively with Malcolm Porter, who remains our ever-effective consultant, me, and our leadership, to help spread the message of effective and efficient housing creation in central Ohio.

My personal belief is that growth in our region will continue to move over the next decade from I-270 to the surrounding county seats (Circleville, Delaware, Lancaster, London, Marysville and Newark) with forays into Mt. Vernon, Urbana and Bellefontaine. We will also see more of our members engaged in infill projects that we couldn’t have imagined even five years ago.

It will be vital for our organization to be active, and we will continue to work proactively through our committees, councils and leadership to ensure that we are meeting the needs of the central Ohio building community.

A change that many of you may have noticed is a request to establish new login credentials with the BIA. The Association has moved to a new CRM platform that will provide a better user experience for you and improve processes internally, allowing us to dedicate more resources to serve you. This update also includes a new website refresh, of which we are very proud. I want to thank Edna Mae Berkey, the BIA’s Manager of Finance & Administration, for guiding this process internally for the BIA. It was a challenging task, but one we believe will be worth it for our members.