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Economic Engines Several key industries are taking the Columbus Region into the future. By Evan Weese Through economic expansions and recessions, alike, six industries have proven to be key growth drivers for the Columbus Region. Several have maintained the status for decades, while others are newer to the list. All six, though, are evolving with new players, major investments and changing technology. There’s finance and insurance, a stalwart since Bank One (now JPMorgan Chase), Huntington and Nationwide first called the city home decades ago. Among the industry’s newcomers, however, is the newly public insurtech company Root, which is leveraging the industry’s deep local talent pool as it digitizes insurance. It is difficult to mention Root without noting the presence of Drive Capital, the Columbus-based venture capital firm that first funded it and which has bolstered the region’s startup ecosystem since its founding in 2013. And there’s the biomedical industry, a more recent addition to the list of six. The Columbus Region is becoming a hub of gene therapy activity, a process more than 20 years in the making with investments made by Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The automotive and mobility industry has been a big slice of the region’s economy since Honda set up shop in 1982, and has taken on a new sort of national-testinggrounds role with the presence of the Transportation Research Center and the Smart Columbus program. The industries adapted during
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the Covid-19 pandemic and even benefited from the shift to digital operations. Together, they will be key to powering growth for years to come.
E-commerce
90,000 Columbus Region transportation and logistics workers
fulfillment operations, providing unparalleled market access to U.S. consumers. More than 150 million people—46 percent of the country’s population—are reachable in a one-day drive, more than any other large metropolitan area. In addition to being home to major hubs for FedEx, UPS and DHL, Amazon and other ecommerce retailers set up distribution and fulfillment operations in the Columbus Region.
(Source: One Columbus)
270 million Square feet of logistical and industrial space in the Columbus Region, making it the 11th-largest distribution location in the U.S. (Source: Cushman & Wakefield)
It was a historic year for the development of new warehouse space in the Columbus Region, driven in part by a surge of ecommerce. The region is ideally located for distribution and Amazon’s facility in Etna
File/Columbus Dispatch/DORAL CHENOWETH III
Facebook data center in New Albany File/Columbus Dispatch/DORAL CHENOWETH III
Advanced computing
50 Data centers in the Columbus Region (Source: One Columbus)
The Columbus Region has the infrastructure needed for data center development—long-haul fiber, robust and reliable electric service, water and land—and it’s paying off. The region is home to more than 50 data centers, including large campus locations for Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Facebook, along with many corporate-owned facilities. Key assets include the Ohio Supercomputer Center, which provides supercomputing, cyber
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