Communities of innovation

its 10-person shop in Bellefontaine. Because cash flow is tight, buying new equipment to increase production or expand its product line isn’t something that happens frequently, says Ben Vollrath, president of the Logan County Chamber of Commerce.

As the pandemic persisted over the summer, a sense of uneasiness hovered over the city’s base of small manufacturers. Vollrath realized several of them would qualify for the new JobsOhio Inclusion Grant program that aims to boost businesses in distressed communities. So, on a hot August morning, he and 15 area manufacturers got on a phone call with One Columbus to talk about it. The businesses were excited about what they heard and many of them decided to apply. Once they did, the economic development group served as the conduit to get the applications over to the state.

As of late October, seven businesses had been awarded grants of $225,000, and several more plan to apply. Ohio Wire

Logan County Chamber President Ben Vollrath with Linda Botkin and Kim Weber, mother and daughter co-owners of Ohio Wire Harness

Harness got $50,000, which it will use to buy five new pieces of machinery. Vollrath says the business has been operating on outdated, used equipment and didn’t have the funds to upgrade. The new machinery is more flexible and efficient, which will allow Ohio Wire Harness to expand its product offerings and better serve its customers.

“This money is a big deal to businesses that want to take the next step but haven’t been able to do so, even before the pandemic,” Vollrath says. “Getting the money to be able to purchase a piece of equipment and perhaps even be

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able to pay to train a person to run that equipment makes a huge difference for a business and has a lasting impact.”

Licking County

Just east of Columbus, a thriving business park boasts a specialty in cleanroom space

The Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority operates the Central Ohio Aerospace & Technology Center, an industrial park that traces its roots to the Kaiser Aluminum Co.’s operations there in the 1940s. While the business still has a presence there today, the park has diversified over the years and now is home to a host of industries—Boeing Co., Samuel Packaging Systems and Homestead Beer Co. are some of its tenants.

Key to the 350-acre park’s success has been speculative building—10 facilities have gone up over the past 10 years. That means when a business decides to call Central Ohio home, the

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“The park has really become a home to critical industries that had to stay open during the pandemic.”

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park is a logical place to ramp up operations quickly.

Because of its experience working with Boeing, the port authority has developed a niche building clean room space that’s suitable for microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, food processing and life sciences. That allowed it to stay active during the pandemic and welcome in two new tenants.

Neurxstem, a predictive and precision genomic brain medicine company, inked a three-year lease in August. The company plans to focus on Covid-19-related research in its 1,000-square-foot lab.

Organic infant nutrition company Nature’s One opened a $32 million, 92,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at the campus in the second quarter. It joins three other plant-based food processing businesses at the park that occupy 200,000 square feet in four buildings.

The port authority also opened two speculative industrial buildings during the pandemic, says Rick Platt, president and CEO of the port authority.

“The park has really become a home to critical industries that had to stay open during the pandemic and they successfully did,” says Platt, who referenced the defense, energy, metals, life sciences and food production sectors as essential industries.

“Because of the coronavirus pandemic, more manufacturing work is going to come back to the U.S. through reshoring. Going forward, having the kind of buildings those manufacturers need ready to go has Central Ohio positioned for success.”