HEATH, Ohio—On Monday, local leaders at the Southgate Corporation and Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority broke ground on two new industrial buildings that they hope will unearth hundreds of new jobs in the area.
- Licking County's unemployment rate hit a record low
- Heath's new industrial park is expected to grow jobs
- Developers say process will take 6 months to complete
“Since the recession we’ve seen a constant growth swing here, in Licking County,” said Heath Mayor Mark Johns.
Johns says the area serves as a jobs bellwether for the rest of Ohio—and the numbers back him up.
According to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the April unemployment rate in Licking County was just 2.8 percent—the lowest since record keeping began back in 1970.
“Here in Licking County, I think we’re the tip of the spear for that in central Ohio…we’ve seen a lot of growth. Our unemployment rate is down,” said Johns. “I think the ability for people to upgrade their skills and therefore upgrade the jobs that they have and the incomes that they earn, and those opportunities are here.”
He hopes these buildings will usher in more of that growth, even if they don’t yet have a buyer.
“We don’t know yet…these buildings are being built speculatively, meaning that there is no identified owner yet,” said Johns.
But Rick Platt, president and CEO of the Heath -Newark-Licking County Port Authority, as well as a board member for Jobs Ohio, says history shows these buildings, with a $4 million price tag, will fill up quickly.
“This is our fifth spec building in the park,” said Platt. “So, the others are two food manufacturing, a natural gas compressor company, a steel processing plant, and a research development laboratory. All very unique, all very different, but huge investments.”
“If you build it, they will come,” said Johns. “This campus of the Ohio Aerospace and Technology Center is proof that if you build it, they will come.”
For Platt, half the battle of attracting new industry is having a physical space for companies to set up shop.
“A lot of times companies get in a situation where they cannot go through the process of zoning a piece of land, designing a building, bidding it out, because that takes a year and half, maybe two years,” said Platt.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine agrees, hoping Licking County will be an example to the rest of the state.
“You know, Licking County has done a great job in building buildings, looking to the future, for companies to come in to Ohio, and companies to expand in Ohio,” said DeWine. “So, it’s all about jobs… there’s already hundreds of jobs out here in these projects, two new buildings coming up…there will be hundreds more.”
From Monday’s ceremonial groundbreaking to ribbon cutting, developers believe this whole process will take about six months.
So that means six months, two new buildings, and as they said, hundreds of new jobs in Heath.