ThisWeek CW 02/12/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/02/10/groveport-incentives-attract-two-businesses.html

Groveport City Council has approved tax incentive deals with two businesses that are expected to bring 160 new jobs to the city.

Benchmark Education Co. plans to relocate from New Rochelle, N.Y., to 6295 Commerce Center Drive and Craft Wholesalers will relocate from Reynoldsburg to 4524 Homer Ohio Lane.

The deals, approved Jan. 26, offer both firms a seven-year, 35-percent withholding tax credit.

City Finance Director Jeff Green said this is a great way to start what he anticipates will be a very busy year.

“It’s a nice to start the year out this way, but it’s going to be a busy year for us as we have two more businesses opening right on their heels,” Green said. “We have another 2 million square feet of warehouse space nearing completion with one warehouse planned for Exel and the other will be run by Faro Logistics.”

Benchmark Education Co. is an international distributor of grade-school curriculum materials, including books and software.

The company intends to bring 49 new jobs to Groveport as part of its expansion efforts.

Benchmark will occupy one of the final remaining new spaces in the Commerce Center Drive building, Green said.

Craft Wholesalers is looking to expand its distribution space and will occupy long-vacant space in the old Sofa Express warehouse off South Hamilton Road, according to Green. The company is expected to immediately relocate about 86 jobs from its Reynoldsburg location and to eventually add another 25 jobs as part of the incentive agreement.

“That building has been vacant now for seven or eight years so it’s great to get something back in there,” Green said.

The company currently supplies about 2,400 retail craft and home goods stores across the country.

With the addition of these two businesses Groveport is once again at a 99-percent occupancy rate for its industrial parks, Green said.