A unique, aggressive program designed to stimulate site development across the state is paying major dividends for Northwest Ohio.
Ohio Site Inventory Program (OSIP) was created by JobsOhio to boost the competitiveness of the state in competing for economic development projects. The program offers grants and low-interest loans to support speculative site and building development projects.
Though the program began just two years ago, Northwest Ohio has been quick to capitalize on funding opportunities for new product across the 17-county region. Already, OSIP has awarded funding for nine Northwest Ohio projects – roughly 900,000 square feet of new, modern buildings. Two of those have already seen spec buildings developed and become occupied with end users.
One of those, APackaging Group (APG) in Defiance, announced last year a $49 million investment and the creation of 135 new jobs to open its first U.S. manufacturing facility at a newly constructed spec building.
NAI Harmon put up the spec building, with the assistance of the OSIP program. President and COO Craig Stambaugh noted that critical need it met in helping fill inventory gaps.
“We were under construction, and APG came down the road. They were looking for a site that was site specific,” Stambaugh said. “Defiance would not have the jobs that are coming if that building was not being built as they toured it. If we don’t have that ready-market product in there, they can go over to Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne and find that.”
Moving forward, Northwest Ohio currently has a robust pipeline of potential projects through OSIP bringing an additional 1 million square feet of new inventory.
To learn more on Northwest Ohio’s top sites and available buildings, visit https://rgp.org/sites-buildings/.