The City of Delaware is moving forward with crafting incentives for a development that will initially bring an estimated $48 million investment from a company planning to move from Dublin, as well as lay the groundwork – literally – for more developable sites.
Without the incentives and infrastructure investment, the developer and company is hesitant to move forward, said Nic Langford, Delaware's economic development director.
The 70-acre site near the intersection of Curtis Street and London Road involves land already mostly surrounded by development in southwest Delaware. The first phase is an approximately 169,000-square-foot building on about 20 acres that will serve as the new headquarters for Guild Associates, a chemical engineering firm
now based in Dublin.
Guild makes some products for commercial and military use, including dry chemicals that convert landfill gases into consumable natural gas and a laundry system first started during Operation Desert Storm that recycles 99% of the water.
Allen Rutz, an in-house attorney for Guild, told city council that the company has about six different locations – five in central Ohio with the headquarters in Dublin – and is trying to consolidate all of its sites into one place.
In response to a question from a councilmember about odors from the site, Rutz said that any smells should be contained within the building. Their current facility in Dublin is close to city hall “and we’ve never had a complaint.”
That first phase of development includes an anticipated investment of $48 million, Langford said. According to the term sheet, when opened, Guild is expected to employ 125 people with an estimated total annual payroll of $10.6 million.
The term sheet that council unanimously passed by resolution July 27 defines the negotiating framework for the specific agreements that city staff and the developer will make – that council will also need to approve in the future.
The city is proposing several financial incentives, including sharing half of the net income taxes generated and a 75% abatement on property taxes for the first 15 years. Also, the city is offering help to coordinate grant applications to fund infrastructure.
The developer is also offering a $500,000 one-time contribution to fund future transportation improvements that would be paid before the first vertical building permit.
The public infrastructure cost is anticipated to be $4 million, Langford said, and the city is offering to cover up to 60% ($2.4 million) of that.
The first development will “unlock” the rest of the industrial park, according to a presentation to city council July 27. That would include over half a mile of a new public road, as well as extending water and sewer service. Future lots would not also be automatically entitled to incentives, however.
The full build-out in the future could total over $100 million of improvements and bring over 1,000 new jobs to the city, according to Langford’s presentation.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers regional/suburban trending news for The Columbus Dispatch. She can be reached at awinfrey@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Dublin engineering firm eyes Delaware move with $48M investment
