June 6, 2025 • 10 mins
Mark Somerson of Columbus Business First has a look at all the local business news happening around the Columbus area
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stuff that goes on around Columbus, Ohio is always it's
it is so liquid. Sometimes it makes no sense to me.
Sometimes it makes perfect sense to me. And that's why
I keep this guy on speed out because I need
him so very much. Mark Summerson from Columbus Business. First,
Good morning, sir. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning? I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I'm okay. I was noticing in the the stuff that
we're talking about this week. I haven't heard the termin
a while Brownfield. Last time. I think I heard that
it was casino development. Actually, it's been a consideration now
Eastland Mall, which for some reason is the hot bit
of activity. I'm not real sure that I understand why
(00:39):
the while all the effort is going into that area
right now, But apparently the Brownfield remediation, the money needed
and all that stuff to clean that up has been
granted and this thing's going to move forward quickly now.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah. The state has a program where they send out
millions and millions of dollars over the years for remedia
of Basically, these are unsafe, flighted and abandoned sites across
Central Ohio and the rest of the state, fifty one
hazardous sites, and twenty seven counties where were awarded nearly
sixty million dollars this week from the Department of Development
(01:15):
at the state level. Included in that were a few
Central Ohio ones, including Eastland Mall, which got two million
dollars towards demolishing eight dilapidated structures, including a lot of asbestos. Unfortunately,
so that work is not the sexiest of stuff when
new development is being planned, but it has to be
done and having the state help you create a fund
(01:40):
of money to get the demolition and cleanup is just
a part of the whole process. So we're going to
see a lot of different things happening over there, but
definitely demolition, which started earlier this year, is going to
proceed in phases. But now they have two million dollars
to help work on it. There's an action plan for
these an area that calls for housing. They'd like have
(02:02):
a grocery store over there, college satellite, perhaps sports complex.
Mayor Andrew Ginther has made it one of his priorities,
the wider Eastland neighborhood, and so this is going to help. So, yeah,
that's money involved there. In Wyland Park, a former beer
barn site at East Fifth and fourth Street, which is
as if you go through Wyland Park you've seen many,
(02:25):
many changes. This beer barn set basically empty forever. It
just received one point six million dollars in brownfield grants
this week demolish two baconstructures including environmental contaminants, and they
want to build one hundred and eighty six apartments and
two seven story buildings there. This is m Panzica Development
(02:46):
has done this as well as structured parking, and so yeah,
this is it's an interesting program. We get to see
how the progress of some of the developments in the
city and greater Central Ohio receive this money to get
going on these projects. So that's a first big start
of it. And there's some other one too. Hannah's Creekside
District received one hundred and eight thousand dollars to demolish
(03:08):
a former car wash and an autoshop there. So yeah,
there is money coming in. Still, development is not slowing
down in Central Ohio unless you count for office construction.
But there's housing going up and these kind of grants
from the state, and there's lots of different tax breaks
from the state and funds that are available to developers
(03:29):
once they apply for this, and so that's good news
getting these projects moving.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's got a messenger thing here. I would wanted to
know what a brownfield was. Essentially, it's not toxic, it's
not where there's radiation or anything like that, but there
are contaminants from previous buildings, businesses or whatever that are
part of the land, and they call it a brownfield
basically when it needs to be cleaned up really good
before they can develop into something new. That's what it
comes down.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, in any city, especially Columbus had many brown fields
around the city where there were industrial plants many years ago,
or there was a gas station there, or all sorts
of things that can cause issues underground and they've got
to clean that stuff up. And of course there's buildings
that have any older buildings going to have asbestos in
it and that takes a lot of money to clean up.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Not too far from Eastland, this, I guess makes as
much sense as anything else when it comes to that
Fort Rapids building, but a church now looking at some
development possibilities in there. Huh.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, we didn't see this one coming as we play
our Fort Rapids bingo over the last couple of years. Yeah,
we heard from a local church that is interested in
joining a developer that wants to turn this into workforce housing.
As you know, Fort Rapids over on the east side
has sat and sat and sat, and then there was
(04:45):
a fire there that destroyed some of the outbuildings on there.
But we heard from the director of this World Fire
church they want to take over sixty thousand square feet
of the water park and that's where the slide comes
out of the building and all that, and they want
to put their church in there. It still has lots
of hurdles to go through. The other developer who's working
(05:08):
on this wants to put workforce housing on the outside
of the building. It's been in court for a long time.
There's been all sorts of issues with it. We're going
to have to see how this plays out. But yes,
another plan has come out for Fort Rapids. A lot
of people losting that site to see what happens. Many
thought it would just be demolished and set aside for
(05:28):
possibly some sort of mixed use development or more housing.
But there are people out there who want to save
the existing buildings and create different different things, including now
a church as well as the workforce housing. So yeah,
we're keeping an eye on this one as it still
goes through court systems. There's estate issues and other things,
(05:49):
and yeah, it's who knows how long this idea will last,
but it's something they're going to watch and see it
work its way through the system.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I have to admit it will make baptisms a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Of fun, would you mention? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, a water slide in the kind of God. The
Middle West Spirits, I'm going to admit to complete ignorance.
I've not heard of Middle West Spirits, but apparently you
have a story to tell here.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, it's been seventeen years in the making for Middlewest Spirits.
They're very popular. They have a bunch of award winning bourbons,
whiskeys as well as vodka's and gins. I have been
to Middlewest Spirits. I have had their their liquors. They're
very good, having a local distiller in town beyond the
craft beer, and there's a number of spirits makers in
(06:37):
town and this one's doing very well. And now they've expanded.
They have acquired this is their first ever acquisition, a
Colorado distillery called Old elk Uh and they are going
to take over their intellectual property, recipes, existing stock, they're
going to move the manufacturing part of that to Central Ohio.
(06:58):
Some of the employees will join in Middlewest. The whole
production and blending is coming to Columbus, and yeah, this
is a big growth area for Middlewest. They say this
expands their reach across the United States and they said
there's probably going to be more acquisitions in the future,
so you can tell when they're doing well if a
company has the cash needed for an acquisition. We don't
(07:22):
know exactly how much the deal went down for yet,
but it does involve everything pretty much about Old Elk
will be coming into Middlewest and that's really good news
for them. They have a really long term focus. They're
building up everything in production in Central Ohio and now
they have a new brand that they say is going
to help them boost their brands around the country. So
(07:42):
good news for Middlewest. And yeah that I think we're
going to see a lot more of these down the road.
Once they figure out how to fit Old Elk into there,
you'll see other brands coming under their umbrellas.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
And by the way, on the phone right now is
Mark Summerson of Columbus Business First. He's plugged in every
that's going on this idea of transferring Columbus from the
old brewery days, the German village days, the reason German
Village existed, all the beer breweries and the fort down there.
Wouldn't it be interesting to see his transition now into
(08:16):
this hub of Ohio born Bourbons and so forth.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Oh yeah, that actually, that's kind of an interesting prospect.
I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
If you are a fan of the Asian restaurants, there's
been a place that's been gone for a while, but
come August it's back. I know a lot of folks
are looking forward to Hu nan Lyon coming back to life.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah. Up on Be'shel Road and Crown Plaza, Unan Lion
closed for a while in October twenty twenty three kitchen
fire damaged the space. It's been closed since. The owners
posted on their website and social media this week that
they are back and they're going to open in August.
I have been to Huingon Lion many, many times. It's
one of those unassumed dooming restaurants that is in a
(09:02):
strip mall. But you know what, the food is really
good there. It's very old school. The place is gorgeous.
I happened to have been in there during I ordered takeout,
stood inside hunan lion by the bar, had a drink,
and basically a beautiful celebration was taking place in there
with the paper dragons and all of that. It was
(09:22):
a few years back, probably in twenty twenty one or
twenty twenty two, but I'll never forget that experience of
just going in there to pick up my takeout and
having this beautiful celebration and parade that went through the restaurant.
It was phenomenal. I know a lot of people up
in that part of central Ohio and up on Bethel
Road are really looking forward to it. Fire. Unfortunately in
(09:43):
restaurants it hurts them. Roosters at all. On Tangy River
closed last year. It's been closed for a year. It's
going to open its doors again this fall. Harvest Bar
took four months to reopen. In Clintonville. There's other fires
in town, and unfortunately these happened. I'm glad to see
you and a Lion come back. I think they're gonna
find a very large crowd outside their doors when they reopen.
Stuff that goes on around Columbus, Ohio is always it's
it is so liquid. Sometimes it makes no sense to me.
Sometimes it makes perfect sense to me. And that's why
I keep this guy on speed out because I need
him so very much. Mark Summerson from Columbus Business. First,
Good morning, sir. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning? I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I'm okay. I was noticing in the the stuff that
we're talking about this week. I haven't heard the termin
a while Brownfield. Last time. I think I heard that
it was casino development. Actually, it's been a consideration now
Eastland Mall, which for some reason is the hot bit
of activity. I'm not real sure that I understand why
(00:39):
the while all the effort is going into that area
right now, But apparently the Brownfield remediation, the money needed
and all that stuff to clean that up has been
granted and this thing's going to move forward quickly now.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah. The state has a program where they send out
millions and millions of dollars over the years for remedia
of Basically, these are unsafe, flighted and abandoned sites across
Central Ohio and the rest of the state, fifty one
hazardous sites, and twenty seven counties where were awarded nearly
sixty million dollars this week from the Department of Development
(01:15):
at the state level. Included in that were a few
Central Ohio ones, including Eastland Mall, which got two million
dollars towards demolishing eight dilapidated structures, including a lot of asbestos. Unfortunately,
so that work is not the sexiest of stuff when
new development is being planned, but it has to be
done and having the state help you create a fund
(01:40):
of money to get the demolition and cleanup is just
a part of the whole process. So we're going to
see a lot of different things happening over there, but
definitely demolition, which started earlier this year, is going to
proceed in phases. But now they have two million dollars
to help work on it. There's an action plan for
these an area that calls for housing. They'd like have
(02:02):
a grocery store over there, college satellite, perhaps sports complex.
Mayor Andrew Ginther has made it one of his priorities,
the wider Eastland neighborhood, and so this is going to help. So, yeah,
that's money involved there. In Wyland Park, a former beer
barn site at East Fifth and fourth Street, which is
as if you go through Wyland Park you've seen many,
(02:25):
many changes. This beer barn set basically empty forever. It
just received one point six million dollars in brownfield grants
this week demolish two baconstructures including environmental contaminants, and they
want to build one hundred and eighty six apartments and
two seven story buildings there. This is m Panzica Development
(02:46):
has done this as well as structured parking, and so yeah,
this is it's an interesting program. We get to see
how the progress of some of the developments in the
city and greater Central Ohio receive this money to get
going on these projects. So that's a first big start
of it. And there's some other one too. Hannah's Creekside
District received one hundred and eight thousand dollars to demolish
(03:08):
a former car wash and an autoshop there. So yeah,
there is money coming in. Still, development is not slowing
down in Central Ohio unless you count for office construction.
But there's housing going up and these kind of grants
from the state, and there's lots of different tax breaks
from the state and funds that are available to developers
(03:29):
once they apply for this, and so that's good news
getting these projects moving.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's got a messenger thing here. I would wanted to
know what a brownfield was. Essentially, it's not toxic, it's
not where there's radiation or anything like that, but there
are contaminants from previous buildings, businesses or whatever that are
part of the land, and they call it a brownfield
basically when it needs to be cleaned up really good
before they can develop into something new. That's what it
comes down.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, in any city, especially Columbus had many brown fields
around the city where there were industrial plants many years ago,
or there was a gas station there, or all sorts
of things that can cause issues underground and they've got
to clean that stuff up. And of course there's buildings
that have any older buildings going to have asbestos in
it and that takes a lot of money to clean up.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Not too far from Eastland, this, I guess makes as
much sense as anything else when it comes to that
Fort Rapids building, but a church now looking at some
development possibilities in there. Huh.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, we didn't see this one coming as we play
our Fort Rapids bingo over the last couple of years. Yeah,
we heard from a local church that is interested in
joining a developer that wants to turn this into workforce housing.
As you know, Fort Rapids over on the east side
has sat and sat and sat, and then there was
(04:45):
a fire there that destroyed some of the outbuildings on there.
But we heard from the director of this World Fire
church they want to take over sixty thousand square feet
of the water park and that's where the slide comes
out of the building and all that, and they want
to put their church in there. It still has lots
of hurdles to go through. The other developer who's working
(05:08):
on this wants to put workforce housing on the outside
of the building. It's been in court for a long time.
There's been all sorts of issues with it. We're going
to have to see how this plays out. But yes,
another plan has come out for Fort Rapids. A lot
of people losting that site to see what happens. Many
thought it would just be demolished and set aside for
(05:28):
possibly some sort of mixed use development or more housing.
But there are people out there who want to save
the existing buildings and create different different things, including now
a church as well as the workforce housing. So yeah,
we're keeping an eye on this one as it still
goes through court systems. There's estate issues and other things,
(05:49):
and yeah, it's who knows how long this idea will last,
but it's something they're going to watch and see it
work its way through the system.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I have to admit it will make baptisms a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Of fun, would you mention? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, a water slide in the kind of God. The
Middle West Spirits, I'm going to admit to complete ignorance.
I've not heard of Middle West Spirits, but apparently you
have a story to tell here.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, it's been seventeen years in the making for Middlewest Spirits.
They're very popular. They have a bunch of award winning bourbons,
whiskeys as well as vodka's and gins. I have been
to Middlewest Spirits. I have had their their liquors. They're
very good, having a local distiller in town beyond the
craft beer, and there's a number of spirits makers in
(06:37):
town and this one's doing very well. And now they've expanded.
They have acquired this is their first ever acquisition, a
Colorado distillery called Old elk Uh and they are going
to take over their intellectual property, recipes, existing stock, they're
going to move the manufacturing part of that to Central Ohio.
(06:58):
Some of the employees will join in Middlewest. The whole
production and blending is coming to Columbus, and yeah, this
is a big growth area for Middlewest. They say this
expands their reach across the United States and they said
there's probably going to be more acquisitions in the future,
so you can tell when they're doing well if a
company has the cash needed for an acquisition. We don't
(07:22):
know exactly how much the deal went down for yet,
but it does involve everything pretty much about Old Elk
will be coming into Middlewest and that's really good news
for them. They have a really long term focus. They're
building up everything in production in Central Ohio and now
they have a new brand that they say is going
to help them boost their brands around the country. So
(07:42):
good news for Middlewest. And yeah that I think we're
going to see a lot more of these down the road.
Once they figure out how to fit Old Elk into there,
you'll see other brands coming under their umbrellas.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
And by the way, on the phone right now is
Mark Summerson of Columbus Business First. He's plugged in every
that's going on this idea of transferring Columbus from the
old brewery days, the German village days, the reason German
Village existed, all the beer breweries and the fort down there.
Wouldn't it be interesting to see his transition now into
(08:16):
this hub of Ohio born Bourbons and so forth.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Oh yeah, that actually, that's kind of an interesting prospect.
I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
If you are a fan of the Asian restaurants, there's
been a place that's been gone for a while, but
come August it's back. I know a lot of folks
are looking forward to Hu nan Lyon coming back to life.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah. Up on Be'shel Road and Crown Plaza, Unan Lion
closed for a while in October twenty twenty three kitchen
fire damaged the space. It's been closed since. The owners
posted on their website and social media this week that
they are back and they're going to open in August.
I have been to Huingon Lion many, many times. It's
one of those unassumed dooming restaurants that is in a
(09:02):
strip mall. But you know what, the food is really
good there. It's very old school. The place is gorgeous.
I happened to have been in there during I ordered takeout,
stood inside hunan lion by the bar, had a drink,
and basically a beautiful celebration was taking place in there
with the paper dragons and all of that. It was
(09:22):
a few years back, probably in twenty twenty one or
twenty twenty two, but I'll never forget that experience of
just going in there to pick up my takeout and
having this beautiful celebration and parade that went through the restaurant.
It was phenomenal. I know a lot of people up
in that part of central Ohio and up on Bethel
Road are really looking forward to it. Fire. Unfortunately in
(09:43):
restaurants it hurts them. Roosters at all. On Tangy River
closed last year. It's been closed for a year. It's
going to open its doors again this fall. Harvest Bar
took four months to reopen. In Clintonville. There's other fires
in town, and unfortunately these happened. I'm glad to see
you and a Lion come back. I think they're gonna
find a very large crowd outside their doors when they reopen.
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