Honda plant part of Ohio ranking high in national ranking for investment

“Ohio continues to lead the nation in the Global Groundwork Index because our public sector infrastructure investments lay the groundwork for economic growth,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement. “We’re preparing large-scale sites for industrial development, expanding our skilled workforce, and fortifying our energy, telecom, transportation, and water infrastructure so that Ohio is always at the top of the list for businesses looking to start up or expand.”

Ohio leaders say the state’s private and public development teams generated more than 94,310 new job commitments and $65.2 billion in capital investments based on JobsOhio data from 2020 through 2024.

Ohio cities appear in Site Selection’s metropolitan ranking, in the magazine’s September 2024 edition, with Columbus ranked at No. 3 and Cincinnati at No. 4.

The magazine highlighted activity surrounding Intel’s 1,000-acre plants site in Licking County near Columbus.

“Routes were custom designed to deliver prefabricated machinery weighing over 900,000 pounds and as long as an Ohio State football field from the Ohio River in Adams County to the Intel site,” the magazine said.

“We worked very closely with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Gov. DeWine’s office to look at different possible routes, and ultimately decided that using the Ohio River made the most sense,” Kevin Hoggatt, Intel’s director of state government affairs for Ohio, is quoted as saying in a Site Selection article.

“ODOT’s role has been to analyze the route and make sure the infrastructure can handle a load this big,” ODOT spokesman Matt Bruning told the magazine.

The huge Intel project has local implications. Last month, Dayton’s Libra Industries cut the ribbon on a $1.8 million, 5,000-square-foot clean room to better serve semiconductor-industry customers — with the expectation that up to 26 employees will be added to the company’s workforce.

Steve Luebbe, Fayette County engineer, estimated that the county and its partners, including contractors and neighboring governments, are pursuing more than $100 million total in road, water, and electric infrastructure improvements to accommodate the Honda/LG Energy Solution Electric Vehicle (EV) battery plant being built in Jefferson Twp.

The plant is expected to employ about 2,200 people. It will be an approximately 50-minute drive southeast of Dayton and about 40 minutes south of Springfield.

The leaders of the joint venture expect to pull workers from those communities and others.

“People realize this is not just Fayette County,” Luebbe told this newspaper last year. “It’s all of Ohio.”

“Ohio makes things, moves things and maintains the core necessities for any company looking to locate — suitable sites, superb talent, sustainable infrastructure, safe communities and a superior quality of life,” said J.P. Nauseef, JobsOhio president and CEO. “Ohio has that balance, and it has tipped the scales in favor of high-profile investments from Abbott, Amgen, Ford, GM, the Honda-LG Energy Solution joint venture, Intel, Medpace, Sierra-Nevada Corp., and many others.