By 1808Delaware
For much of the past generation, Powell’s growth story has been told through new homes, restaurants, stores and the traffic that followed them. A proposal now moving through City Hall would add something different to that picture: a business campus designed around technology, research, healthcare and light manufacturing.
The city is considering transferring approximately 10.68 acres of publicly owned land on Home Road to the Powell Development Corporation. The corporation would then negotiate directly with a developer to create what officials describe as a flex-tech park. If the concept develops as city projections suggest, it could eventually support 231 jobs and more than $16 million in annual payroll.
From City Land to an Employment Campus
Powell purchased the Home Road property from Redwood Apartments in 2024. According to a city memorandum included with the Powell Development Corporation’s August 25 meeting materials, Redwood approached the city because it does not develop commercial projects. The debt associated with the city’s purchase was paid off in 2025.
Economic development staff have since spoken with three developers experienced in industrial and flex-tech projects. The Powell Development Corporation’s Real Estate Committee wants to move forward with one of them, although neither the company nor a detailed development plan has been publicly identified.
The Development Corporation board supported transferring the property from the city. City Council must approve the conveyance before it can take place. The land would be transferred to the corporation at no cost. As a community improvement corporation, it can negotiate more directly than the city and would not have to follow the same formal process for soliciting proposals or qualifications. Once it controls the property, the corporation could sell the land, lease it to a developer or become a financial participant in the project. The eventual structure would depend on negotiations and what officials determine offers Powell the strongest financial and strategic return.
What Flex-Tech Means
A flex-tech park is not a conventional office park, warehouse complex or heavy industrial development. The buildings typically combine office space with laboratories, product-development areas, warehousing and light manufacturing. Open floor plans, high ceilings and adaptable interior spaces allow administrative work and hands-on operations to take place under the same roof. The format can accommodate technology startups, research firms, healthcare-related businesses, contractors and smaller manufacturers that need more than traditional office space but do not require a large industrial plant.
Powell officials are using the Edwards Farms Innovation Center in Hilliard as a comparison. That project includes approximately 151,800 square feet in two buildings and represents an investment of about $23.7 million.
Powell’s proposed campus would be somewhat smaller, with approximately 135,000 square feet in one or more buildings.
The Numbers Behind the Proposal
City estimates suggest that a fully occupied Home Road flex-tech park could support 231 jobs with an annual payroll of approximately $16.17 million. At Powell’s current 2% municipal income-tax rate, that payroll would generate an estimated $323,400 per year for the city. Over 15 years, the projected income-tax revenue would total approximately $4.85 million.
The city paid an average of $208,197 per acre when it acquired the property. Based on projected payroll taxes, staff calculated an annualized return of 5.37% over 15 years and a total return of approximately 118%.
Those figures are projections, not commitments. They depend on a developer constructing the anticipated amount of space and businesses eventually occupying it with the expected number of employees. If the property is ultimately sold for approximately what the city paid, the Development Corporation proposes using half of the proceeds to support its operations. The other half would be reserved for future property acquisitions and redevelopment opportunities elsewhere in Powell.
What Has Not Been Decided
The project remains in an early stage. No developer has been publicly announced. No tenants have been identified, and no final site plan, building design, capital investment or development incentive package has been approved. The city’s projected employment, payroll and tax figures illustrate what a project of this size could produce. They are not guarantees attached to an executed agreement. Officials hope to reach an arrangement with a developer during the fall. The campus could become operational between late 2027 and mid-2028, according to local reporting on the Development Corporation’s action, but that timetable also remains preliminary.
Building a Broader Tax Base
The larger significance of the proposal lies in what Powell is trying to attract.
Residential growth can bring customers for local businesses, but it does not directly produce municipal income-tax revenue unless those residents work within the city. A business campus filled with technology, research and healthcare employees would help Powell build a larger daytime workforce and a broader employment-based tax base. It could also give growing Central Ohio companies an option between conventional suburban offices and much larger industrial buildings.
The Home Road proposal therefore represents more than another development site. It is an effort to change the composition of Powell’s growth by bringing more jobs, payroll and business activity into a community long defined by residential expansion.
Whether the numbers become reality will depend on the developer, the eventual tenants and the terms negotiated after the land changes hands. The next decision belongs to City Council.
