Potential neighbor fears CoverMyMeds HQ would endanger Franklinton manufacturing corridor

As reported on by Carrie Ghose, Staff Reporter, Columbus Business First

GFS Chemicals Inc. has operated in the same industrial corridor of Franklinton since it was founded in 1928, so the specialty manufacturer has never had to deal with not-in-my-backyard complaints made about it.

But now the third-generation owner wonders what will happen if the backyard comes to it.

Fast-growing CoverMyMeds has proposed a two-building, 400,000-square-foot headquarters campus that eventually would house up to 1,600 technology workers at McKinley and Souder avenues in west Franklinton. The site is across the street from most of GFS and envelopes a parcel belonging to the chemical company on the north side of McKinley.

Office uses are allowed in the manufacturing district's zoning. But some existing businesses' owners are worried that future development might stretch along the river inland, now protected by a floodwall, gradually pressuring out used auto-parts lots and industrial supply yards.

“We’re not against the revitalization of Franklinton,” GFS CEO Steel Hutchinson said. “The issue we have is it’s not easy to move a chemical plant.

“We’re trying to understand what the future holds," he said.

The city has no plans to change the zoning or encourage any type of residential development, Columbus Development Director Steve Schoeny said. It's now more difficult, for example, to build a de facto apartment complex under the name of an "extended stay hotel" in a manufacturing zone.

For the full article please visit: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2018/07/09/potential-neighbor-fears-covermymeds-hq-would.html