CoverMyMeds' potential industrial neighbors pleased with dialogue, but not at ease

By, Carrie Ghose, of Columbus Business First.

Executives with Franklinton industrial businesses still feel uneasy about 1,600 white-collar workers – and their cars – if CoverMyMeds moves to their neighborhood, but they said they appreciate that the developer is willing to hear them out.

Dallas-based Cambridge Holdings Inc. presented conceptual renderings of the $245 million, two-building corporate campus at McKinley and Souder avenues on Tuesday to the Franklinton Area Commission. CoverMyMeds has not released many details, citing the need to wait for city approvals, since real estate company CBRE presented a sketch of the site plan to Columbus City Schools.

“We finally reached the point we can start talking about it,” said Francis Sapienza Jr., executive vice president and chief development officer for Dallas-based Cambridge, which has done about 10 projects for CoverMyMeds parent McKesson Corp.

“We think it’s important to start at this phase talking to the community, while it’s all on paper,” Sapienza said. The presentation was not a formal site plan.

The proposed site is at the entry to manufacturing-zoned McKinley, a major corridor for industrial parts suppliers, junkyards and Columbus and COTA fleets.

“I don’t necessarily see it’s the appropriate place for it,” said Steel Hutchinson, owner and CEO of GFS Chemicals Inc. The immediate neighbor to the site makes specialty raw materials for pharmaceuticals, textiles and other products.

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