New Albany International Business Park continues to attract new speculative building projects to meet growing market demand. Tenby Partners and Oakridge Development have formed a joint venture to invest $6.75 million to develop a 130,000-square-foot facility. Scannell Properties is also planning its first development here, a $30 million investment in a 355,000-square-foot industrial building in the park.

The Tenby Partners and Oakridge Development project, at 9360 Innovation Campus Way, is designed to appeal to smaller tenants seeking opportunities to expand and is expected to create 100 jobs. Scannell Properties estimates its new project will create between 200 to 400 jobs. Since the city’s first speculative office and manufacturing spaces were built by Pizzuti in 2012 and 2016, New Albany has seen strong, steady demand for space from both existing companies seeking to expand as well as new companies building their presence here. After completing construction and leasing of its first property, Northeast 302, and breaking ground on the preleased Innovation I in the business park, VanTrust Real Estate, LLC recently broke ground on Innovation II while announcing plans to build New Albany 315 and Innovation III. When completed, VanTrust’s footprint in the city will total 1.4 million square feet.

According to a recent JLL trend report, industrial demand in the Columbus region grew by 60.8 percent between 2020 and 2021. That increase is the result of the city’s central location, within an eight-hour drive of 44 percent of the United States, strong infrastructure, intermodal facilities and airports and strong workforce, JLL reported.