MOUNT VERNON — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state’s largest economic development project to-date on Jan. 21 in Newark.
From the stage of the historic Midland Theatre, DeWine and other state officials celebrated the news that Intel, a California-based semiconductor chip manufacturing company, would be building two plants in Licking County in the coming years.
The company said it would invest $20 billion in the project – with the potential for up to eight factories and $100 billion over the next decade – creating an estimated 20,000 jobs (both direct and indirect) in the process.
Construction is expected to start this year, with the first chips being produced by 2025.
“It’s a special day, a great day in Ohio history. …” DeWine said last Friday from the Midland stage, smiling as applause rained down and the nation watched. Intel, the world’s largest chip manufacturer by revenue, had chosen Ohio over 39 other states after eight months of negotiations.
“This is a major win for Ohio,” he continued, “and it’s really a game-changer for our economic future.”
Sitting inside the recently opened BrewDog brewery in downtown New Albany, roughly 20 miles away, Knox County’s top economic development official looked on.
He had just learned of the project three days prior, and was now watching the historic announcement alongside other local economic leaders from the central Ohio region. Their room was one of several from across the state to be featured on-screen at Midland near the beginning of the ceremony.
Questions raced through his mind. The moment was equal parts exciting and unsettling, with so many variables unknown.
But he felt certain about one thing.
“This is gonna be great for the Columbus region,” Jeff Gottke, president of the Area Development Foundation, said in an interview Monday. “Transformational, I would say.”
Intel is planning to build its “mini-city” in western Licking County, on land that will eventually be annexed into New Albany. It won’t be far from Knox County – just 12 miles south of Centerburg and 21 miles south of Mount Vernon.
When the project became official late last week, local residents predictably had questions.
What does this mean for Knox County, a historically rural community that was already beginning to see growth from Columbus? How might daily life change here over the next decade?
We spoke with county, city, village and township officials this week in an effort to find out.
‘We will see growth’
Intel’s decision to move to central Ohio could impact Knox County in several ways, local officials said.
Population growth is almost inevitable, Gottke said, particularly in southern and central Knox County. The average work commute in the U.S. is 30 minutes, he noted, and the southern half of Knox County – including Mount Vernon – would fit within that radius.
“We will see some growth,” Gottke said.
How much growth will occur? That will depend on several factors, local officials said, including the amount of housing available (Knox County is currently experiencing a housing shortage) and whether or not local municipalities will encourage development (through incentives, zoning, and other proactive measures that would make the community attractive to developers).
It will also depend on the sheer numbers of jobs this project creates.
Intel has said it will employ 3,000 people at its Licking County site, and the project itself will create 7,000 construction jobs. The number of “indirect” jobs this project will create, however, is less certain. Estimates range between 10,000 and 20,000, according to local and state officials.
Gottke and other local officials believe Knox County could benefit from this “indirect,” or residual, growth.
Suppliers will be looking to relocate nearby, he explained, and Knox County could serve as a prime location. Several local officials floated Cooper Progress Park, the 47-acre industrial campus in downtown Mount Vernon, as a potential destination.
Knox County could also house businesses that benefit from Intel’s services. These are companies that don’t make supplies for semiconductor chips, but do make things that rely on them – which is quite the list. Nearly every piece of modern technology, from cars to cell phones, relies on the product Intel will be making in western Licking County.
“Intel is expected to attract many partners and suppliers needed to support their operations,” Knox County Commissioner Teresa Bemiller said. “(The) Area Development Foundation works closely with state partners, including JobsOhio. It would be great to attract one or more of these companies to locate in Knox County.”
This ripple effect may extend beyond suppliers and partners, however, local officials said. Gottke said Intel’s decision could boost all areas of Knox County’s economy – even those entirely unrelated to the production or distribution of semiconductor chips.
“We’ll probably see … increased commercial opportunities in general. More retail, more restaurants, that kind of thing. …” Gottke said. “There’s no question that we’re gonna see development because of this Intel decision.”
Knox County’s tourism industry will also likely benefit from Intel’s decision, local officials said.
As central Ohio expands, even those who don’t end up living here will be looking for recreational opportunities – places to explore and things to do – and local officials believe Knox County will be well-positioned to offer those kinds of experiences (and reap the economic benefits of doing so).
“I believe this will bring more visitors to the area who will be in search of entertainment and leisure activities, which will benefit Mount Vernon and Knox County,” Mount Vernon Mayor Matt Starr said.
When Honda chose to build its $4 billion auto plant in Marysville in 1982, the rest of central Ohio prospered. Knox County became home to two Honda suppliers – Sanoh America Inc. in Mount Vernon and FT Precision in Fredericktown – despite being located more than an hour away from the facility.
Gottke said Intel’s project – a $20 billion investment, the biggest in Ohio’s history – will be Honda “times two.”
“They estimate that for every dollar they invest, there will be $100 more of follow-on investment by other entities,” Gottke said. “So this is really important and really big for the region.”
Bemiller, who has served as a Knox County commissioner since 2008, called Intel’s decision generational.
“For the state and central Ohio in particular, the economic impact of this decision should be felt for years. It is hard to quantify it at this point,” she said. “The number of good-paying jobs that will be generated, including construction and support jobs, will be major for the entire region.”
‘A plethora of opportunities’
Intel’s decision to build in Licking County also presents an opportunity for the local educational system.
Knox County’s K-12 school districts, career center, and higher-education institutions may look to add programs that would prepare students for a future in the semiconductor industry.
Intel has already announced that it will invest $100 million in an industry-specific education program over the next decade, helping create a pipeline between Ohio’s educational institutions and the Licking County facility.
“We will be in close proximity to the Intel facility. This would provide employment opportunities for Knox County residents, particularly students,” Bemiller said.
“Intel has indicated they want to work with the state’s colleges and universities to develop semiconductor-specific courses for associate and undergraduate degree programs.”
Intel said it plans to offer a wide range of jobs – ranging from technician roles that require a two-year degree to engineers and researchers with PhDs – which will pay an average of $135,000 per year.
While Gottke said many of the software engineering and research jobs will likely be imported at first, given the nuance of this industry in Ohio, occupations of all kinds will eventually become available as the company builds out.
“Everything from associate degrees up to the highest-end PhD degrees,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a recent interview. “We need the full range of capabilities.”
Leaders at Knox County’s higher-education institutions said this week they were excited about Intel’s announcement, and looking forward to this new opportunity.
Central Ohio Technical College, with two branch locations in Licking County and one in Mount Vernon, figures to benefit from Intel’s accessibility and interest. But leaders from Mount Vernon Nazarene University and Kenyon College are also looking forward to participating in the pipeline.
Samantha Scoles, MVNU’s coordinator of communications and public relations, said the university already has programs that would prepare students for a career there, and is planning to add more.
“Students from our computer science and engineering programs will be well qualified for internship positions, and graduates from those programs will undoubtedly benefit from the abundance of jobs that will be created by development of the new ‘silicon heartland,'” Scoles said.
“The timing of the announcement could not be better, as we are planning to add a computer engineering concentration to our engineering major. We look forward to exploring a partnership with Intel through their Ohio Semiconductor Center for Innovation initiative.”
Tracy Corrigan, Kenyon’s director of employer relations, noted that “it is incredibly early in this process,” but said the college is “very eager to see the landscape and how it begins to unfold.”
“I have no doubt that there’s going to be a plethora of opportunities for all students,” Corrigan said.
Leaders within Knox County’s K-12 districts also see an opportunity here. Kathy Greenich, superintendent of the Knox County Career Center, said Monday her administration was already working to learn more about how it could prepare students for Ohio’s technological future.
“We are looking for information on exactly what skill sets Intel will be looking for in employees,” she said.
This, Gottke said, offers a window into the potential magnitude of Intel’s decision. Preparing Knox County for Intel’s arrival will be a multi-generational effort, involving nearly every sector of community life.
“It trickles down to the public schools, too. I mean, what kind of curricular additions can they have (to meet the need)? Do they have a computer science program?” Gottke said.
“When I say ‘transformational,’ that’s the kind of stuff that’s gonna be impacted.”
‘Huge for our country’
Much about Intel’s decision to build in western Licking County remains uncertain.
What specific kinds of jobs will be offered, and how many, and when? What will need to happen, from an infrastructural standpoint, to make this possible in central Ohio? How might federal legislation impact Intel’s project – the speed at which the company builds and hires, and the scope of the company’s total investment when all is said and done?
Local officials – everyone from school superintendents to mayors – are asking these questions. The answers, whenever they might come and whatever they might be, will impact Knox County’s future.
In the meantime, however, people like Gottke are focused on the certainties. And one of those certainties, he said, is that Intel’s decision won’t just impact Knox County and central Ohio. It will impact the world.
The move will help re-establish the U.S. as a major manufacturer of semiconductor chips, a vital piece of technology in today’s society. The U.S. has long depended on foreign production of these chips, Gottke said, and Intel’s decision to build in Ohio will change that.
President Joe Biden recently touted the investment as a major win for the U.S. economy and for national security, given the military’s reliance on semiconductor technology.
“To be able to say, ‘Made in Ohio. Made in America.’ What we used to always be able to say 25, 30 years ago. That’s what this is about,” Biden said during a press briefing Jan. 21, just hours after the news of Intel’s decision broke.
“We’re going to stamp everything we can ‘Made in America,’ especially these computer chips.”
Federal and state officials have said this move – bringing chip manufacturing back to the U.S. – will help shore up supply-chain issues that have been felt in recent months. This has local officials excited, as it could very well impact the daily lives of residents in Knox County.
“It is widely known that the shortage of chips is slowing down production of many items, from our police cruisers to the materials we need for crosswalks,” said Amber Keener, an at-large member of Mount Vernon City Council.
The city currently has several new police cruisers waiting out-of-state for chips to be installed, Starr noted, and stateside production could help prevent those kinds of issues moving forward.
“This major investment in manufacturing (chips) here is huge for our country,” Bemiller said.
But for now, Gottke and others are focused on preparing Knox County for the future. And that means Intel’s arrival.
Gottke said that in the days since the Jan. 21 announcement, he’s been working nonstop to get Knox County ready. He’s been taking phone calls from local officials and setting up meetings.
“My to-do list basically just got blown up right now because of this Intel thing,” he said with a laugh.
Knox County will have a say in what happens here over the next decade-plus, Gottke said, as a result of Intel’s historic investment. But he believes the planning must begin now.
“This is a little bit tough for us because we don’t want to jump the gun and guess on something that doesn’t end up happening. But then we also don’t want to wait too long and let that growth be dictated to us,” Gottke said.
“So we’ve got some time to think about who needs to be at the table and what needs to be done before we actually pull the trigger on anything. That’s gonna be key, is being prepared before we take any action.”
In the days ahead, we’ll examine how Knox County is preparing for Intel’s arrival – what officials at the county, city, village and township levels are thinking, and doing, to brace for impact.
