MAGA: White Castle to Spend $65M on Columbus, Ohio Headquarters

The fast food giant White Castle continues to grow in the current markets, expanding and building more locations across the US with each passing day.

So much has it grown that it is now invested into the new redevelopment of its headquarters site on Goodale Avenue, in Columbus, Ohio which the company estimated it will spend $65 million building.

The new location will be approximately 150,000 square feet of office space with a combined 300 apartments, according to the Columbus City Council’s meeting agenda

The city agenda includes two pertinent items regarding the development.

First and foremost the agenda orders the Director of Economic development to work alongside with White Castle on an agreement for the specs of the project and the other will create a tax increment financing area from the 15-acre project footprint.

Thus far White Castle declined to say much about its future plans in advance of the meeting, with hopes that other companies won't try and copy their new structural foundation that's said to be state of the art.

“We’re excited about the possibilities,” said White Castle Vice President Jamie Richardson. “We’re eager to see how it all unfolds.”

Alongside the city in Ohio, White Castle has planning a project for this site for many years, but Richardson didn't lay out the specifics about a timeline for the project.

The City Council’s agenda states that the city must first close on real-estate transactions by the end of month to ensure the project goes forward on time.

All analysts expect this to happen which will be a huge boost to the region, in terms of hiring the various companies for construction, including concrete, steel workers, carpenters, electricians, drywall, and various tech firms and private installation companies which will bid on the contracts.

White Castle, which owns almost 400 restaurants and a frozen-foods business nationwide, has since called the current building home relocating from Kansas as far back as 1934.

Richardson said White Castle loves Ohio, has a passion for Columbus, and strives to have its headquarters in the development.

“We have been there 83 years,” he said. “Our highest hope would be to remain where we are at.”

The new facility as well as the current headquarters is located between Route 315 to the west and I-670 to the east and south.

In the new plan all of that land will include the region in between, which would exempt property taxes on the land for at least 30 years. A generously gracious sign from the city of appreciation for the continued boost to its economy.

The development is set to add $2 million in improvements to Goodale Avenue and other public infrastructure for the City of Columbus, which is greatly needed as Ohio has suffered from a loss of income due to declining manufacturing in the last three decades of liberal governance.

White Castle’s headquarters employs several hundred full-time workers, as well as third party businesses hired for specific tasks.

The development would give White Castle a state of the art class A space and room to grow, Richardson said. White Castle is also redeveloping its flagship Short North store into a mid-rise, mixed-use project.

Many thank the Trump Administration for encouraging companies to stay in the midwest and rebuild, which new reductions on regulations that are business friendly.

Source:

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170714/white-castle-envisions-65-million-redevelopment-of-its-headquarters-site