DeWine wants huge makeover for Ohio State Fair
COLUMBUS — Ohio lawmakers have already appropriated $190 million, and are currently considering adding another $196 million, toward a sweeping plan to dramatically change the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus.
But even if lawmakers approve spending the $196 million, which was requested by Gov. Mike DeWine, that combined $386 million would be enough to complete only a fraction of the “Expo 2050″ plan, which calls for demolishing a majority of existing fairground buildings and erecting 15 new facilities, among many other things.
It’s also not yet clear exactly how much more state money would be needed to complete the proposed project, even though it was unveiled more than two years ago. Based on what the existing money would pay for, the price tag could easily end up in the billions.
The Ohio State Fair, held on a 360-acre site north of downtown Columbus since the 1880s, is one of the largest state fairs in the country. Last year, more than 1 million people attended the 12-day fair in late July and early August, setting a new record.
It’s hard to find a less-controversial part of state government than the Ohio State Fair, and there’s been little to no opposition so far to either the Expo 2050 plan itself or the latest $196 million funding request.
But the ad hoc way in which DeWine has been asking the legislature for hundreds of million of dollars to support the project, which was created at his behest after he was first elected governor in 2018, doesn’t sit well with at least one prominent state lawmaker.
“I know it’s important to the governor. I think it’s important to the state, I want to be supportive,” said Ohio House Finance Committee Chair Jay Edwards, an Athens County Republican. “But I think there needs to be more of a strategic plan here of what this looks like yearover-year, as opposed to, ‘Hey, we need this amount this year, and then we’re going to wait till next year to figure out how much we need.’”
What would the Expo 2050 plan do?
The Expo 2050 plan, as laid out in a December 2022 master plan, would bulldoze a majority of the state fair’s buildings, including:
■ The Dairy Building that houses the fair’s annual Butter Cow exhibit
■ The large Bricker Building and Lausche Building, which host exhibitions and trade shows year-round
■ Cooper Arena, where many livestock shows take place during the fair
■ The O’Neill Building, where pigs and other livestock are displayed
Seven other existing fair buildings would be renovated, including the Cox Fine Arts Center, the Voinovich Livestock and Trade Center, Taft Coliseum, and the Rabbit and Poultry building, according to the plan.
In their place, several new facilities would be constructed, including a new Town Square building at the center of the fairgrounds that would house the Butter Cow, international food vendors, and a marketplace. Other new buildings would host Taste of Ohio food vendors and agricultural education exhibits, as well as exhibits from the nearby Ohio History Connection.
A campsite would be constructed on the northwest part of the fairgrounds, a new north entrance gate would be built, and parking garages would be built to help create more room for the new buildings.
What’s the cost?
The Ohio General Assembly made an initial appropriation of $190 million for Expo 2050 in last year’s state budget. That money is paying for much of the infrastructure work, the new north entrance gate, a centrally located “town square” open space and two new buildings; an agricultural education facility and a 3.5-story building that houses kitchen and dining areas, as well as an exhibit about “Ohio’s story,” according to Shoults and the master plan.
Last week, the Senate unexpectedly added language to Senate Bill 215 (which until then was an innocuous higher-education bill) that would put another $196 million toward the project, along with about $1.2 billion in other spending proposals.
If approved, that new funding would be used to renovate three existing fair buildings, complete more infrastructure work, create additional parking, and add landscaping and gathering spaces, Shoults stated.
It remains to be seen whether the $196 million will be approved as part of SB215, as House leaders have vowed not to concur with the Senate’s changes – not because of the Expo 2050 money, but because of an unrelated Senate-House dispute over how to spend $700 million in surplus tax revenue.
Edwards, despite his wish that the governor’s office would offer lawmakers a more organized and longer-term plan for requesting Expo 2050 money, expressed confidence that lawmakers will end up appropriating the money, even if it’s not yet clear which bill they’ll use to pass it.
“I’m not opposed to it,” Edwards said. “But it would be nice to lay out what that plan looks like over the next 5-10 years so we can be prepared for it.”
The projects that would be paid for with the budget money and the proposed spending in SB215 are all part of phase 1 of the Expo 2050 plan, which is currently planned to be completed by 2026.
However, as the Expo 2050 name indicates, the other two phases of the plan extend well into the future, making it difficult to predict how much that work will cost, said Mike Curtin, a former state lawmaker who co-chaired the task force that drew up the Expo 2050 plans.
Curtin added that DeWine — whom Axios once described as someone “who loves fairs more than Woody Hayes loved winning” — was the driving force behind the project, asking the Expo 2050 task force to think big and aspirationally, rather than just make token upgrades to the fair as it is today.
“DeWine’s charge was that the Expo Center and the State Fair itself ought to represent the best where everything Ohio has to offer. The best food, the best in arts, best in fine arts, the best in sports, and the best in science and technology. It should really be a celebration of the quintessential best accomplishments that Ohio has to offer,” Curtin said.
“I mean, that’s been his vision from the start. And if you’re gonna set an aspiration that high, it ain’t gonna come cheap.”