State aids Abercrombie access road

Arguing that Kentucky was trying to lure Abercrombie & Fitch’s expanding e-commerce operations away from New Albany, the state of Ohio is providing $350,000 to help give the retail company’s campus a new access road.

The company, which had $4.1 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2013, has said it plans to create 112 full-time jobs through an investment in its distribution facility on the north side of Smith’s Mill Road. The campus has nearly 1,800 jobs that will remain.

As part of the project, the company acquired property and started going through the city’s annexation and rezoning process, said Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s director of com-

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munity development. The state funding, $250,000 of which was approved yesterday by the state Controlling Board, will go to the city for the reconstruction of Evans Road. Thanks to the new property purchase, the reconstruction of that road will connect Abercrombie’s campus to Central College Road.

Officials said the road is too small to handle much traffic.

“If this expansion continues to grow, they are going to need to expand their parking and be able to bring their employees into the campus in a different way,” Chrysler said.

Project funding was a joint effort between the state Development Services Agency and JobsOhio.

State Rep. Chris Redfern of Port Clinton, a Controlling Board member and chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, was skeptical of the argument that the money was needed to keep the facility from going to Kentucky. He said he talked to some Franklin County elected officials, and none was aware of the situation, and he was unable to find reports from Kentucky that the

A state legislator on the Controlling Board questioned whether Abercrombie’s e-commerce operations might be lured to Kentucky.

Bluegrass State was trying to lure the operation.

Redfern also pressed representatives of the Department Services Agency to provide the scoring system used to determine which projects are funded and which are not.

John Mahaney, the agency’s legislative liaison, said he would get back to Redfern, but he said later he is unsure whether the scoring is proprietary. “I have to check on what we’re allowed to release.”

A number of Midwestern states have good transportation access, Chrysler said, and this is not a corporate-office expansion, a situation in which it might make less sense to relocate.

“These distribution facilities can grow anywhere,” she said. “Anytime when you’re working in the logistics industry, it’s a very big threat that companies can move to other locations. I believe it was very real.”