More than just ‘1,000 empty acres’
Owners face decision to sell to Intel
“It was a very difficult decision. We thought we’d be there forever.” Angela Tague
One day last summer, a stranger approached the Licking County home of Dustin Scheidegger and Vicki Miller.
“He said he was with the New Albany Co. and they were looking to grow the area and wanted to buy our house,” Scheidegger said. “None of us could figure out what was going on.”
That simple encounter, repeated at dozens of Jersey Township homes last summer, was the first sign for residents that their corner of central Ohio was about to change forever.
As residents eventually learned, the offers were part of an effort to assemble land for the tech company Intel to build semiconductor factories, a $20 billion investment that has been called Ohio’s largest economic development project.
Like most of their neighbors, Angela and Shawn Tague decided to sell their Licking County home to make way for Intel, but the decision wasn’t easy.
Now, more than six months later, those door-to-door overtures are materializing into one of the biggest land acquisition efforts in the region’s history. Nearly every day, another Licking County property is transferred to a New Albany Co. entity to make way for Intel. As of March 14, more than 40 homes and farms had sold for the development, at a cost of nearly $30 million. Far more sales are expected.
For sellers, the transfers represent much more than new factories. For many homeowners, some of whom have lived in the area for decades, the decision to sell amounts to an agonizing uprooting.
For them, the area is not “1,000 empty acres of land,” as President Joe Biden described it in his State of the Union address.
It’s home.
“I’ve lived here nearly 40 years,” said Janet Howard, who, with her husband, David, are selling their Miller Road home, built by Janet’s grandfather. “I’ve spent every Christmas in these woods, every year of my life.”
The Howards and others know that no one forced them to sell. But the prospect of their yards flanked by factories and their roads clogged with workers left them little choice, they say.
For some, including the Howards, the decision to sell was made more painful after learning they must vacate the home by June, weeks or even months before they expected, as the Intel project races toward construction.
Scheidegger and Miller don’t have the Howards’ emotional connection to the land. Scheidegger bought the Mink Street house just two years ago. But that doesn’t mean leaving is easy.
“I’d only been there 20 months, but it did sting,” Scheidegger said. “We just had a brand new $10,000 Amish-built shed, so we are out that.”
Scheidegger is happy with the New Albany Co.’s price – $375,000, significantly up from the $232,000 he paid two years ago – and he subsequently learned that his street, Mink Street, will be widened from two to five lanes to serve as the front door to the Intel factories.
A few doors north, Angela and Shawn Tague also have agreed to sell. Like Scheidegger, they are relatively new to the area, but were expecting to call it home for years to come.
“It was a very difficult decision. We thought we’d be there forever,” Angela said.
“It took us four years to find what we wanted,” she said. “But what do you want in your backyard, or around you?”
Most of the New Albany Co.’s purchases have so far come in the 1,000acre patch of Jersey Township where the Intel factories are scheduled to be built, bordered by Miller Road, Clover Valley Road, Green Chapel Road and Mink Street.
Starting late last year, parcels in the area started transferring to the New Albany Co. entity MCVGCM Holdings (which reportedly stands for “Mink Clover Valley Green Chapel Miller”). Most of the parcels are 1- or 2-acre residential plots and small farms. The biggest parcels, including those owned by the Heimerl family, have not yet transferred.
The 1,000 acres is part of 1,689 acres that the city of New Albany plans to soon annex from Jersey Township for the development. The city is also expected to annex an additional 1,500 acres immediately to the west for more development. Operating under MCVGCM Holdings and MBJ Holdings, the New Albany Co. has also started acquiring properties in that area.
The 3,200 total acres dwarfs other notable efforts to assemble land in the Columbus region. The Jerome Village planned community in Union County includes about 1,900 acres, for example, and the Rickenbacker Global Logistics Park, the area’s largest industrial park, includes less than 1,800 acres. Both of those projects were largely assembled from farming parcels instead of individual homes.
The offers from the New Albany Co. caught residents by surprise. As its name suggests, the private company had focused on developing New Albany, not Jersey Township to the north. Some homeowners had heard rumors of a big project, but nothing more.
“When they knocked on our door, we thought it was maybe a scam,” said Ashlee Mahaffey, who lives on Miller Road with her husband, Shawn. “I’m in banking, so I was on high alert. We contacted a Realtor we know, asked if she could look into it. She reached out and said it was legitimate.”
The Mahaffeys, like most, also decided to sell, even though it meant abandoning plans for the house Shawn had just bought in 2019. The couple received the offer a week or two after returning from their honeymoon.
“We were blindsided a bit,” Ashlee said. “We had so many plans for this property, so there were a lot of emotions at first. Oh my gosh, we just moved in here, we were going to create a great back porch, a fire pit. … It was sadness, just realizing we may be leaving. We thought we’d be here at least 10 years.”
But, like others, the alternative wasn’t attractive.
“We don’t want to be here with a huge building coming in, all these trucks, all the traffic,” Ashlee said. “That’s why we bought this property. We were both country-ish growing up, we didn’t want to live right next to something like that.”
The New Albany Co. has not said publicly how much property it is buying, how many homeowners have agreed to sell, or why some owners in the area never received offers. The firm declined to comment for this story.
Some owners say they felt pressured to sell.
“We felt strong-armed, that if we didn’t sell to them, they’d build a warehouse next to us and it would ruin our property value,” said David Howard, who believes he and his wife were misled about the departure date.
“I would tell anyone who spoke with these people ... to record the conversations,” Howard said.
Even though he thinks Intel will be an economic benefit for the community, Scheidegger also felt like he had no choice.
“Basically what they said was, ‘We’ll just build around you,’ “he said.
Others say the buyers were upfront, short of actually identifying Intel.
“A lot of those folks are acting like they were forced to sell,” said James Cushing, who agreed to sell 20 acres he and his husband, Duane Baggerly, owned on Miller Road.
“The fact is, they came and knocked on our door and said, ‘Do you want to sell? Yes or no.’ You could have just said no. No one forced anyone to sell. … They were very respectful.”
But Intel has also derailed Cushing and Baggerly’s plans to build an event space and a new home on the land. Asked what the couple planned to do now, Cushing said, “We’re trying to figure that out.”
Intel also will lead to Evan Axelbaum closing his Front Axle Farm on Clover Valley Road. But, like Cushing, Axelbaum isn’t bitter.
“The decision wasn’t a hard one for us,” he said. “We’ve been here five years, and we were aware of the development pressure.”
Even critics of Intel and the New Albany Co. say the offers were fair. Most sales prices are well above county auditor values and Zillow estimates. On average, the developer has paid 21⁄2 times the appraised value of the properties it has purchased so far.
“When they do make offers, they make very fair offers, more than they (sellers) would get in the market,” said Ken Erickson, who owns Nextgen Realty Services with his wife and lives just outside the area to be annexed for Intel.
Some sellers said they negotiated for top dollar in part out of fear of being able to find anything to buy in today’s housing market.
“They went well above market value, we made sure of that, to make sure we were able to find something,” said Ashlee Mahaffey. “We were getting worried we wouldn’t find anything to buy.”
The Mahaffeys received $525,000 for the house Shawn paid $357,000 for two years earlier. The couple used the money to find another house in southeast Licking County.
“They know they’re uprooting families, I’ll give them that,” Ashlee said. “People weren’t expecting to move, houses are going so fast. They give you a three-month window. We’ll be here until June.”
Some of those selling say they feel worse for those who didn’t have an option to sell, who won’t be able to avoid the traffic and sights of the factories, or years of construction.
The New Albany Co. has not offered to buy the three dozen properties in Wagoner Farms subdivision, off Miller Road close to the Intel site, presumably because the cost to buy so many large homes outweighed the need for the property.
Saveson Acres subdivision, off Beach Road, is also parceled out from New Albany’s annexation request, leaving those homeowners to wonder what the future holds.
“I understand you can’t stop development – it goes on – but you can do it correctly,” said Nextgen Realty owner Erickson, who lives in the Saveson Acres area. “I’ve been out here 20-plus years. I didn’t think they would create islands like they have just because they didn’t need land.”
For the remaining residents all around the annexed site, life will be transformed in ways they don’t yet know.
“I’m trying to raise my family in the country. I know development will happen, but a major factory down the street, I don’t know the environmental impact of that,” said Michael Signoracci, who lives just north of the area to be annexed.
“We’re all very concerned about pollution, traffic, and what it will mean to our property values.”
As for those who sold, the time to leave their homes is fast approaching.
Dustin Scheidegger and Vicki Miller are looking for another place in anticipation of moving in August. He and others are in a bit of limbo, having sold but without a new home yet.
“I tell people I don’t own a house, I don’t rent a house,” jokes Scheidegger. “What’s your address? I don’t know, call Intel.” jweiker@dispatch.com @Jimweiker