Chips ahoy!! Or is it Chips OHIO?
The Intel chip fab(s) site in New Albany Ohio continues to see steady, and I'd say heavy, work proceeding as they continue the construction of the two (2) new fabs (fabrication plants).
I live close by so with a 5 minute drive, I'm there.
I can literally drive around the site getting pictures, from a distance, (I snapped all these Tuesday October 8th, 2024) as the entire property has fencing all around. The "Fab" news broke in 2020, but at that time it was still subject to Congress passing the CHIPS Act. From my understanding (pretty limited knowledge) the bill provided incentives (tax credits or various subsidies) to encourage our technology companies to bring back manufacturing from abroad. Or to create added manufacturing here in the United States.
Once passed by Congress, the site which had already been selected, soon got work under way. There was the City of New Albany involved along with the New Albany International Business Park (NAIBP), plus the many people associated with State and likely local professionals. NAIBP had already lined up a string of additional land purchases which would get annexed to the New Albany development. Ironically, although it is called "New Albany" I can tell you from a land perspective - the Intel site is many miles closer to Johnstown Ohio.
Some things - well maybe a lot of things - are about money rather than sense or common sense. New Albany already had a lot of momentum in the development of sites and their business park already had a pretty impressive sting of wins. Landing facilities such as: Abercrombie & Fitch; Tween Brands; Discover Card; State Farm; American Electric Power; and Aetna Life Insurance. Here is a link to the New Albany site for some general info: New Albany business site info
From their site: "encompassing 9,000 acres, The New Albany International Business Park is one of the largest strategically-planned business parks in the country and one of the fastest growing in the Midwest. To date, the Business Park has attracted over $6 billion in private investment."
So if you recognize some of the name on this partial list, you quickly realize NAIBP already had pretty well established business "chops." The ability to attract and win. Big. Large scale. Projects.
This Intel fab plant deal is the size seldom scene.
Intel's initial statement indicate a projected investment of $20,000,000,000 (that's 20 with a "B" as in billion) in the two fab plants. Not a single plant, but two (2) plants being constructed. Sometimes I feel like the concept of this plural fact is overlooked. It's not one new Intel plant. It's two. Dos. Twin plants.
Subject to many variables in the future, Intel has indicated ... it is possible that they may build several more! In fact, it's possible they could build four more (4) which if also completed, would make these six fabs (6!) the largest fab location in the western hemisphere! Link to more info from Intel : intel - Ohio you were built for this
Right here in little 'ole Johnstown - I mean New Albany International Business Park. If you look at the pictures, I think there are about 18 different hoists on the site. Of course there may be more that I couldn't see circling the property. But the approximate 18 are large enough that even with the mounding of earth around the entire site, I could still see that may cranes, hoists, and lifts.
I'm no prophet, and I don't have any inkling that I have any particular prophetic abilities.
I'm an economist by education (at the mighty The OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY). I have a tendency to look at the past results. The past data, and think there is some correlation between past results of similar circumstances, and present similar situations. (it's a consistent economic theory - of course it always carries a disclaimer: "past results do not guarantee present or future results" But they do generally correlate - have some similarities - routinely.
Intel is modernizing two fabs at the existing Rio Rancho, NM location. I see this a the possible mirror image of what has begun in New Albany/ Johnstown OH. The Rio Rancho plant opened in 1982. At that time Rio Rancho was a very small community on the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1980 the city of Rio Rancho had just under 10,000 residents.
Move forward to 2020 and the area is now 104,000. The Intel plant there opened in 1982. wiki info on Rio Rancho, NM: wiki - Rio_Rancho, New_Mexico
Here's a little more about the Balloon Festival - happening in. October: Albuquerque Balloon Event-Schedule
Hmmm. How big is Johnsown Ohio, in 2020? 5,182.
What will happen here, and in New Albany, and Granville and the other areas closest to these new fab plants? No one can say but the odds are there is tremendous growth ahead!
How much growth? It's a futuristic question but worthy of consideration. Particularly when I am a real estate agent. Living a few minutes from these two new Intel fabs!
Coincidentally, my brother, Larry and his wife (Nanette & two dogs: Daisy & Fang - my nickname for him) moved to the Rio Rancho area I think in 2018. My wife and I went out to visit for the first time in 2021. We went out during the balloon festival which is quite a spectacle. In these parts, if you see a hot air balloon, it's pretty unusual. OK, highly unusual. Imagine seeing 500 of them! It's a pretty cool spectacle.
Imagine going up in a hot air balloon. In the dark. I did that! It's called the Dawn Patrol and since my brother was out there helping a fellow Coshocton, Ohio native, Charlie Schick - circumstances came up that I was asked if I wanted to fly with him one morning while we there.
We went there thinking we'd just watch, but somehow we got roped into helping "crew." So we are out visiting for a little vacation. And now my brother has my wife, Karen, and I, getting up at 4AM so we can drive over to the launch site and help launch Charlie's balloon. As in set it up. Inflate it, and getting it safely launched and then returned home. 
I realize this a bit strayed from Intel's 2 new fabs going into Johnstown Ohio, or the New Albany International Business Park. But not really. When I went out there, I did my drive past those two Fabs in Rio Rancho. Now they both have been retrofitted, or "remodelled, or re-tooled and modernized" and are still key to Intels' chip production. When Intel opened the location in 1982, there were just under 10,000 people living in Rio Rancho. Today, 42 years later there are over 100,000. Now there is a lot more than Intel there. Now. But I don't see how the development of these two fabs in Ohio, will not at least mirror the same impact.
I do not know the geographical layout of Albuquerque real well. But I don't believe there was much in the area when Intel built those plants and went into operations in 1982. Today there are a ton of homes, apartments, shopping and everything else you could imagine in a city of 100,000. Essentially a large suburb to Albuquerque.
The geography here in Central Ohio is more builtout. Meaning there are several existing communities a stone's throw away from these two fabs. Johnstown is maybe 2 miles from them. New Albany is maybe 10 miles. But others are quite close too: Westerville, Sunbury, Gahanna, Granville, Utica and Pataskala to name a few.
At the current stage of the Intel fabs it's super difficult to guess, foresee, predict what is going to happen.
I still look at the past results of such events; Rio Rancho in particular, and think there is a tremendous change taking place here in Central Ohio. And right now it's very similar to the take off in the dark of my Dawn Patrol balloon excursion. It's tense. It's a lot of work (pictures at the Intel site are solid evidence). Dawn is in sight. I see the rays of sunlight splashing over the horizon.
The sun is coming. A new day is dawning, but sometimes you don't see it until the sun has hit it's highest peak and is blazing. Get ready for the biggest bump up to the Central Ohio economy - and it's already running pretty hot now.
The light of the next era in Central Ohio is starting to flash on the morning horizon!
Here is a peak at the Dawn Patrol takeoff I had in Albuquerque: Dawn Patrol - takeoff, into the night
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