Local investors broke ground on a new development on Tuesday afternoon, ending a nearly 20 year search for a new tenant for the property in the Botkins Industrial Park.
The site, located off of County Rd. 25A just south of the village, will become home to a 20,000 sq. ft. warehouse by this winter.
Botkins natives Lance and Josh Meyer, who are two of nine investors financing the project, were joined by Village Administrator Randy Purdy and Keith Schnippel of Schnippel Construction on Tuesday to turn the first dirt on the lot the village first acquired in 1998.
The warehouse project hasn't been in the works quite that long, but according to Lance Meyer, the idea didn't exactly spring up overnight.
"It's been breakfast conversation for a long time," he said. "We started talking about it in January of 2017, and now we finally got our investors together."
The goal, they say, is to bring more than just jobs to the community.
"We're looking to bring some jobs to the community," Lance Meyer said, "which we hope will bring families and bring more to the schools."
Purdy and the village's vision is very much in line with the local investors in on the project.
"It's huge," he said. "We have a group of local residents who are investing back in the community.
In terms of economic development, it brings jobs, more people into the community."
"Each job has...
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