With JEGS and PPG as anchors, the City of Delaware is the perfect place for specialty aftermarket automotive companies to locate!

Read More

LABOR FORCE 

With a 22,361 worker local labor pool and a multi-county labor shed with 1.6 million workers to draw from, we have the talent for your company whether you are looking for production level employees, warehouse and distribution workers, or IT or other white collar scientific or management and office employees.

  • Estimated 2020 City Population: 43,900
  • City Labor Force: 22,361
  • Regional Labor Shed Labor: 1.6 million
  • Population Growth: 3.4%
  • Median Age: 35
  • Unemployment Rate for City: 3.9%
  • Unemployment rate for Region: 8.2%
  • High School Grad or Higher: 94.8%
  • Associates Degree or Higher: 45.3%
  • Bachelor's Degree or Higher: 37.7%
  • Graduate Degree: 14%
  • White Collar: 62%
  • Blue Collar: 37%
  • Avg. Drive Time of Labor Pool: 25 minutes
A much more detailed labor force analysis including industry breakout as well as commuting patterns can be found in our 2014 Economic Development Plan (PDF).

Site Selection Group also conducted a detailed labor force analysis (PPT) on behalf of One Columbus in 2014. 

We also can help you with a more specific labor force study based on the types of employees you need. Ask and you shall receive!

“The Delaware community continues to grow and expand in all areas; housing, schools and business.   This has helped JEGS attract a great workforce to service its customers and over 1 million packages shipped annually.  Delaware has become quite a home for JEGS.” –The Coughlin Family

INCENTIVES 

The City of Delaware offers competitive incentives that are negotiated based on the return on investment of your project. Our team will quickly give you an idea of potential incentives and, after receipt of an incentives application, will make a recommendation to the Incentives Negotiation Team on what you should be offered. The recommendations of the Negotiation Team become a letter of intent that then formulate agreements which are presented to City Council for their Consideration. Most incentive packages can be completed and passed by Council in 90 days or less depending on scheduling of meeting dates and the amount of countering involved. 

The following is a list of links to our incentive programs. More detailed info can be read by click on that program. These are often times in addition to state incentive packages. We can arrange a meeting with our OneColumbus project manager and your team to discuss potential state incentives. State incentives can include Job Creation Tax Credits, workforce training grants, road development grants, and loans. Contact us to begin discussions on how your project may qualify for incentives.


WHY DELAWARE?

The City of Delaware is the fourth fastest growing community in Ohio and is the county seat of one of the fastest growing counties in the country! Why is everyone moving here? Here are just a few of the reasons:

EDUCATION

Four of the state's top ranked school districts in the
county with #1 Olentangy Local Schools, Delaware City Schools and Delaware Area Career Center serving the City. If you don't want your children going to one of our high performing public schools, you also have your choice of multiple private schools including Delaware Christian, St. Mary's, and Village Academy. We also are convenient to the Japanese Language School and Ohio German Language School. Your employees have a plethora of educational options in Delaware!

HIGHER EDUCATION

With nearly 63 higher educational and training

institutions within a short drive of Delaware including Delaware's own Ohio Wesleyan University, residents can continue to improve themselves. This also allows for a great pool of job candidates and interns for your company. OSU (which has classes in Delaware Co.) graduates more engineering students than any school in the nation and is also one of the top ranked research institutions with centers such as the Center for Automotive Research. Columbus State Community College (with a convenient campus just on the border of the City) is the largest 2-year community college in the nation and has many technical programs designed around our employers' needs.


SHOPPING AND DINING

Delaware has small town charm with big
city amenities including 30+ restaurants, 6 groceries, multiple retail storefronts including national chains and one of the liveliest entertainment and dining downtown districts in Ohio. We also are only 12 miles from Polaris Fashion Place, Cabela's, IKEA; 15 minutes to Dublin; and, 30 minutes to Columbus. A new Simon Tangier Outlet Mall is being built at our I71 interchange starting this summer!

RECREATION & PARKS

Your employees and their families will have plenty to keep them loving their lives in Delaware including:
- The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium (nation's #1 zoo)
-
 Over 21 miles of bike trails
- Delaware Community Center YMCA
- Multiple city parks including Mingo Park, Jack Florence Pool, Delaware Dog Park, upcoming Splash Pad, etc.
- Preservation Parks Network
-
 The Chiller Ice Rinks
-
 Alum Creek State ParkDelaware Lake State Park, Olentangy and Scioto Rivers
- 8 Golf Courses
- Blackwing Shooting Center
-
 Delaware District Library
-
 Delaware Municipal Airport
- Skyzone Trampoline Park
-
 Lazer Kraze
-
 Multiple Bowling Alleys
- Olentangy Indian Caverns
-
 Mad River Mountain Skiing and Tubing
-
 The Ohio Machine professional lacrosse team

THE ARTS

With a thriving Winter St. Arts District, we'll continue to
bring culture to you and your families with facilities such as the Strand Theatre, The Arts Castle, City Arts Center, and Central Ohio Symphony.

HOUSING

With 150 or more houses being built per year, we have a residential option for every budget. Houses range from $100,000 to $500,000+. We also have condos and apartments for all tastes including high end 2nd and 3rd floor renovated downtown apartments.

INFRASTRUCTURE 

The City of Delaware provides excellent infrastructure for your business including transportation for trucks and employees, rail, airport, excess water and sewer, telecom and fiber. We continue to seek opportunities for improving our infrastructure to better serve our business community and residents.

  • Roads - Quick access to Central Ohio, all of Ohio and 65% of theTransportation Map nation's population via I71, US23, US42, US36/37, SR315 and US33. Our local road infrastructure also continues to improve with project such as the Sawmill Parkway extension -- a direct access to Southern Delaware County and I270. Click image for full-sized map.

    Currently, we are working with Delaware County to build the completion of a North/South limited access 4-lane connector road, the Sawmill Parkway Extension, which will open access to 1,600 acres of developable land and provide easy access to Powell, Dublin and Columbus including I270. www.sawmillparkway.org

  • Rail - The City of Delaware is served by a major north/south CSXTransportation Map rail line that also extends east/west into our industrial areasserving many of our existing companies with rail siding. Click image for full-sized map.

  • Water  - The City's new $30 million dual membrane water treatment plan went online inWater Map early 2015 allowing for treatment of both surface (Olentangy River) and well field water. The new plant increased capacity from 6 million gallons to 7.2 million gallons per day. Residents and businesses are currently using 4 million gallons per day leaving 3.2 million gallons of excess capacity. Click image for full-sized water map.

    We utilize a capacity fee based calculation rather than a tap fee. This fee utilizes Equivalent Domestic Units (EDUs) to calculate a company's capacity fee. To estimate your project's capacity fees, download our Capacity Fee Worksheet (Excel).

    Sewer Map
  • Sewer - The City also recently upgraded its wastewater/sewer treatment capacity to 10 million gallons per day. We use a tertiary treatment and have an avg. daily flow of 4 MGD and a maximum daily flow of 5.7 MDG.

    We utilize a capacity fee based calculation rather than a tap fee. This fee utilizes Equivalent Domestic Units (EDUs) to calculate a company's capacity fee. To estimate your project's capacity fees, download our Capacity Fee Worksheet (Excel).

  • Electric - Electric is plentiful and reliable with three providersDelaware Electric Map working in the area -- American Electric Power (6 MW capacity without a dedicated substation), Consolidated Rural Electric Cooperative (20 MW capacity) and Ohio Edison (4 MW capacity without a substation). Two recently built substations flank our major industrial area off of US42.

  • Fiber - Our entire community is covered by Consolidated RuralEnlite Fiber Optic Network Electric's Enlite Fiber Optic Network. Enlite is a Layer 2, transport only, fiber optic network providing carrier transport and connectivity between your business and your choice of service providers. Enlite continues to grow with expansion plans into regional data centers, as well as other carrier meet-points. Learn more by clicking the image.

  • Natural Gas - Columbia Gas of Ohio allows for a 300+ CFH capacity to our businesses.



  • Telephone - Frontier Communications provides land-line basedFrontier Communications Homepage telephone and cable based broadband Internet.

  • Airports - The City of Delaware Municipal Airport has one of the few 5,800 ft. runways in Ohio, JetStream corporate jet hangar, Airspace Place airport hangar condos,shuttle and rental car service, meeting space and catering service, mechanics and a flight doctor. We also are only 30 minutes from Port Columbus International Airport and 45 minutes from the Rickenbacker multi-modal airport.

HISTORIC DOWNTOWN DELAWARE

Historic Downtown Delaware has achieved a 96% occupancy rate through collaborative efforts. Our, now, incredibly vibrant downtown has leveraged an estimated $70 million in investment with over $200,000 in downtown facade grants, community reinvestment area abatements, state and federal historic tax credits, etc. 

The entertainment and dining district has attracted a fantastic assortment of restaurants, microbreweries, taverns and entertainment retailers. Downtown also is home to the Strand Theatre, an operating first-run movie theater renovated through a partnership between the City, Ohio Wesleyan University and private donors.

A true multi-use district, the second and third floors have been renovated to include high end apartments and office space. Businesses such as marketing, engineering, technology and law firms occupy many of these offices.

Winter Street has become an arts district with the Strand as the anchor. The City Arts Center and Jon'Taar Creative Studio's gallery now occupy space on this strip.

MainStreet Delaware is the non-profit organization that oversees historic preservation and foot traffic generating events and promotions for Downtown Delaware.

In Delaware, a downtown revival spurred by restaurant wave - Columbus Business First

Read more about Downtown Delaware HERE.

DESIGNATED OUTDOOR REFRESHMENT AREA | DORADelaware City Council voted on October 23, 2017 to establish a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) in the downtown. A DORA is just that, a designated public area where alcoholic beverages (limited to beer and wine) can legally be consumed. In Delaware’s case, this will allow for the consumption of beer and wine (no spirituous liquor during special events only. Special events are defined as events that require an event permit from the City of Delaware. It will be up to the event organizer to determine if the event will be a DORA event.


OUR BUSINESSES

Nearly 2,000 businesses call the City of Delaware home due to the low cost of doing business here, access to labor and access to local, regional and national markets. Find out more about a few of these businesses here.


City of Delaware   ·   COhatch, 18 East William Street   ·   Delaware, Ohio 43015   ·  740.203.1016   ·   opportunity@delawareohio.net


Privacy Policy  ·  Terms of Use  ·  Log In

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software