AEDG, GLR celebrate Lima’s business successes

News Top Stories Facebook X Pinterest WhatsApp LIMA — With Ohio ranking No. 1 in America for business, the Allen Economic Development Group and Greater Lima Region held their annual meeting to celebrate successes within the community, as well as new plans moving forward. The GLR’s mission is simple: To unite stakeholders and partners to empower economic and community growth across the region. As for AEDG, the public/private parternship aims to retain and grow existing businesses, attract new businesses and prepare infrastructure. Cindy Leis, CEO of AEDG and executive director of the Port Authority of Allen County, shared some of Lima’s biggest accomplishments this past year. “As you know, we’ve welcomed Target to our community,” Leis said. “We’ve also welcomed Amazon and Google, so, I mean, who can deny when you have household names like that coming into the community that people aren’t paying attention to that?” Leis spoke about the longtime tradition of having annual meetings. “It really is about celebrating the successes. Everybody in this community has worked very hard to collaborate, to put together a vision for what Lima Allen County is going to look like,” she said. “We have to take time to celebrate and thank people for all the work that’s gone into these things that we have accomplished over the last couple of years.” Dave Stratton, CEO of Greater Lima Region, spoke to the audience about Makerfest, an all-interactive day for high school students to explore different career fields. “This is for our youth, for our next generation. Now, kids are wanting to come back to Lima and live closer to family,” Stratton said. AEDG then shared some of its attraction projects gaining lots of attention, such as the Ohio Logistics buildings expansion, Target, the Amazon Distribution Center and the Google Data Center. Jarrod Holt, data center operations manager for Google, shared how quickly the data center was being built and about the support from investors bringing it to life, as he showed drone footage of the facility’s construction. “Watching the daily progress on the ground is exciting, but seeing it from above truly puts things into perspective,” he said. “We are moving fast, the infrastructure is taking shape, and the foundations are being set. For us, this footage represents more than just a construction update. It represents a long-term commitment to this community. When Google looks to arrive, and specifically in this region, we see a thriving community of hard work, innovation and collaboration. …Your welcoming spirit is what makes projects like this possible.” Many partners with these organizations gave testimony on the overall change being done in Lima, as many projects are to come. “Central District and Spring & Main development, those investments, as you’re enjoying them tonight, are really bringing new life to downtown and really laying the groundwork for additional development,” said Chase Eikenbary, of Regional Growth Partnership. Featured Local Savings