Authentication program boosts natural-gas ready business properties
COLUMBUS—Utilities and other property owners with business sites to sell are benefitting from a new authentication program called SiteOhio, launched recently by JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development group.
Once vetted by SiteOhio, the sites are certified—or authenticated—as 100 percent ready for industry. Besides checking for any zoning or environmental issues, SiteOhio checks on transportation infrastructure and utilities.
However, one of the best perks of being certified by SiteOhio is the part that comes after the authentication—the marketing of sites, which is done by JobsOhio.
“Our site is getting a lot of attention. We’ve probably been courting more clients in the past six months than we have in the past nine years because it’s on their radar now,” said Peggy Ehora, External Affairs manager at Dominion Energy, which owns one of the eight sites certified in the first round of authentications by SiteOhio.
The 200-plus acre portion of Dominion’s Eastwood Commerce Park, located in Wood County, Ohio, is especially attractive to potential buyers because it has large natural gas and electric capacity, water, sewer and railroad access, Ehora told American Gas. It’s also ideally located, with nearby access to I-75 and the Ohio Turnpike.
The East Ohio Gas Company, now doing business as Dominion Energy Ohio, bought the land more than 30 years ago and built a peaking facility, which was since sold, Ehora said. “To be near a transmission line is about as good as it gets for a very large gas user,” she said.
Working with JobsOhio also offers Dominion the opportunity to help drive the site development conversation in Ohio by suggesting the best sites where natural gas requirements can be met, Ehora said.
Seven additional sites served by Dominion Energy are part of the next round of site authentications by SiteOhio, Ehora said.
The SiteOhio program has helped bridge the gap of communication and data between what the companies’ projects require and the data that gas utility partners and local partners are able to provide, Kristi Clouse, JobsOhio executive director of operations, told American Gas.
“Those who have participated in the program have a better understanding of the strengths and limitations of the infrastructure that serves their community and, ultimately, stronger relationships with the utility engineers and representatives that are crucial to our success,” she said.
