New Albany is trying to annex another 180 acres from Jersey Township into the city limits for business park east.

City council approved an expedited annexation agreement Aug. 2.

"We've been so successful in that area, we felt it was time to look at annexing more land south of state Route 161," city manager Joseph Stefanov told city council at the Aug. 2 meeting.

In the past two years, eight companies have landed in New Albany's business park east, also known as the personal care and beauty campus. The business park east campus is north of state Route 161 and east of Beech Road.

"We've been extremely successful recruiting businesses to central Ohio from all over the world in this new portion of the business park," said Scott McAfee, the city's communications director. "This has been good for New Albany and our entire region."

The current annexation request is for 180 acres in Jersey Township east of Beech Road, south of state Route 161 and south of the existing city boundaries. Jersey Township is in Licking County.

Jersey Township trustees approved the annexation request at the township's Aug. 1 meeting, Stefanov said. He said he attended the meeting and the vote was 2-0, with trustee Roy Bailey abstaining.

The request will be filed as a Type 1 Expedited Annexation, which takes less time than a normal annexation, according to information from the state. It requires 100 percent of the property owners to agree on the annexation and must be approved by the township and New Albany before going to the Licking County commissioners.

McAfee said the city currently is waiting on paperwork to be signed by Jersey Township. Once the paperwork is received, the city expects to file the annexation petition within the next two weeks.

According to state guidelines, after the petition is filed, the Licking County commissioners must approve it at their next regular meeting. No public hearing is required, according to the guidelines.

If commissioners approve the petition, city council will go through a 60-day waiting period before it can vote to accept the petition, according to McAfee. Council usually hears two readings of an ordinance before passage. Finally, the annexation would not take effect until 30 days after council passed the legislation accepting the petition.

The 180-acre annexation would build on previous annexations that began in 2001 and gained New Albany 1,300 acres in Licking County on the north and south sides of 161 and east of Beech Road. Most of the 1,300 acres are owned by the New Albany Co. (NACo), the city's largest developer.

Tom Rubey, NACo development director, said the company has options to purchase the land it doesn't own within the boundaries of the annexation request. NACo owns land to the north and south of the 180-acre tract and decided to acquire the parcels to help meet the market demand, he said.

"It is a surprise to many, but a lot of the folks looking to locate in New Albany are looking for large parcels," he said. "They want to do a campus, not just simply build on a parcel of 20 or 30 acres. They want a larger parcel they can control."

He mentioned Abercrombie & Fitch's campus as an example.

New Albany has revenue-sharing agreements in place for all the land in Licking County, which provides the local school districts with revenue from any developments. The 180 acres from Jersey Township are in the Licking Heights school district. Previous agreements use the 30 cents of each dollar of income-tax revenue generated to pay off infrastructure debt. The remaining 70 cents are divided evently between the city and school district.

Stefanov said the city's service department would take care of Beech Road along the annexed properties, removing snow and maintaining the roads.

Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany community development director, said the personal care and beauty campus could be the only one of its kind that will include companies that take an idea, create a product from that idea and then produce it and ship it into the market.

Business park east also has credits available for innovative and environmentally friendly building practices, making it one of central Ohio's only "all-green" business campuses, Chrysler said.

The eight companies that currently are part of the campus are:

• Accel Inc., which is building a 500,000-square-foot facility to consolidate its operations from offices in Lewis Center and a distribution center in Whitehall. Accel "develops innovative packaging solutions" and works with clients on "merchandising, package engineering, contract manufacturing, inventory control, logistics, and marketing and/or promotions," according to its website. The $20-million project is expected to create 25 jobs and retain 206 positions," according to the Ohio Department of Development.

• Alene Candles, based in Milford, N.H., is moving into a 300,000-square-foot speculative production facility built by the Pizutti Cos. Alene Candles manufactures custom-designed, fragranced candles, according to its website. The estimated $8.2-million project is expected to create 135 jobs, according to information from the state.

• Anomatic, which is building a 75,000-square-foot production facility. Anomatic is based in Newark, where its offices will remain, and has production facilities in Newark, Naugatuk, Conn., and China. The company developed an anodizing system in 1967 and manufactures colored metal lids for bottles. Anodizing is "an electrochemical process that converts the metal surface into a decorative, durable, corrosion-resistant, anodic oxide finish," according to the website of the Aluminum Anodizers Council. Anomatic is investing $8.4 million in "fixed assets, including machinery and equipment," and will create185 new jobs with the project, according to information from the state.

• Axium Plastics, based in Mississauga, Ontario, which has planned a 110,000-square-foot facility. Axium manufactures plastic containers ranging in size from a half-ounce to 40 ounces for the food, personal care, health-care and automotive industries, according to its website. The $16.2-million project would create 165 jobs, according to information from the state.

• The Jeyes Group is expected to locate in the rest of the building being built by Pizutti Cos., Rubey said. Jeyes "manufactures, markets, sells and distributes household cleaning and home-fragrance products in 60 countries," according to the company's website. No further information was available about the Jeyes project at ThisWeek's press time.

• The Knowlton Development Corp., which is building a 250,000-square-foot manufacturing and research facility. The Knowlton Development Corp. has several companies that manufacture personal-care and beauty products. Its $55-million project is expected to create 200 jobs, according to information from the state.

• Sonoco Plastics, which plans to build a 120,000-square-foot production facility. Sonoco Plastics was founded in 1899 and manufactures industrial and consumer products. It provides packaging services from 300 locations in 85 countries, according to the information from the state. The company's project would have" a capital investment of $14.6 million" and create 60 new jobs, according to city council's legislative report for the Aug. 2 meeting.

The $14.6-million project will create 60 new employees, according to the city's information.

• Vee Pak, which is building a 105,000-square-foot production facility. Vee Pak develops personal-care and beauty products. Its $11.5-million project is expected to create 120 jobs, according to information from the state.