Economic development group celebrates 50 years

The Greater Columbus Economic Development Corp. celebrated its 50th anniversary at its annual meeting Friday at The Commons.

To take a look back at the past 50 years, the group held a panel discussion with previous community leaders including former board chairs Julie Del Genio and Harold Force, as well as former Columbus Mayor Fred Armstrong. The panel reflected on efforts to sell the Columbus and larger Bartholomew County community to potential investors both within the country and overseas.

Force explained that Columbus has a unique story to tell.

Corporation President Phil Wagner joked about presenting last year’s economic development accomplishments, since he only started the job about 40 days ago. He said that since October of 2024, Bartholomew County had more than $152 million in investment across five projects, bringing 63 new jobs and helping maintain more than 2,200 jobs in the community.

He thanked the companies making the investments including Ninth Avenue Foods, Toyota Material Handling, Cummins, Applied Laboratories and Grillo’s Pickles, saying that they are bringing high paying jobs and helping expand the local tax base.

Wagner outlined the group’s strategy to continue growing the local economy going forward.