A sandstone-faced commercial building that sat for years at the top of the hill on Newark Granville Road on Newark’s western border with Granville slowly disappeared, stone by stone.
The lot sat vacant in recent years, save for a few remaining piles of sandstone – until a few weeks ago when a bulldozer and other heavy equipment moved in, prompting passersby to wonder: What’s coming next?
“That will be a just under 12,000 square feet of office space,” said Tony Fox, owner of the land and owner of Project Construction, a commercial and residential building firm based in Hebron. “I have commitments for a little over a third of it – like a doctor’s office and other medical-field type office. Two or three other companies are interested in office space, too.”
Fox said he has owned the property since about 2006, and that it had always been his plan to build an office building there. The timing of construction is such that “my ability and the local needs matched,” he said.
He is hoping to open the building in the spring of 2027. The first priority in developing the site is to level the ground and pave the driveway and parking lot while asphalt plants are still operating this fall.
“That way, we won’t have to wait for asphalt plants to reopen, and we can open it in March rather than May,” he said.
Fox said his company has been designing, building and renovating buildings in the area for about four decades. That includes the old mill in Hebron where the company offices are located.
“We do some residential but more commercial,” he said.
One of the company’s more visible projects, he said, was the renovation and transformation of the former Newark school building on W. Main Street in downtown Newark. That complex across from the Licking County Library is now apartments.
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.