Capital investments made in first three months close to reaching amount for previous year

MEDINA — With capital investments made in the first three months of 2022, Medina County is close to topping the total amount of capital investments committed in 2021. Through the end of March, Medina County has reached just over $248 million committed in capital investments, according to Medina County Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Bethany Dentler. Throughout the entire year of 2021, the county had a total of $264 million in new capital investments committed. "I think that tells the story of how much demand there is for new industrial and office space," Dentler said. "The growth has been pretty explosive." As the demand grows for industrial and office spaces, Dentler said that there is more interest in manufacturing space, along with warehouse and distribution spaces. As warehouse and distribution spaces increase in demand, Dentler said that this may be due to the increased popularity of shopping online. "In this first quarter, we've met with nearly 70 companies so that we can understand their business needs and discuss their opportunities for growth," Dentler said. Some businesses have indicated that they may be getting tight on space and will need to expand in the upcoming years, Dentler said. In 2021, more businesses began taking advantage of the market economy improvements and Dentler said that has continued the trend in 2022. "I think we're also seeing a fear for what's ahead," Dentler said. "There's concern that if you don't get started on a project now that it's going to be increasingly difficult because of supply chain difficulties and because of inflation." As the capital investments grow in 2022, Dentler said that there are more major projects that have not been finalized for this year which leads to her belief that the county can expect to add at least another $100 million to this year's capital investment figures. If this happens, Dentler said that this would be a new record for the number of investments in the past 30 years. In 2018, Medina County had a total of $330 million committed in capital investments due to a $100 million investment in the lower part of the county. "To my knowledge, 2018 has been our highest total to date," Dentler said. In 2019, a total of $212 million was committed to capital investments, and in 2020, COVID-19 impacted the amount committed, dropping to $151 million. Looking at 2021 compared with 2019, the numbers were a bit higher than normal. "It was a pretty sharp increase from the year before but it was slightly better than normal," Dentler said. Contact reporter Sara Crawford at (330) 721-4063 or scrawford@medina-gazette.com.