By Scott McAfee, New Albany Public Information Officer

It’s not just where you live but how you live that defines your quality of life.  New Albany’s preserved wooded areas and scenic vistas, timeless Georgian architecture, abundant parkland, world-class golf and trademark white horse fences create an atmosphere of beauty and country club panache. But a closer inspection of New Albany reveals a community with a strong commitment to education, the arts, the environment, health and wellness, and technology. These community pillars work together to create a truly inspiring standard of living.

Nowhere are these community pillars more evident than our historic Village Center, literally the heart of our town. The Village Center is an alluring mix of educational, residential, retail and office uses. New Albany’s Ackerly Park development, located in the Village Center and the site of the 2010 BIA Parade of Homes, is situated within walking distance of our school campus, library, arts center and multiple restaurants. Better still, these amenities are tied together by a 27-mile leisure trail system that also connects to the business park, creating alternative transportation choices for residents who also work in New Albany.

Education
The single largest land use in our Village Center is the 200-acre New Albany Plain Local Schools learning campus, where all school activities and grade levels are synergized into one place. 

Each school in the New Albany Plain Local School District has earned a “Blue Ribbon School of Excellence” designation by the U.S. Department of Education, and the district as a whole has earned an “excellent” rating from the Ohio Department of Education each of the past five years.

The learning campus is geographically complimented by the Jeanne B. McCoy Center for the Arts and the New Albany library, two other Village Center educational features reminding us that learning in New Albany never stops. Additionally, the Swickard Woods wetlands preservation, which is part of the school campus, intertwines our environmental and educational commitments to create an unmatched public school environmental curriculum for our students.

Environmental Sensitivity
Open space is a key to healthy lifestyles, and New Albany remains committed to preserving park land and open space throughout the village and even in surrounding jurisdictions. Aside from the Swickard Woods preservation on the school campus, Village leaders collaborated with Plain Township, the City of Columbus, and the Metro Parks system, to establish a 1,200-acre park in Plain Township for all central Ohioans to enjoy. New Albany has also designated an additional 500 acres throughout the village for parkland preservation. 

New Albany’s green efforts extend far beyond leisure trails and new parks. Additionally, New Albany offers incentives to residents and businesses who desire to construct LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings.  As an official partner in the Central Ohio Green Pact, New Albany is committed to creating a better community that in turn fosters a better world for future generations. 

Just a few other examples of New Albany green efforts include the use of bio-diesel fuel for much of the village’s vehicular fleet, participating as an AEP GridSMART community, converting traffic signals to LED bulbs, reusing old asphalt as berm on roadways, using bio-swales, filtration ponds and alternative street sweeping routes to keep pollutants out of stormwater runoff, and donating used motor oil from the village fleet for conversion into heating oil. We understand that little things matter, and this attention to detail helps to separate New Albany from the pack.

Doing Business in New Albany
New Albany may be small but it is far from sleepy. Many of central Ohio’s brightest strategic minds and best entrepreneurs call New Albany home, creating a unique, business-oriented environment.  New Albany leaders leverage this local talent and creativity to form partnerships that have helped to produce an unmatched technological environment for our business partners.

New Albany’s 3,000-acre business park is supported by easily accessible roadways and three highway interchanges, dual feed electric power, and a state-of-the-art, broadband “Blue Albany Network” that every business residing in the park can affordably access. This network, a New Albany partnership with BlueMile, allows businesses in our park to have their fiberoptic needs met by any one of 155 different commodity service providers from across the country.   Because the Blue Albany Network is lit and not just dark fiber, typical infrastructure connection costs for end users are greatly reduced, making world-class broadband technology a realistic service for companies of all sizes, even start-ups in our New Albany Business Development Center.

Our Blue Albany Network is a major reason why Fortune 500 companies like TJX (the parent company of Marshalls and TJ Maxx), Motorists and Nationwide have committed to build technology centers in our business park, joining A bercrombie & Fitch, Tween Brands, CVG, Discover, Aetna, PharmaForce, the Mount Carmel New Albany Surgical Center, Limited Stores, Arc Consultants, and Travel Solutions, the 2^nd largest woman-owned travel agency in the United States.

Experience New Albany
Located just ten minutes from Port Columbus International Airport and fifteen miles from downtown Columbus, New Albany is the right mix of attentiveness, service, location and amenities.

 

We invite you to experience New Albany for yourself this summer at the BIA Parade of Homes; the New Albany Chamber’s Taste of New Albany; the New Albany Classic featuring world renowned singing artists and world class equestrians; and the New Albany Walking Classic, voted the best walking event in the entire United States. Or, for a day of leisure, simply hop along our 27-mile leisure trail and take in the beauty and sites that New Albany has to offer. You’ll find an inspiring community with outstanding architecture in a remarkably safe and friendly village. Learn more about us at www.villageofnewalbany.org .