January 2025

 
 

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January 2025

ALL ABOUT ANDURIL & ARSENAL

Defense technology company Anduril plans to invest $900 million into a new 500-acre planned facility in Pickaway County. The project announcement, billed Arsenal-1, was made to much fanfare at a hangar at Rickenbacker earlier this  month.  

The California-based autonomous weapons developer's investment has been touted as the "single largest job creation and new payroll generation project in all of Ohio's history.”  In and of itself, the project is a huge manufacturing win for the Greater Columbus region.  It also paves the way for more defense technology and manufacturing projects as well as supply-chain projects in Central Ohio and the region. 

PROJECT & FACILITY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Arsenal-1 is expected to generate thousands of construction jobs with construction expected to start in July 2026.

  • The new facility is slated to be 5 million square feet and the site allows for that to grow to as much as 15 million feet.

  • More than 4,000 new production and services jobs will be created by 2035.

  • At peak, the facility will be able to produce tens of thousands of military systems per year.

  • An existing 700,000 square foot shell facility on the site is expected to be used almost immediately.

FISCAL IMPACT

  • Average salary for its workers is estimated to be $132,000.

  • It’s projected to create $2 billion in economic output. 

  • More than $1 billion in in-state labor income will be generated.

  • Arsenal-1 will also produce $800 million in projected tax revenue.

INCENTIVES

The project secured a Job Creation Tax Credit at the Ohio Tax Credit Authority’s meeting on Jan. 27.  

  • The authority awarded Anduril a 2.594%, 30-year tax credit beginning Jan. 1, 2026.  

  • The estimated value of the credit is $452.3 million. 

  • In exchange for the tax credit, Anduril is required to maintain operations on-site for 33 years and bring more than 4,000 new production and services jobs by 2035.

The Ohio Department of Development’s upcoming request for $86 million from the All-Ohio Future Fund is a critical piece of the “investment” in this project. 

  • The state money will “assist in financing the construction of a water, wastewater/sewer extension, utility extension and roadwork” over 1,000 acres in Harrison and Madison Township (part) in Pickaway County and Hamilton and Madison Township (part) in Franklin County. 

  • The request will come before the Controlling Board at its Feb. 3 meeting and is expected to be approved. 

  • The ODOD investment paves the way for more development in this part of Rickenbacker and the surrounding area.

Jobs Ohio is expected to provide the project with a JobsOhio grant and Talent Acquisition Services to assist with workforce development and has said it plans to disclose the amount of funding after the agreements are signed.

ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS

The Parcel--Though the exact address for Arsenal-1 has not been disclosed for security reasons, CT Realty is said to have been involved in the real estate transaction.  CT Realty’s purchase of 382 acres of industrial land within the Rickenbacker Industrial Park in 2020 lends credence to this report.  

  • At the time of purchase, the CT Realty parcel was expected to be able to accommodate 5.7 million square feet of large-scale warehouse and distribution space. 

  • That project’s first phase of development was to include two buildings, totaling 1.14 million square feet, and were to be completed in early 2021.  

  • Premier Design & Build Group was selected as the general contractor for the infrastructure and phase one vertical construction.

Palmer Luckey founded Anduril in 2017 but made his fortune as the creator of Oculus Rift VR headset which then-Facebook, now Meta, acquired in 2014 for $2 billion.  Luckey’s share was estimated to be around $700 million. 

Anduril Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Trae Stephens was born and raised in Lebanon Ohio and graduated from Georgetown University. He was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, founded by Peter Thiel in 2003, which counts the United States Intelligence Community (USIC) as one of its original clients.