Future of Chillicothe's economy highlighted at community forecast meeting

Megan Becker, Chillicothe Gazette
·1 min read

CHILLICOTHE— Speakers at the 2022 community forecast breakfast highlighted last year's successes, as well as upcoming economic development in Chillicothe.

Last year, 20 new businesses opened in downtown Chillicothe and three businesses closed. Two different businesses also opened secondary locations.

"We have lost a couple of businesses and they're going to be missed... I think we're much more prepared to absorb those losses and try to recover than we were 10 years ago," said Chamber Director Mike Throne. "We've remained pretty resilient."

The current Ross County unemployment rate is 3.5%, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Goodwill Industries is preparing to build a warehouse in the Gateway Industrial Park, located along Ohio 104 just to the south of Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

Goodwill is in the initial planning stages of the project and is expecting to begin construction late this year or early in 2023, said Marvin Jones, CEO of Goodwill Industries of South Central Ohio.

Throne said that the warehouse will allow Goodwill to provide e-commerce solutions for their own business, but also for other small businesses in the area. The warehouse will also be used to handle donations.

The Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce is also looking for their own warehouse space to accommodate "existing businesses that need some warehouse space or folks that want to move into open space," Throne said.

"If you'd have told me in March of 2020, 'you will actually grow businesses in your downtown,' I would have probably thought you were nuts," Throne said. "From our perspective as a chamber, seeing the energy around the communities [and] businesses is what we really appreciate."

Megan Becker is a reporter for the Chillicothe Gazette. She can be reached at 740-349-1106, email her at mbecker@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @BeckerReporting

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Chillicothe's economy highlighted at chamber of commerce community forecast meeting