It was a somber moment for Columbus in April, with NCR Corp. stunning residents, city leaders and workers alike by announcing out of the blue that it was pulling out of Columbus, closing quickly its local ATM and point-of-sale equipment assembly plants and laying off just over 1,000 people.
The news in July that a New York-based equity firm named Apollo Global Management was acquiring Tennessee-based LifePoint Health — the owner of St. Francis Hospital in Columbus — didn’t exactly leave the 2,400-plus employees and 340 or so physicians at the local medical complex brimming with confidence, either.
On the other hand, there was plenty of inspiring news in 2018, from Synovus going into acquisition mode to buy a Florida bank to the U.S. government giving its approval to build a $62.4 million Veterans Affairs clinic in Columbus to a Colorado-based call center company pledging to create 600 jobs in the city.
As in year’s past, it was an eclectic and steady flow of business, growth and development stories in the Chattahoochee Valley that includes Columbus and Phenix City. As we move into the final days of 2018, we’re sending everyone off with fond holiday wishes and hopes for a safe, healthy, prosperous and adventurous 2019.
Here are our Top 10 business stories of 2018:
1. NCR closing its Columbus plants, more than 1,000 jobs lost
NCR Corp., which had been a manufacturing employer in Columbus since 2009, unveiled plans in April to close both of its Columbus plants, as well as another facility in Beijing, China. It was later determined that the work was being shifted to other facilities operated by a third-party company based in Florida.
More than 1,000 jobs were lost in Columbus due to the plant closures that took place through October, with about 360 of those full-time NCR employees and another 679 working at its plants through temporary staffing companies. The total was 1,039.
“While difficult, this move will help ensure that NCR maintains its position as the global leader in ATMs, self-checkout and point-of-sale devices as we accelerate our transformation,” NCR spokesman Tim Henschel said in an email statement from the firm. “NCR is executing a multi-year strategic initiative to strengthen our global competitive position and accelerate our transformation to a software and services-led, data-driven business.”
That transformation simply did not include Columbus.
2. $62.4 million project bringing new VA medical clinic to Columbus
After years of waiting, the 30,000 military veterans in Columbus and the surrounding Chattahoochee Valley area learned in September they finally will be getting a new primary care and mental health clinic as part of a $62.4 million project, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed.
Construction on the VA Outpatient Clinic at 2357 Warm Springs Road, which encompasses slightly more than 70,000 square feet of space, is scheduled to begin in early 2019, with an estimated completion by the spring of 2021.
That Warms Springs Road address is the 12-acre site of the former Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia office, which was shuttered after the insurance company relocated its Columbus operations center to Muscogee Technology Park on the northeast side of the city in late 2015.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Sam Nelson, chairman of the Chattahoochee Valley Veterans Council, said it’s about time that the VA made the move to replace the smaller 13th Avenue facility in the city. It is simply too small for the thousands of veterans who need health care, a population he expects will grow in the future.
“I’m delighted,” Nelson said when informed of the new VA clinic. “The great thing about it is we’re probably going to need more space and that area is big enough that they could expand if they needed to.”
3. Company that owns St. Francis Hospital is sold to an equity firm
The Tennessee company that acquired St. Francis Hospital nearly three years ago said in July that it was in the process of being sold to a large equity firm. Apollo Global Management LLC bought LifePoint Health in a deal valued at $5.6 billion.
LifePoint, based in Brentwood, Tenn., completed its deal to purchase the financially troubled St. Francis Hospital on Dec. 31, 2015. The hospital had operated as a nonprofit hospital since its founding in 1950.
That changed when LifePoint, a for-profit corporation, bought St. Francis. LifePoint assumed and paid off about $240 million in debt acquired by St. Francis as part of the terms for the acquisition.
In November, as part of the overall strategy with Apollo, LifePoint was finally merged with Tennessee-based RCCH HealthCare Partners, an Apollo-owned hospital company that runs multiple regional health-care systems in a dozen or so states, with the combined company now operating under the LifePoint name.
4. Synovus gobbles up South Florida-based bank in $2.9 billion deal
Cementing itself as a major regional Southeast bank, Columbus-based Synovus in July unveiled plans to acquire a Florida bank headquartered in the Miami metro area in a deal valued at $2.9 billion.
Synovus said its purchase of Weston, Fla.-based FCB Financial Holdings Inc., which is Florida’s largest community bank, is expected to be finalized on or about Jan. 1. The Columbus bank is paying just over $58 per share of FCB stock, with the Florida bank’s former shareholders ultimately owning about 30 percent of the combined company once the purchase takes place.
The move is significant in that the Columbus bank has long been a target of speculation that it might be bought out, while Synovus Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kessel Stelling has consistently said his company would be in the market for an acquisition of its own should the right financial institution come along. That time has arrived.
“Simply put, the merger of Synovus and Florida Community Bank creates a stronger company with elevated growth and meaningful value creation,” Stelling said. “It makes us the No. 1 mid-cap bank headquartered in the Southeast with a tradition of high-performing senior leaders and producers and the ability to leverage existing investments across a broader footprint.”
5. Colorado-based company pledges to create 600 jobs in Columbus
A Colorado-based company said in September that it plans to create 600 jobs in Columbus over the next five years, providing an economic shot in the arm for an area of the city that sorely needs it.
Pueblo, Colo.-based Global Callcenter Solutions, whose clients include cable television and broadband service firms, said it was occupying temporary space in downtown Columbus before locating to a former 46,000-square-foot Winn-Dixie supermarket structure in a failed shopping center on Buena Vista Road.
The company initially hired 100 people to work in a downtown Columbus building, while the permanent location was being retrofitted with the wiring, telephones and other office equipment needed to operate the call center long term.
Tyler Cox, vice president of information technology for Global Callcenter Soutions, said his firm scoured locations in Florida, Texas and other areas of the Southeast before choosing Columbus.
6. Whitewater Village bringing new housing, businesses to Phenix City
Demolition of a large portion of the decades-old Riverview Apartments in Phenix City got under way in the second half of this year, with an official groundbreaking on what will become Whitewater Village taking place in early December.
The redevelopment of public housing property that will transform in a major way a very visible portion of downtown Phenix City will come over three or four phases, with the first step the creation of Hidden Hills Trace, a complex at the intersection of 24th Street and 19th Avenue, said Mary Mayrose, executive director of the Phenix City Housing Authority.
The project is being built and overseen by Northport, Ala.-based Hollyhand Development with the help of a little more than $11 million in federal tax credits. Construction on Hidden Hills Trace began last November and should be completed by December, Mayrose said.
The changes have filled residents of the public housing in Phenix City with emotion, including Ashley Hudson, a mother of three who lived in Riverview five years, but was happy to be relocating to the brand new Hidden Hills Trace and its modern amenities.
“It’s somewhere my kids will be able to actually go outside and play and enjoy themselves and not have to worry about anything,” said Hudson. “Now don’t get me wrong, Riverview has been a blessing to us. It has ... because it put a roof over our heads.”
7. Midland Commons development faces rezoning, traffic concerns
It was in June that the Midland Commons development moved through the Columbus Planning Advisory Commission for a required rezoning. Columbus resident Andrew Kloster was at the meeting.
Kloster said he was not an advocate or opponent of the mixed-use development at the intersection of J.R. Allen Parkway and Flat Rock Road in north Columbus. But the area resident voiced his opinion.
“Kitten Lake, everybody here knows it’s an absolute nightmare. If you add this traffic to it, what are we going to do with the Kitten Lake area. It just doesn’t make sense. I commend them for wanting to do the traffic (improvements), but it has to be done right,” Kloster said.
Developers of the the 89-acre Midland Commons have laid out a series of roadway improvements proposed for the development — including multiple new turning lanes — to keep motorists moving as unimpeded as possible to prevent bottlenecks that already create semi-gridlock conditions at times.
The development, as it unfolds in the coming months, is expected to add significantly to the 22,000 to 23,000 vehicles per day that currently work their way through the thick traffic in the area that already is a burgeoning commercial area complete with a nearby Walmart Supercenter on Gateway Road.
8. Major professional movie and TV studio launches in Columbus
In a collaboration between Columbus State University and the W.C. Bradley Company, a large movie production studio that features state-of-the-art sound stages — and includes training space for the Georgia Film Academy production certificate offered by CSU — opened this year on the city’s north side.
Work on the movie and television production facility began early this year in a 180,000-square-foot building at 7100 Jamesson Road, in the Midland area of Columbus off J.R. Allen Parkway, or U.S. Hwy. 80. Long owned by W.C. Bradley Co., the site previously served as a warehouse for Char-Broil and others, with a portion of it also home to a call center at one point.
At stake is a slice of Georgia’s $9.5 billion movie-making and television production pie, which has included “The Hunger Games,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “Deliverance,” “We Were Soldiers,” and Marvel productions, “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” Popular TV series shot in the state include “The Walking Dead” and “The Vampire Diaries.”
“It’s a $9.5 billion industry,” said Richard Baxter, CSU’s associate vice president over engagement, economic development and university advancement. “Atlanta gets 90 percent of that. Now that’s direct and indirect spending. Savannah gets 10 percent of that. What if we got 3 percent? What if we got 5 percent? What if we got 10 percent? … Our goal is to make Columbus the third film hub in the state,” behind Atlanta and Savannah.
9. Aflac declares a stock split for first the time in 17 years
Entering this year, the notion of a stock split had been on Aflac’s radar for months, with the firm’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dan Amos even telling investors at annual shareholder meetings that the possibility existed, but only under certain conditions.
In February, news broke that it was finally happening. The board of directors of the supplemental health and life insurance company, headquartered on Wynnton Road in Columbus, declared that the firm would be splitting shares of its common stock.
When the split took place in March, it was only the ninth time since Aflac shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1974 that a split had taken place — and the first time in 17 years.
The company, famed for its wily and humorous Aflac duck and the accompanying ad campaign, said the two-for-one stock split was coming in the form of a 100 percent stock dividend payable on March 16 to those owning shares as of March 2. Yes, investors were happy.
10. Interstate 14 through the Columbus area? Video shows why you should care
For nearly a year, Frank Lumpkin IV had been promoting the need and benefits of creating an Interstate 14 with a path that also would move traffic through the Columbus and Macon, Ga., areas.
The Columbus High graduate and University of Georgia student, who launched a nonprofit organization, Youth Infrastructure Coalition, with two Phenix City friends, Justus Armstrong and Carsen Story, by his summer had come up with a polished video to go with their lobbying efforts.
Its goal was simple: To draw attention to the proposed Interstate 14 and why it will help reduce poverty, create businesses and improve the lives of residents in communities along its route. The major highway eventually would stretch from west Texas across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and into Georgia, where after leaving Columbus it would flow through Macon, Ga., and on to its terminus in Augusta, Ga.
“I always start out by saying the biggest thing holding this back is lack of awareness. We have to get the word out about this,” said Lumpkin, who also wants to spur legislative action. “The politicians aren’t going to listen unless the constituency base is for this project, and for that to happen, they have to know about it.”
The video, produced by Columbus-based Naartjie Multimedia, laid out a logical, methodical case for why a new east-west interstate located between the existing east-west Interstates 20 and 10 is necessary to improve areas that have been economically depressed for decades.