Industrial campus breaks ground near Rickenbacker as Pepsi expands Milo-Grogan plant

COLUMBUS, Ohio —

A Minnesota-based developer has broken ground on a nearly 900,000-square-foot industrial campus east of Rickenbacker International Airport, while Pepsi’s local bottler has completed a major expansion of its plant in Columbus’ Milo-Grogan neighborhood.

The Opus Group, a commercial real estate development, design and construction company, announced construction of a three-building, 898,500-square-foot speculative industrial project on 72 acres near the Route 33 and Gender Road interchange in Canal Winchester, just southeast of Columbus. The project is one of the latest large-scale industrial developments to launch in the Rickenbacker area, which has become a logistics hub for central Ohio.

Opus described the campus as speculative, meaning no tenants have been publicly announced, and said the buildings are designed for modern industrial users as market demand continues for warehouse and distribution space. The Weekly Review, a Columbus-focused commercial real estate blog, reported the project as part of broader growth in the region’s industrial inventory.

Closer to the urban core, G&J Pepsi has completed a $45 million expansion and renovation of its Columbus plant in Milo-Grogan, according to a recent report by the Columbus Dispatch. The expansion adds production capacity and updates equipment at the facility, which sits north of Downtown near the city’s rail and highway network.

The Dispatch’s photo coverage shows new bottling lines and warehouse space inside the plant, highlighting the scale of the investment and the modernized layout. G&J Pepsi is a major regional bottler and distributor for PepsiCo products, and the Columbus project reflects the company’s decision to grow within the city rather than shift operations elsewhere.

City documents show Columbus continues to evaluate how zoning and infrastructure decisions shape where industrial and multifamily projects locate, including around Rickenbacker and along key corridors. The city has commissioned a 2026 Availability Study to assess barriers for small and minority-owned businesses in public contracting, and development announcements list upcoming meetings for entities such as the Jeffrey Place New Community Authority.

The combined moves by national developers and existing manufacturers suggest Columbus is still drawing investment into both its logistics belt and older industrial neighborhoods, even as officials weigh how growth interacts with housing, traffic and neighborhood concerns. Neither Opus nor G&J Pepsi has publicly released detailed hiring projections tied to the new space, and city leaders have not yet scheduled public hearings specifically centered on the Rickenbacker industrial campus.