Renovations to the 103,000-square-foot building on Broad Street are scheduled to be completed by 2024 with hiring starting this month. The company is investing more than $16 million for construction, training and hiring.The Whitehall customer care center will serve as one of Discover's five 100% U.S.-based customer care centers across the country and will also include a community center that will be available for public use.

The new space is in addition to Discover's data center in central Ohio and would amplify the company's workforce presence in the state, where it already employs 2,100 people largely in the Columbus region.

"Investing in Whitehall and bringing jobs to communities that need them most is good business. This move allows us to focus on community development, offer incremental jobs, tap into new and more diverse talent, and support local businesses, said Dennis Michel, senior vice president, operations transformation, US Cards, at Discover. "Moving to Whitehall is also a homecoming for us. It is just four miles away from our original facility at the Eastland Mall site where our commitment to Central Ohio first started more than 35 years ago."

Discover has committed to hiring employees from Whitehall and nearby communities giving Whitehall residents and residents from surrounding communities potential job opportunities closer to home.

"Breaking ground on the new customer care center with Discover could not have been a more welcome step forward with our new partners," said Kim Maggard, Mayor of Whitehall. "Even though Discover only recently joined the Whitehall community, they've already begun incorporating themselves into our events and programs. I can only imagine their impact once they're fully up and running."

 

It might be difficult to see from the outside, but progress is being made to restore the original Port Columbus Airport Terminal into the Ohio Air and Space Hall of Fame and Learning Center.

The group working to renovate the 93-year-old building at the southeast corner of John Glenn Columbus International Airport plans to include flight simulators for those interested in aviation careers.

Ron Kaplan, executive director of Ohio Air and Space, said the project cost is $4 million.

Ohio Air and Space raising funds

"We're continuing to raise money for programs and exhibits and staffing," Kaplan said.

Thus far, the group has raised $1.2 million, with the goal of raising another $700,000 to begin the first phase of work, which he hopes to start next year.

"The board has been hard at work to hit the $700,000 mark to get the work started on building," Kaplan said. "We want to get it open as soon as possible."

The group received a $550,000 state grant for the project, and NetJets and FlightSafety became corporate sponsors: NetJets with $125,000 and FlightSafety $100,000, he said.

FlightSafety, a company that provides pilot training and airplane maintenance and other programs, is to also provide two flight simulators for aspiring pilots, Kaplan said. The center also would have two more simulators for the public.

 

Andrew Pierce, a Delta Air Lines pilot and a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve, is the director of the Buckeye Tigers, a group connected to the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals that works to bring more Black youths into the aerospace industry.

Buckeye Tigers plans to bring youths ages 13-18 to the terminal to learn about aviation and careers, from flying to airport administration to becoming a plane mechanic, he said.

His group has a one-week summer Aerospace Career Education (A.C.E.) Academyin which 20-30 youths are introduced to various segments of aviation, he said.

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"Columbus has a lot of rich aviation history," Pierce said. "There is a lot of opportunity to capitalize getting our kids interested. What better way to get youth and adults in the community to create a pipeline to ensure we have the personnel to manage and take care of our city through buildings like old Port Columbus?

"Any time you can save or preserve anything of historical significance, it can be used as an inspiration and a catalyst to give hope and inspire future generations."

 

Tuskegee Airmen as part of hall of fame

John C. Mitchell, past president of the Ohio Memorial Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen Foundation and aviation hall of fame board member, said the story of the Tuskegee Airmen would be part of the center.

"What we need to do is show our younger people, letting them know the stories and struggles that went before them," said Mitchell, a retired commercial pilot whose father was a member of the ground crew for the Tuskegee Airmen, based at what is now Rickenbacker International Airport. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military pilots and crews, who began their service during World War II.

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"He used to bring us over to the airport, watch planes take off and land," Mitchell said.

 

Crews replaced the roof and removed mold in 2016.

The Columbus Regional Airport Authority owns the property, and Ohio Air and Space has a long-term lease, Kaplan said. An airport spokeswoman said the Columbus Regional Airport Authority had no comment on the project.

The Art Deco-style air terminal has 12,000 square feet and still features the original control tower. When it was opened, it was the easternmost air link in the New York to Los Angeles Transcontinental Air Transport route.

Passengers took a train from New York to Columbus, where they exited the train and walked across East Fifth Avenue to the air terminal to fly to Oklahoma. The Great Depression led to the service's elimination.

Rebecca Kemper, CEO of Columbus Landmarks, which put the building on its most endangered list in 2015, said Kaplan's group has created a sustainable plan to restore the building, one that she said could have easily been lost.

"We're really excited for all the work that they’ve done," Kemper said.