ETNA, Ohio — CRG has broken ground on two Class A industrial buildings totaling more than 900,000 square feet at The Cubes at Etna, the 305-acre master-planned industrial park in Etna Township, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Columbus, according to Connect CRE and REBusinessOnline, which both reported the groundbreaking this week.
The larger of the two, Building B, spans 750,120 square feet and is fully leased to Omega Morgan, a specialized transportation, heavy rigging and machinery moving company that already occupies another building at the park and is expanding its presence there, the outlets reported. The second building, Building C, measures 160,920 square feet and is being developed on a speculative basis — built before a tenant is signed — with KBC Advisors marketing it and the park’s remaining build-to-suit site.
Both buildings are being developed in partnership with an affiliate of CRG’s capital partner, LXP Industrial Trust. LJC Design & Engineering is the architect for both buildings, while Contegra Construction is serving as general contractor, according to the reports.
The Cubes at Etna sits in Licking County along the Interstate 70 corridor east of Columbus, in the heart of the logistics zone that has grown up around the capital region over the past decade. Warehouses and distribution buildings have spread steadily east and southeast of the city as developers chase highway access, available land and the region’s workforce, and Etna Township has been one of the corridor’s busiest corners.
The park’s name is literal about its product: ‘cubes’ is the industry’s shorthand for the big rectangular buildings that store and move goods, and a 305-acre master plan means the two buildings now under construction are not the end of the site. A master-planned park lets a developer phase in roads, utilities and pads so that each new building makes the next one cheaper and faster to start — one reason the same parks keep appearing in groundbreaking announcements along the corridor.
CRG is no stranger to that scale of building. Including The Cubes at Etna, the firm says it has planned, broken ground on or completed more than 60 million square feet of industrial projects, according to Connect CRE — a national footprint that makes the Etna park one piece of a much larger logistics portfolio rather than a one-off local bet.
The Omega Morgan lease is the part of the announcement that matters most for the local jobs picture. A fully leased 750,000-square-foot building means the park’s newest and largest tenant is not speculating — it is a company already operating at the site that chose to grow there, bringing the heavy-haul and machinery-moving work it does for industrial clients with it.
Speculative space like Building C plays a different role: it gives site selectors something they can actually tour and lease on a short timeline, which economic developers say is often the difference between landing a growing company and losing it to a market with ready buildings. Both buildings are slated for completion in 2027, with Building C expected to deliver in the summer, according to REBusinessOnline.
The groundbreaking also lands in a week when central Ohio development news has run in both directions — new investment moving forward even as other projects change hands or stall. Readers following the region’s building pipeline can see Ambrose’s groundbreaking on a 1.07 million-square-foot logistics building in West Jefferson and the new builder stepping in to finish the 31-home Station Court project in College Hill for how two very different kinds of construction are moving at the same time.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed: the two buildings’ sizes, the Omega Morgan lease on Building B, the development partnership with the LXP Industrial Trust affiliate, the architect and general contractor, and the 2027 completion target. What has not been announced: a tenant for Building C, the project’s construction cost, and how many jobs Omega Morgan’s expansion will carry — figures developers typically release closer to opening.
What happens next is the build itself. Through the winter and into 2027, the two buildings will rise at the park while leasing work continues on Building C and the remaining build-to-suit site. NewsForce247 will report the tenant and jobs announcements when CRG and the companies involved make them.