Monday, July 26, 2021 75 cents ESTABLISHED 1896 • VOL. 175, NO. 197 June was record-setting month for central Ohio home sales By RICK ADAMCZAK Daily Reporter Editor Central Ohio’s dearth of homes for sale has eased slightly, helping to catapult the number of homes sold in June to an all-time record (Daily Reporter Photo by Keith Arnold) high. There were 3,644 home sales BMW Financial Services confirmed that its North American headquarters will relocate to the 55-acre mixed-use Grandview Crossing development where construction contin- closed last month, which was 15.6 ues at the site along Dublin Road in Grandview Heights. A spokesman said the move is not expected to take place until the final quarter of 2022, while occupancy of Phase I of the development is set to begin this fall. percent higher than June of last year and 21.3 percent higher than in May. A record 16,033 homes were sold in the first half of the year, which BMW Financial Services moving to Grandview was 12.6 percent higher than the first six months of last year, ac- By KEITH ARNOLD The new space is nearly 100,000 cording to the Columbus Realtors Daily Reporter Staff Writer square feet smallder than BMW Multiple Listing Service. Financial’s Hilliard location. “Over the last year, we’ve av- BMW Financial Services is trad- DiIanni did not respond to fol- eraged about 3,000 new listings ing in its leased space in Hilliard for low-up questions regarding the dif- each month”, said Michael Jones, sleek, state-of-the-art office space ference in square footage between resident of Columbus Realtors. “But in the new Grandview Crossing, the two leased spaces. He had last month, we had 4,359 homes a 55-acre mixed-use develop- disclosed previously, however, that added to the market for sale. This was quite the boon for motivated ment straddling the Grandview the company is in the early stages buyers who acted quickly to put Heights-Columbus corporation of planning and design. them in contract.” limits, just west of downtown. “The decision to relocate our The number of homes that went The company has confirmed office comes from several different into contract in June set another relocation of its North American key factors, including the need record which, combined with the for a state-of-the-art facility that headquarters, scheduled sometime increase in new listings, suggest during the last quarter of 2022. better supports collaboration and strong homes sales in July, said “We can confirm that BMW provides more flexibility in the way Jones. Financial Services has formally our associates work and interact The influx of new homes avail- signed a lease agreement with throughout the day,” he said. able for sale didn’t dampen home Thrive Companies to move our The company began operations prices, however. offices to Grandview Crossing at in Hilliard in 1993 to manage finan- The average price of a home sold 1400 City View Drive in Columbus,” cial operations for BMW financial in June was $316,207, an increase BMW North America Corporate products in the United States, of 15.8 percent from a year ago. The Communications Manager Phil Canada and Mexico. The current median sale price was $275,000, DiIanni said in an email. facility houses a subsidized cafete- which was 14.1 percent more than The development is under con- ria, Starbucks, a health center and last June. struction at the site of the former workout facility. Photo Courtesty of POD Design Year to date, homes sold during Dublin Road landfill, adjacent to The company’s footprint will the first six month sold at an the Dublin Road-Grandview Avenue inhabit a little less than half of the A rendering of the south exterior of the company’s new location off of Dublin average of $292,860 which is 15.9 intersection and just north of I-670. development’s 250,000 square feet Road, west of downtown. percent ahead of last year. The “We’ll have four stories — 122,000 of what the developer has billed as median sale price of $251,000 is square feet — and approximately premium office space. The develop- According to developer, work which include apartments, office 13.1 percent higher than a year ago 900 employees based there when ment also will include apartments, on site infrastructure, including space and a parking garage, began during the same period. we complete the move in Q4 2022,” retail space, multiple parking garag- utilities, began in December 2019. last year, with occupancy planned DiIanni said. es and a hotel Construction of Phase I projects, for fall. SEE SALES, PAGE 11 Public health officials want to ensure settlement funds are spent on fighting opioids By BEN FINLEY and are each to contribute $6.4 billion. GEOFF MULVIHILL McKesson is to pay $7.9 billion. Associated Press Nearly $2 billion of the funds would be reserved for private As a $26 billion settlement over lawyers who were hired by govern- the toll of opioids looms, some pub- ments to work on their suits against lic health experts are citing the 1998 the industry. State attorney general agreement with tobacco companies offices could also keep some of the as a cautionary tale of runaway money. government spending and missed States — except West Virginia, opportunities for saving more lives. which has already settled with the Mere fractions of the $200 bil- companies but could receive more lion-plus tobacco settlement have through the deal — will have 30 gone toward preventing smoking days to approve the agreements. and helping people quit in many After that, local governments will states. Instead, much of the money have four months to sign on. Each (AP Photo/John Amis) has helped to balance state bud- company will decide whether Tennessee State Rep. Harold Love, Jr. stands on an overpass over Interstate 40 last week near the site of his family’s former gets, lay fiber-optic cable and repair enough jurisdictions agree to the deal to move ahead with it. The home on the north side of Nashville, Tenn. Love Jr.’s father, a Nashville city councilman, was forced to sell his home near roads. here to make way for the highway, but put up a fight in the 1960s against the rerouting of Interstate 40 because he believed more governments sign on, the And while the settlement was a it would stifle and isolate Nashville’s black community. success in many ways — smoking more the companies will pay. rates have dropped significantly — “While the companies strongly cigarettes are still blamed for more dispute the allegations made in than 480,000 American deaths a these lawsuits, they believe the proposed settlement agreement year. Lawmaker hopes highway project and settlement process it establish- “We saw a lot of those dollars es ... are important steps toward being spent in ways that didn’t achieving broad resolution of help the population that had been can right an old wrong in Nashville governmental opioid claims and harmed by tobacco,” said Bradley D. delivering meaningful relief to com- By JONATHAN MATTISE correct an old wrong. The state community center, amphitheater, Stein, director of the RAND Corpo- munities across the United States,” Associated Press lawmaker is part of a group pushing ration’s Opioid Policy Center. “And the distribution companies said in a and some way to preserve the to build new community space he I think it’s critical that the opioid statement. historical context about businesses NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Harold says would reunify the city directly settlement dollars are spent wisely.” Connecticut Attorney General that used to line Jefferson Street, Lawyers for states and local gov- William Tong said it would be the Love Jr. raised his voice over the over Interstate 40, turning the high- the once-thriving heart of black ernments and the companies laid second-biggest cash settlement of blare of traffic from the interstate way stretch below into a tunnel. Nashville. out key details of the settlement its kind in U.S. history behind the above as he stood near the spot Mayor John Cooper backs the As the hum and heat of the on Wednesday and said there are tobacco deal in the 1990s. where his family’s home was razed $120 million, 3.4-acre cap project. highway enveloped the dead-end provision to make sure the money is North Carolina Attorney General to rubble a half-century ago. The city will spend months listen- street where his family’s home once used as intended. Josh Stein said the opioid agree- Love recounted the fight his ing to ideas about what it should stood, Love, now a Democratic The deal calls for the drugmaker ment requires state and local gov- father put up in the 1960s, before look like, cognizant of a past that state representative and pastor Johnson & Johnson to pay up to ernments to use the vast majority he was born, to reroute the highway saw community concerns about the at a church nearby, lamented the $5 billion, in addition to billions of the money on abatement — and he was sure would stifle and isolate highway ignored, and the booming psychological damage done by the more from the major national drug that will be subject to a court order. Nashville’s black community. growth of the city that challenges destruction. distribution companies. Ameri- His father was right. longtime residents’ ability to stay. sourceBergen and Cardinal Health SEE OPIOIDS, PAGE 11 Decades later, Love Jr. wants to Possible options include a park, SEE HIGHWAY, PAGE 11 2 Monday, July 26, 2021 THE DAILY REPOrtER Business & Finance Federal Trade Commission: Index BUSINESS & FINANCE Bankruptcies .................2 New rules could mean easier product repairs Lien Filings ...................2 Marriage Licenses .............2 By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer LAW & GOVERNMENT U.S.