Long-time Hilliard Developer Equity Takes Transformational Steps with TruePointe

Collaboration touted as new model for tax agreements between City, Schools, Township and fulfillment of comprehensive plan goals.

The restaurants and retailers that are to occupy the 52-acre mixed-use development to be known as TruePointe are yet to be revealed but are expected to include some names making their first foray in the central Ohio market, according to Steve Wathen, CEO of Hilliard-based Equity, and the developer of TruePointe.

“(TruePointe) will change the face of Hilliard,” said Wathen, who describes the development as a unique destination designed to draw people to Hilliard from throughout central Ohio.

A groundbreaking ceremony is to be held at 11 a.m. July 19 at the project site, 4457 Trueman Boulevard, although construction already underway.

TruePointe Site Map

TruePointe, a nearly $200 million mixed-use development, is being constructed on the west side of Trueman Boulevard just south of Davidson Road and east of Interstate 270.

TruePointe is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter, 2025, according to Austin Wathen, executive vice president of Equity.

TruePointe is to include residential, office and retail, restaurants, a hotel, and two parking garages.

The mixed-use development is to be built on approximately 30 acres and is to include approximately 360 for-rent residential units, 115,000 square feet of class A office space, 135,000 square feet of medical office space, 40,000 square feet of retail space, a 100-room hotel, and two structured parking facilities with 1,350 parking spots, according to Hilliard Development Director David Meadows.

Meadows calls TruePointe “transformational” for Hilliard and the epitome of what the city’s comprehensive plan envisions.

'“TruePointe is a transformational project. Our city comprehensive plan identified the need to secure a high-end, mixed-use development that will bring new amenities, restaurants, offices and housing to our city,” Meadows told the Beacon.

“TruePointe is a perfect example of a quality development that will bring high-paying jobs and support the talented workforce needed to propel our community forward.”

Meadows said the development stems from the presence of Equity, whose headquarters are adjacent to the site, in Hilliard.

“We are fortunate to have Equity in our community who sees the potential of our city and can bring their expertise to get this project off the ground,” said Meadows, who credits the collaboration between the city, Hilliard schools and Norwich Township for making the development, first proposed three years ago, a reality.

Hilliard City Council on July 10 enacted legislation creating a tax-increment financing district, or TIF, for TruePointe.

Boundary Site Map with Street Detail

Norwich Township Trustees and the Hilliard Board of Education previously approved the TIF agreement between the city and Equity, as required by Issue 9, a ballot issue Hilliard voters approved in 2016.

A TIF is an economic-development mechanism available to local governments to finance public-infrastructure improvements, and in certain circumstances, residential rehabilitation, according to the Ohio Development Services Agency.

A TIF locks in the taxable worth of real property at the value it holds at the time the authorizing legislation is approved, diverting the incremental revenue to designated uses, such as funding the necessary improvements or infrastructure to support a new development.

Norwich Township Trustee Tim Roberts said TruePointe will bring “many great additions” to the community.

“The willingness of Equity to listen and address the township’s concerns is to be commended. Negotiations are compromises and we were able to meet in the middle,” Roberts said.

According to a memo from Meadows to City Council, the TIF for TruePointe is expected to generate $97 million in net service payments to fund public infrastructure, $18 million in new school-district revenue, and $6.4 million to Norwich Township.

“It’s been a dream of mine to see all three of us work together and we did it to bring this development forward,” Hilliard Councilman Les Carrier said.

The restaurants and retailers to occupy TruePointe are to be identified in the ensuing two to three weeks and the hotel will be the first to be publicly shared, then restaurants, as formal and final agreements are forged, according to Steve Wathen.

Equity has ongoing “substantial conversations” with multiple potential retailers, restaurants, and other businesses and are “very excited” about the future announcements, Austin Wathen said after City Council’s July 10 session.

The restaurants in TruePointe are to be “white table-cloth” restaurants, many of which have no presence in Ohio and includes those in the Dallas and Phoenix areas, Steve Wathen said.

“Our goal is to create a development that will be a destination.  If you want to come to these restaurants in Central Ohio, you’re going to have to come to TruePointe,” said Wathen, adding the development is to be set apart from similar mixed-use developments in central Ohio.

Wathen said once final leases are in place, Equity can announce tenants.

TruePointe will also have pocket parks and the entire campus will be part of community entertainment district, or CED, which Wathen describes as similar to a DORA, in which people can walk with alcoholic beverages.

Hilliard enacted Designated Outdoor Refreshment Areas, or DORA’s, in Old Hilliard, in 2017.

The CED at TruePointe would allow the campus to host social events and perhaps annual festivals and events within TruePointe, Wathen told Norwich Township Trustees July 18.