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Main Street Reimagined Podcast
This is a podcast for dreamers, creators, developers, and entrepreneurs to learn, share, and be inspired to change your community through small business.
Main Street Reimagined Podcast
Episode 33: Running a City, Building a Wine Boutique with Andrew Bowsher
Andrew Bowsher embodies the fascinating intersection of public service and entrepreneurial spirit that's helping transform Sidney, Ohio. During a conversation held in his stunning Austeria Wine Boutique, with its exposed brick walls and carefully curated wine selection, Andrew reveals how wearing two seemingly disparate hats has created unexpected synergy in this manufacturing-rich community.
After military service and an education in city planning, Andrew never expected to find himself simultaneously managing a city of 260 employees while launching a boutique wine business with his wife Taylor. Their journey from amateur winemaking to opening a sophisticated European-inspired wine destination in downtown Sidney represents the very transformation they're helping facilitate throughout the community.
What makes this conversation particularly compelling is Andrew's candid assessment of the challenges on both sides. He acknowledges the frustrating red tape and bureaucracy small businesses face, while also detailing how his city administration actively works to eliminate those barriers. With remarkable transparency, he shares the tears shed during construction delays and the difficult early months of operation when they questioned if they were "running this as a charity for the city."
The centerpiece of Sidney’s remarkable turnaround has been its housing initiative. With an incredible 1,200 units under construction and plans for 150 annually over the next decade, the city is addressing its most critical need. Andrew's approach involves not just recruiting developers but crafting a compelling narrative about Sidney’s potential—leveraging its status as a manufacturing powerhouse that sees more daily commuters than Columbus itself.
Downtown revitalization efforts mirror this ambitious approach, with historic buildings being transformed into luxury apartments, condominiums, and vibrant businesses. The city proactively purchases strategic properties to prevent them from falling into "the wrong hands," then partners with quality developers through incentive programs. This coordination of public resources, private capital, and entrepreneurial energy creates what Andrew calls "rings like the Olympics" where all stakeholders row in the same direction.
Whether you're a wine enthusiast or a community development aficionado, Sidney’s transformation offers a toast-worthy model of what's possible when vision meets execution.
Guest Links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/austeriawine
Main Street Reimagined:
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The Main Street Reimagined Podcast, Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqfkmF5bRH0od1d3iiYKs3oEn_gvMYk7N
Henry Development Group:
Facebook: facebook.com/henrydevelopmentgroup
Website: www.henrydevelopmentgroup.com
Developing News Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/33110524eb5c/developing-news
Luke Henry:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/luhenry
Facebook: facebook.com/luke.henry.148
#SidneyRevival #SmallTownBigVision #CityReimagined #DowntownTransformation #PublicPrivateProgress #AusteriaWine #SipAndServe #WineWithPurpose #BrickAndBottle #FromVineToVision #LeadingWithHeart #VisionMeetsExecution #CivicEntrepreneurship #MilitaryToMainStreet #ServeBuildSip #UrbanRenewal #RevitalizeRural #WineAndWork #RedTapeReformer #SmallBusinessStrong
We always need to be in that constant sort of growth mindset and I feel like, coming into this, I think Taylor and I knew that it was going to be difficult. I don't think we estimated of how difficult it was going to be. You know, working for a city, we get to see on one side of the coin how cities can be business or lack thereof business friendly business, or lack thereof, business friendly.
Speaker 2:This is the Main Street Reimagined podcast, a show for people ready to turn visions into realities and ideas into businesses. Hey, I'm Luke Henry and each week I lead conversations with Main Street dreamers who took the leap to launch a business, renovate a building or start a movement, their ideas, their mindsets and their inspirations, as well as some of the highs and lows along the way. This is a place for dreamers, creators, developers and entrepreneurs to learn, share and be inspired to change your community through small business. Enjoy the show. Hey friends, this is Luke Henry and this is the Main Street Reimagined podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in again.
Speaker 2:We are continuing here in episode 33 in our Sydney series. We had last time on Seth Middleton, downtown developer, and today I'm really excited for a conversation with Andrew Voucher. Andrew is the city manager here in Sydney and also co-owner, with his wife Taylor, of Osteria Wine Boutique, so we are seated here in their business and so if you're not watching on YouTube, hop on over there. Super cool backdrop, you can see a small sampling of the hundreds of bottles of wine that they have here and just a really, really fascinating and well done space. So, andrew, thanks so much for being with me first of all, all here, thanks, luke I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So I'm really looking forward to the conversation. Uh, it's good to be here in the space. My, my wife and I were visiting Sydney and this was one of our stops uh, because I'd I'd heard of you and and and the work you were doing uh previously, so I've already had a great experience here and so just fantastic excited to hear the whole story.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no. Happy to have you, glad that you and your wife enjoyed your time here a couple of weeks back and yeah, it's an exciting space. And we're happy to have this here in downtown Sydney and be able to create this dream, I think, as husband and wife, and also to sort of give this back to our community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and it is awesome. So for folks that haven't visited Osteria here, tell a little bit about what all you do, the experience that you've kind of curated here, and what they could expect if they pay a visit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's called Osteria Wine Boutique, and Osteria actually comes from the word Osteria, which is Italian, and really that just means a small, family-ran tavern that focuses on small plates as well as food. Our son's name is Austin.
Speaker 1:So, we kind of popped the two together to create Osteria and, to be frank, taylor and I also mispronounced Austeria a couple of times and so we said, well, why not just spell it that way? So it made it make sense. So we obviously feature wine and we focus on a lot of low intervention natural wine, a lot of curated or allocated type of wine. So if you go to Kroger's or Meyers or something like that, you're not going to be able to find this wine here.
Speaker 1:This is special sort of wine that we end up getting in imported specifically, or we work with a lot of boutique distributors to make sure that our offerings are very, very unique and you're not really going to find them much elsewhere, right, and so we do have some beer for the beer drinkers and ciders, and we've had a really amazing cocktail program. So you can come in, you can grab a bottle off the shelf, like it is here behind us, uh, or you can come dine, uh, sort of our wine bar portion. You can have a tasting on a Saturday night or any other night, um, and then we do have charcuterie and cheese and sandwiches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, love it. Yeah, just a really inviting space, inspirational space. Just the lighting and the natural brick and hardwood floors and just what you've created here is just something really, really special. And, however, this is not your full-time job. As we kind of mentioned there in the opening. You're also serving as the city manager here in Sydney, so we'll talk in a minute kind of how you got to that point. But in that role, what are you doing kind of day to day? What does that look like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's interesting. So obviously everything that I do for the city hopefully benefits Austeria one way or another, right? Because it's also benefiting other businesses that are here within the downtown. And so as city manager, I act as the CEO for the city organization and so I oversee the day-to-day functions. We have about 260 employees, so fire, police, public works, community development, finance, everything in between, so oversee those operations and then really a lot of focus on downtown urban redevelopment as well as sort of economic development and growth, especially with businesses and manufacturing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really a broad role. A lot of hats to wear within that role, for sure. So I'm sure that that uh is a never adult moment, never a boring day, uh in that role, right.
Speaker 1:It. There's always something that's coming up, and you know, being any sort of public servant, it's always easier to get comments when they tell you you're not doing something right, Then when you're doing something, something right.
Speaker 2:So yes, yes indeed. So, um, so kind of going back to you know early on in your story, let's let's start as to where you started and kind of how you got to where you are Ultimately. I understand you guys are not from Sydney, you're not from this area, so what was kind of the winding road that that led here?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I grew up in Grove City, ohio, and so just actually outside, and went to a school called Westfall High School. So, shout out, go. Mustangs and Taylor actually was raised in Richwood, outside of Marysville, so both more closer to central Ohio is where we were both raised. Um.
Speaker 1:And so after I graduated high school, I uh joined the military. Very quickly, uh, signed a four-year contract, ended up doing five total years. I was a forward observer or a scout uh for the army and uh got to travel um to other countries most that you wouldn't want to travel to typically, you know, I thought it was going to be pretty, um, pretty, uh, eyeopening and wonderful. But, um, I do think that that helped propel my career and it was a great transition to be able to do so much more. And I think it also built sort of this, this need for uh community servitude and and to be able to sort of give back.
Speaker 1:And so came back home to Ohio, went to Ohio State, got degrees in city planning and public administration and really that kind of kicked off. Okay, what do I do now? Where do I go? Well, I was in the military and now I have sort of this city planning background or education, and that took us out west, and so we were in Santa Barbara County for a couple of years, which is sort of where some of the wine kind of got focused right two kind of tied together and so we were um, uh helping sort of build out spacex and blue origin and uh, creating space launch complexes out in vandenberg air force base it's now a space base okay.
Speaker 1:Um, so a lot of tech companies building out there. Vandenberg is sort of the Western base where a lot of the love goes out to Cape Canaveral, and once we were there kind of the bug kind of bit on sort of the wine. We got involved in amateur winemaking and so you got into sort of consortiums where you could go to a vineyard and buy grapes sort of together and buy down at a lower price.
Speaker 1:And then you all help each other kind of make wine and you're kind of figuring it out. And it was just really exciting and I think I've always loved wine and been a huge foodie. And so when we moved back home to Ohio for family, I took over as the development director at the city of Reynoldsburg, which is an east suburb there of Columbus of about 45,000 at this point and it was a great role because I never thought that I was going to serve in local government. But that was sort of the ability of saying, hey, I've got the city planning background, now I'm going to serve this community. I really got into economic development and I loved helping new businesses and be able to sort of bring things back into the downtown and revitalize areas and just super passionate about that. And I think that was sort of the entrepreneurial bug bit. Taylor and I met there and she was working with morpsey and some other communities and, um, you know, she ended up falling in love with wine the way that I did as well.
Speaker 1:Um, and we were trying all these new places and going on tours all around columbus and trying new places and we said, you know, I think we could do this and we could create this brand and so this kind of formed. And this was before we even got to Sydney, right, okay, headhunter called in 2020, 2021 and said, hey, we, there's an opening for a city manager gig in Sydney. And I said, where the hell is Sydney? And uh, you know where? Where is that at? And, uh, they were like well, come take a tour. And like come check it out. And, and you know, we can take this view right now from Austeria and you can see this beautiful courthouse. Yes, yes, it is Um, and I think you know from that perspective, we were down here, the fountains were rolling, uh, austin was with us and we said, oh man, this, there's something here, right, there is like this, this diamond in the rough, and and there's something here, right, there is like this, this diamond in the rough, and there's a, an ability, I think, for us to to take our story, uh, to sort of the next step, where I get to follow sort of a career here in city management, um, as well as maybe build our dream.
Speaker 1:And so Sydney alive, uh, which was the downtown organization, um, then ran by Amy and, working with Amy, she actually found this building for us, where they were located at. We ended up talking to the property owner and we basically had a building before I even started as city manager just without having this opportunity, and so Taylor and I worked hard, and we had a ton of delays.
Speaker 1:But, here we are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's so great to see, it's so great to hear the story and, first of all, thank you for your service with the military. Appreciate that. And it does sound like just a real diversity of experiences that are all kind of culminating in what you're doing today with, with both sides of your work and life here, so really cool. Yeah, I mean, talk a little bit more about, you know, going from Reynoldsburg, you know, I mean it's, it's, it in and of itself is not a huge city but obviously proximate to Columbus. So you're, you're within minutes of about anything that you want to do there. That's not necessarily the case in Sydney here, despite a lot of exciting things happening. You know, talk a little bit about some of those conversations between you and Taylor where it was like, hey, this is a pretty big move at that point. I mean, you know you both, you know, grew up maybe around some smaller communities but had kind of settled into a little more of a big city life. So what was that like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, those were really tough conversations. Those were conversations of saying is this the right move for us, is this really what we want? And Taylor and I take a lot of walks and it was fall time and I just remember us just walking around the block and like I felt like we were rehashing the same conversations almost like every night, just because it was a big move for us and we didn't know if this was gonna work out or if this even made any sense to Us. We didn't have a support structure here. Everybody that we know are still back in Central Ohio. We knew that it was like an hour hour and a half away, but I knew that there was something special here and I knew that a lot of the stakeholders here in our community were all lined. They were moving all in the same boat when there's a lot of NIMBY culture in Central Ohio, a lot of people saying not in my backyard.
Speaker 2:No, I don't want to build.
Speaker 1:And there's a different tone from coming from a Reynoldsburg or a Dublin or a Grove city, which is really a suburb, a bedroom community, if you will, of Columbus, right, and there's a different mentality than you come out here and in Sydney. We're a job center, right, we, we are the exact opposite of a bedroom community. We actually have daytime population that swells to over, you know, 12 to 15,000 more people than the actual nighttime population. If you take those statistics over, we actually have more commuters coming into Sydney than Columbus does. Wow.
Speaker 2:Now is that primarily manufacturing jobs. What are those?
Speaker 1:46% are manufacturing and the rest round out to other sort of commercial entry. Uh, um, and then you, you do have some agricultural jobs and things of that nature, but, um, it is interesting sort of that makeup and that demographic. But manufacturing is definitely plays a huge role here in Sydney and Shelby County. In fact, actually, you know we're number one per capita for number of manufacturing jobs in the entire state. Wow, yeah, so that that that sets a tone for who we are, Um, but it also sets an opportunity for us to continue to diversify the economy that we see here, um, but also grow the businesses, and I think you know we can talk about this later, but there obviously there is a lot of momentum that's happening. But having that many commuters come into the town that also set one of the major goals after I started as city manager, which was housing.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:We have to build the housing. So right now we've got about 1,200 homes under construction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's remarkable. I mean, I've heard you talk some about that before, and so you've got homes under construction. Also, does that include apartment units as well that are also coming online? So you've got kind of a mix of diversity of people that are coming in to the community for that. But, you know, kind of tying back to your story, I mean. So it sounds like were you looking at some of those factors and kind of trying to connect the dots to say like, not only is this worth coming here personally for work and for our family, but also as we're looking to start a business? It kind of sounds like you were extrapolating a little bit from where things were that day to where you believe that they are going and saying, yeah, I think that this is moving in a direction that, if we plug in here, that there's a future for us both with our business and our family and your work and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's no secret, we were looking for places back in Columbus and in Grove City which is where we were living at the time which is a lot of our family's still over in that area, and we were looking I mean, we put in a couple of offers and we really just weren't finding everything that we were specifically looking for. And so this opportunity sort of opened ourselves up to saying, well, maybe, maybe we don't need to build this in Columbus, maybe we could build it someplace else. And so through, I think, research, through the interview process and sort of the onboarding process, you start to start to take a look of okay, well, why do they have so many commuters? Well, we really haven't built a whole lot of housing, right, they're choosing to go live elsewhere because there is a lack of housing. We're like, okay, well, if we can fix some of these things, that are really not problems, they're actually opportunities for us to be able to sort of grow and move the needle for Sydney.
Speaker 1:Well then, that's going to help our business and at the same time, maybe we're going to be able to sort of maybe slow down as a family. Right, we're not going to have to have the hustle and bustle there in downtown Columbus and maybe we'll have the ability to be able to sort of get involved in the schools and more of the community involvement and Sydney has a very, very strong base, especially in the nonprofit sector. I've just, I think, the community being able to sort of help one another, and I feel like you always have instances of individuals that are looking back down the ladder and sort of reaching up their hand and sort of pulling back up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really fascinating hearing just again that journey. And so, as you, obviously, you came and you did all the things. So what do you think have you gotten in terms of perspective from being a business owner in the community and also your role as city manager? You're working on economic development projects, right. You're working on recruiting manufacturers, home builders, all of those different stakeholders in the community, and how do you think having this? You know small business perspective changes. You know some of those conversations.
Speaker 1:Sure, you know, you don't know what you don't know. For I mean, that's a, that's a huge token. And I love Steve Jobs's quote of saying you know, stay foolish, stay hungry. And I feel like you know we're all. We always need to be in that constant sort of growth mindset and I feel like, coming into this, I think Taylor and I knew that it was going to be difficult. I don't think I don't think we estimated of how difficult it was going to be.
Speaker 1:You know, working for a city, we get to see on one side of the coin for a city, we get to see on one side of the coin how cities can be business or lack thereof. Business friendly, and that has been one of the goals that I have had throughout my public service career is is how can we find the yes? Here's the why. How are we going to find the yes? Because we need to get to that, because we've got to be as business friendly as we possibly can. We've got to move at the speed of business.
Speaker 1:I know that we're government, but I think that's why you're seeing, even at the federal level, of why there's so much pushback because of all this red tape and all this bureaucracy and all of these steps and hurdles that you have to jump through with your permitting process or the licensing process. I mean it is an astronomical feat for any small business, large or small, to get up off the ground and to go through all of the minutia of starting anything. And I think you know we're still dealing with that. You know making sure we're figuring out our taxes and making sure that we're paying them and and and in the insurance side of things. And the liquor licensing oh my God, don't even get me started on the department of commerce and having to work with.
Speaker 1:You know multiple tiers of all of these sort of the government sort of um, big and small, and that's tough. And so how do you, as a local public servant and local government, how do we make that faster? And so one good aspect of it is is I know a lot of the behind the scenes, so it was helpful to sort of navigate those things. But that doesn't stop you when you've got, you know, half a million dollars on the line of investment that you're looking at for a building and you're like I've got a two week delay because somebody needs to review something. You've got to be kidding me, right, and that is a really large slowdown. And I think it's given me even more perspective and trust and admiration, I think, for any small business owner, any entrepreneur that wants to come into a community, knowing all the hurdles that they're about ready to face, knowing all the hurdles that they're about ready to face. And then I've got to ask myself and ask our staff how are we going to help make it easier for them today? And tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, that's so critical and I think that for folks listening that are working in their communities and they're trying to work with city government to eliminate some of the red tape or help overcome some of the hurdles, that's so critical. Now, you know, we only have so much control over what happens at the state level, what happens at the federal level, even though, yes, I mean, as you said, I've experienced it and our tenants have experienced it where there's just so many kind of quote stakeholders in the process. You know you're working with all the local codes and everything. You're working with health department and fire and building and may, or maybe the buildings at the state level, if there's, you know, tax credits and things or incentive programs might be at the state or federal level and, like, everybody has a hand in kind of like the timeline and into your business and it can be very, very challenging to get something going.
Speaker 2:But what often can be controlled is that on the local level and your level of advocacy and folks like you that are working in communities to say, hey, how can we pave that road, how can we make people aware of what the steps are, how can we maybe eliminate some steps or just help to be more business friendly can make all the difference in the world. So I mean, I think what you're doing, and because of the perspective you have, having done it yourself, is really remarkable. So you talked about housing Share a little bit about how it is that you've went about trying to spur along backfilling that housing need. So you know again whether it's apartments, whether it's single family units, you know track home builders, private builders, you know investment groups like what are you doing, kind of from that city perspective, to try to entice that housing to be built here in Sydney? Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 1:You know, and I think from a lot of perspectives it helps because of where I came from, right, coming from Columbus, in a major market. Well, they're used to seeing all these builders, right. And so then you start making all these connections with you know, water development out of Dayton and you make connections with Crawford, hoying and JBM and MI and all these major builders that are building sort of within these metropolitan areas, and so you leverage those contacts, you pick up the phone, you say, hey, do you remember how easy it was working with me here in Reynoldsburg? Do you remember, like you know, the ability for us because I buy into what you're talking about, because of how much housing we do need, and I want you to come here and I want you to build because and let me craft this story, let me tell you about how amazing Sydney is, let me tell you about all this manufacturing and all these people and how we've got 12,600 people that come and commune into our community every day. And I think it was a very easy story to craft and I think they buy into the passion that we have, they understand the buy-in that we had as a business owner, right, and I think that sets a very distinctive tone of saying wow, okay, wait a second. Maybe I don't know where Sydney's at or anything like that, but I need to sit here and listen because I may miss out on an opportunity if I don't take a look. And so we would come out here and we would start tours here and we would start tours, and I think that's what has allowed us to sort of sort of overnight, I think, shock the heart and system of sydney.
Speaker 1:You know, from 2010 to 2020, the city lost 1200 in their population, put a huge chip, I think, on city council's shoulder and they said whoa, we can't continue to slide backwards. And and the and the, I think the the tasks that were happening, you know, even a decade prior to. That is what led to those. And, of course, everybody dealt, you know, um with with huge setbacks from the oh eight recession and I think a lot of manufacturing kind of went away to a certain degree and it's like how do we build back? You know the way that they need to Um. So we had to shock the system. It's just like CPR to the city all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:And now, with 1,200 homes under construction, by the end of this year we'll have 1,500 to 1,600. We hope and our goal is 150 in the pipeline every single year for the next decade. And I think that's going to put us where we need to be twofold One it no longer are manufacturers looking and saying I need people, I need people to fill these because I've got quotas, I've got to have. And no more are these businesses local, large and small that are saying man, I wish we had more patrons. And I think by having more people out on the street, more people that are living and laying their heads in our community, that means their tax dollars are going to be spent and they're going to be going to Austeria, they're going to be going to Murphy's, they're going to go to Greenhouse and all these other businesses that are here around the square, because they're living here and they're not living someplace else. Yeah, yeah, that's so so critical.
Speaker 2:So what? I hear you saying it started with the relationships. You had some of those relationships, but then really it came down to crafting a story and being able to take a pitch deck or whatever to these major builders and saying, hey, we've got something here. No, we're not in the Dayton market, we're not in the Columbus market. I mean, you sort of are Proximate to those areas but we're a little farther out, we're not in a metro area, but there's opportunities here and you know we need housing and you guys will benefit from bringing your show here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it's funny because Taylor and I talk about this all the time but you know it's no different than a real estate agent trying to sell a house or anybody else trying to sell a car to you or anything. If you want the best things for your community, you got to sell your city right, because there's enough negativity, right. It doesn't matter where you live, there's going to be things that are bad and good, and I think you've got to stick to the positive. And I think once you get the momentum rolling enough, it just becomes a snowball right, the domino effect of great things happening, and they consistently build off of each other. If we're putting out into the Dayton Business Journal all the amazing development that's happening, well then people are going to start talking about it and people are now going to look to oh well, they're doing all the right things. So if I want to bring my manufacturing operation or my data center to Sydney, ohio, well, great, because they've got the housing. They're doing all the things that I am looking for to move my business someplace else or to grow and expand my business.
Speaker 1:And I'd say it's the same thing about wine too. I mean, we pick one of these bottles off the shelf. It's a faceless name. You don't know really what that is, mostly because you probably haven't seen it anywhere else. But if I come down and I pour it for you, maybe it's just a Pinot, or maybe I tell you the backstory about this. Pinot was grown on a cult property out in California, and I talk about the individuals that worked through it. And then now all of a sudden, I've given it context and a story, and then now all of a sudden, that makes it a lot more valuable to you as the consumer and it starts to taste better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Now, in telling the story of Sydney, is that a story that you kind of walked into that had been crafted in one way or another? Did you help to craft that story? And how do you get everyone on the same page and the same team telling that story? Because you know, in the same way, if you're telling this story and someone else is telling another story and then we've got some, some critics of the community and you know it's kind of this mixed bag, well, that's far less compelling, right? So how did, how did you go about, you know, getting everyone kind of telling the same story?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think some of it goes back to sort of the chip on the shoulder right If you feel like it's sliding too far back. It really does take sort of an agent. I feel like of change and I feel like once that gets shocked, all of a sudden it starts moving in the right direction. This is like this era of good feeling. I feel like that's what is happening right now, and by no stretch of the imagination is this all on me. This is an extreme team effort of a ton of people that sort of work tirelessly, you know and seth as you were talking about before from the prior episode.
Speaker 1:You know he also was some of the first investment back here into the downtown. Right, he actually helped crafted the story that helped lead me here, right?
Speaker 1:of understanding that he opened up Emilio's and that he, you know, bought some other buildings and you know to see that investment, and it's saying, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it. They're at the precipice of this sort of tipping point, of great things and I think that's absolutely vital. And so you talk, everything is is, uh, I feel like you know, rings on like the, the Olympics. You know, everything is kind of tied together in a way and government needs to be in one bucket, pointed in the right direction. Uh, the other person gets in the canoe. It's the public sector, it's just the individuals or the consumers, then it's the investors and the other individuals that are key stakeholders within the community. And if they're all coming together and they're all saying the same thing and they're all rowing in the same boat, then we're going to be a heck of a lot more successful.
Speaker 1:And that was actually one of the key things of why I came here, because all of council knew what they wanted. It was one cohesive voice and I knew that if I was going to go someplace, the last thing that I wanted to do was beat my head against the wall constantly and be up against the rails constantly fighting for all the great things in this community and it's like for what? So, in order for us to make this jump, all of the stars had to align, and a key portion of that was is the community ready? It's interesting because they had a slew of individuals that they communicated and interviewed and they joke about it. In fact, actually they have bought me die-cast cars because what they said was he's young and he's vibrant and he's got all these things going on. It's just a boatload of energy. It's like a Ferrari, right, and so that's what they call me at the office, and I want to be very humble about this because it's very weird, but they did buy me a die-cast Ferrari when.
Speaker 1:I started and they said you know you don't want to just park it in a garage, right? If you're going to have it, you better drive it. That's right, and I think that really kind of it's said a lot to me and it's set the tone now, my entire time that I've been here and I've had an immense amount of backing from the community to this point and it's helped yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, it's obvious that you're making an impact, it's obvious that you're passionate, it's obvious that you're really trying to align on the right things and keep that messaging strong, keep everyone aligned and moving in the same direction. And it's really interesting the way that I mean the episodes sort of played out, because, yeah, in our last episode with Seth Middleton, we talked about where he started in 2015,. You know, buying the building just almost right next door here, and that was the first one. And then, through a series, you kind of came in after that initial wave was already had swelled and was kind of moving in the right direction. And then you hitched on to that and are adding to that momentum, and others have come along as well, and he's continued other projects and it's just that's the way we see this going in communities.
Speaker 2:It has to start with somebody. It does, but then you've got to have great people like you and people from kind of all the different sectors as you talked about the rings that are moving in the same direction to make it happen, or else they can't. You know, I mean the private sector can't do it all, the public sector can't do it all, and I don't know if you've seen this in different communities that you've studied. But I've went to different communities and it's very obvious if, when there's momentum, if it's privately, um kind of pushing pushed, or if it's publicly pushed, you know cause it's um, but eventually they both have to be pushing forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a great example of that. And I did a downtown plan as a grad student at Ohio State for Fosteria, ohio, so just a little north of us Big train town. They actually have an iron triangle and all good stuff, and the Minnell Milling Company was a private sort of investor and started buying up a lot of the property into the downtown and that was sort of the catalyst of the push of saying, whoa, I grew up here, I've got a business here, a very large business. I don't want to see Fossoria keep going in the wrong direction. And so that was that first catalyst. And then the mayor and the council and some of the other individuals and other investors sort of getting online and now all of a sudden they're drafting a plan back in 2015. And how does that continue to pay dividends? Well, it has, and that gets other people excited, and so I'm happy to be on that second wave and then hopefully, our investment and the things that we're doing today creates that third, fourth, fifth wave.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you mentioned, like so often, these, these things start with somebody or a group of folks that just say we don't want these buildings to go into the wrong hands, and not that we're necessarily looking for something else to do, but it needs done and, and so we're gonna make it happen, okay, so, uh, we are back after a little brief reprieve. There we had a technical difficulty where we lost recording for a minute, so we lost a couple minutes of content, but we're going to get back to conversation with Andrew here, so we're going to talk about just some things that are upcoming, that you're excited about, that are happening here in Sydney, sydney and downtown and beyond yeah, well, um, you know there's no shortage of different things that are obviously happening, um, but, uh, probably one of the most exciting things that I think are happening here in in the downtown is a 103 year old building.
Speaker 1:Uh, it's the ohio building. Yes, uh, 50 luxury apartments inside. There's going to be two ground floor tenants. Probably one of those is going to be a Wilson's. I know that they're extremely interested and signed an LOI, and so we're excited for what the future holds for that, because it's the first time, probably maybe even 60, 70 years, that there has been that type of housing ever built, obviously within the downtown, and I think it's going to set an extreme new bar for where we're at. And that's water developments projects, um, several other sort of you know development projects. You know one being sort of behind here in austria, um, you know the canal place apartments going through a full sort of renovation and restoration by meyer restoration.
Speaker 1:So we're happy for them. The Piper building across the square here that is a Tim Spencer project. He's working through Brickhouse Blue. His co-working space is going to be up top Downstairs. They're looking at trying to bring in a brewery. I know we've had some really successful conversations out of a brewery out of Columbus that's looking at opening up a tap room here and then just around the corner from that he also purchased the Central School, so it's an old elementary school that was in our downtown.
Speaker 1:He will be opening up 15 condominiums inside of that, so you can see that the housing trend didn't also just go to the peripheral around sydney, but also here in the downtown too, because we feel like that's putting visibility and eyes and and more walkability here on the street, because now we've got more people living here within this area. Um, I think it's going to allow us to hit new demographics, uh, different levels of of individuals living within the area, which means that other businesses and new businesses are going to be able to thrive. Or maybe they weren't, because it didn't quite check the box from all the different metrics that you would need when you look for a business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So again, yeah, as you said, that the housing trend kind of continues and really I think in order to attract that level of housing, you've got to have the amenities, and so I think part of what got cut off on our little bit of conversation there that got cut off was you were talking some about just the importance of the downtown as the heartbeat and creating those amenities that then ripple out and make people want to live here, not only here downtown, but also in the city at large. Right, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean you could build a skyscraper in the middle of Iowa, you know, from that matter, that doesn't mean you're going to attract anybody over there. So the housing is one component Got to shock the system. We've got to build more. We've got to get people and developers excited. But now, in order to get the people to live within those areas, we've got to have the amenities. And our biggest and most grand amenity is obviously the courthouse and the downtown. And so we take a look at this nine block area which is the downtown a lot of investment happening. The city, from our perspective, has gotten a lot more aggressive and progressive. From that matter, we can't be reactionary. We can't allow certain properties to fall into the wrong hands with bad actors. So we've got to be that soundboard and we've got to set the tone. So the city, we're going out there and we're purchasing property and we're holding on to it so we can work with other developers, investors, to be able to do right by that, which is going to add more amenities back into the downtown.
Speaker 2:Wow yeah, so that's a progressive approach. Amenities back into the downtown? Wow yeah, so that's a there's a progressive approach. I've heard of too many communities where the city is actually taking title for properties that they're wanting to make sure don't fall into the wrong hands. But again, that's such a critical piece.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as things come up and they're available or we're out there, you know working, you know with, you know property owners that are there, you know if something comes into disarray, and code enforcement, and I think we've got to get extremely proactive and we've got to clean these areas up. But when, when time comes, the city does have to put dollars and cents towards, you know, basically being in charge of its own destiny, of the future, and and in some ways we do have to step in as a developer sometimes, uh's, not to push out the market or anything like that. In fact, actually it's the exact opposite. It's so we can hold on to those, we can couple them together, maybe make larger parcels and then work with an investor to where actually a pro forma can actually make sense, for then somebody to be able to go there. And then, obviously, the bevy of incentives and abatements that we have. We've gotten a lot more progressive on that as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, talk a little bit about the X's and O's. I mean, if you're using dollars to tie up property, is that coming out of operating budgets or some other special earmarks that you're using? And then also talk a little bit about incentives that you're using from a city standpoint to help entice investment downtown.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, from the perspective we utilize funds, the city has obviously reserve funds and then we have a capital operating budget and our general fund, which is sort of the day-to-day, and so for the city of Sydney we've got an operating budget of about $145 million give or take. A lot of that is inter-fund transfer stuff you really can't touch. $25 million is dedicated to sort of the general fund, and then we've got about a $18 million every single year capital improvement fund and so every five years we create a new sort of five-year plan and that you know sort of changes. So you know from, for you know, back in 2020, we're talking about projects that we're still doing sort of obviously here to this day and so from 2025, we'll be looking forward to 2020, you know, 2030 and five years in between.
Speaker 1:But every year we then have a budget and we're always putting dollars aside into a special fund that has allocated towards cleanup, demolition, removal, as well as acquisition of properties that we see fit, that coincide with economic development initiatives and policies and from that perspective, that really helps us. And then, once we kind of hold on to the property, maybe we sell it and we end up getting our money back, or maybe that's part of the incentive deal to give then to an investor, because in the end of the day, those dollars will eventually flow back once it's put back onto the tax roll and once there's a thriving and active business through income tax and, obviously, the investment within the community. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So how about incentive programs that you're offering here locally? Talk a little bit about those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the city.
Speaker 1:We're one of only a few cities in the entire state that actually has a citywide CRA, which is a community reinvestment area and so with this CRA it allows us to give sort of tax abatements on property taxes and so we have that ability.
Speaker 1:There's about three different properties here within the downtown that have that designation. Here within the last few years that we've given some of the investment, some of the stuff that Seth has even had. We've also been able to be pretty progressive on utilizing HUD dollars or housing and urban development dollars, which are federal grants that we get through CDBG, our Community Development Block Grant Program that the city runs here for Sydney, and then we're able to give sort of those grants for revitalization projects here within the downtown. So that's been one. We've got a facade enhancement program and the chamber does a really good job of uplifting and holding people. So I know Seth has had it. Asteria actually just on Tuesday was awarded a beautification award and so it's a nice plaque and you've got to be able to hold on to that and I think it tells a really nice story. It's sort of the the continuation of investment within the downtown yeah, yeah and well deserved.
Speaker 2:I mean you've got a fantastic I mean I've bragged on the inside, but really the outside is is equally as beautiful kind of parisian looking building here. I mean, you know you've got the I don't know the term for it but the balcony, you know, up above here and just all of the architectural features Really really nice and it's been, you know, updated and looks great. We appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, three-story Parisian building. It's a really wonderful little gem and it's funny. So when we were sort of renovating everything sort of, we took, you know, we gutted it basically to the studs and even had to get rid of most of the studs, and then the back half is actually 10 years younger, and so there's this white pillar that you're seeing here, and that was actually the end of the building.
Speaker 2:And so when they built the other half.
Speaker 1:This actually was originally Sydney's cigar shop. It was actually called Native Tobacco. Sydney's cigar shop, it was actually uh, it's called native tobacco. They actually had two native americans, huge cast iron like eight foot tall, that they wheeled out in the morning. I don't think you could do that nowadays, but they, they definitely had that. And what? What they built the uh built the subfloor out of was is all the crates that were coming from cuba and dominican republic and puerto rico. Wow, so the hickory and the oak sort of boxes they broke down and they built the subfloor out of it. That's wild.
Speaker 1:The paint was still on there, so you could see that these were cigars.
Speaker 2:that were coming from.
Speaker 1:Cuba. So we didn't want to move them, we took pictures of them and then we basically sort of secured them in place. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Super cool. So um, so yeah, so kind of, you know, back to your business. You and Taylor working together, you launched this and I mean it's a fantastic place. I mean folks are probably here now. We've got some lively crowd now that's starting to gather at 4 o'clock on a Thursday afternoon, which is great. But you guys, you know it's been a journey for you, I know, getting this launched. I'm sure that there were some doubts along the way. You talked about some of the construction frustrations, but let alone the business itself and starting in a small town and while there's a lot of good things going on, I'm sure it hasn't always been consistently busy, it hasn't always been easy. And so talk a little bit about that journey, kind of real talk for folks that maybe they're out there considering something, maybe they're out there with a business that is having one of those, you know, slow seasons and they're they're disappointed or frustrated. You know how have you experienced that and how have you guys experienced it together?
Speaker 1:Yeah, ideas come easy and cheap, right, absolutely To take an idea and to formulate that into an actual reality, that's a totally different sort of aspect, and there has been no shortage of legitimate tiers inside of this place. As we sort of continued this and I think you know, we wanted to work local. Um, we, when we purchased the building, taylor and I worked very hard on, uh, the design. Uh, taylor has a minor in architecture, we're both city planners, so we, we could design a lot of this ourselves. We already had the branding. We worked with a firm actually out of Mexico city and so, um, we, we knew what we wanted. Um, and then we hired Fryitag Associates' local architect. But from there, that was the easy part. Now, all of a sudden, trying to find a contractor, trying to find a contractor that can do the things that you're looking for, and we had very specific things that we wanted to put this in and together.
Speaker 1:And then now it's cost. So now we're talking about cost overrun and paying in overhead. And then the time. And as we struggle to go out and find labor, not only at the city, but it was making all these businesses finding labor and it was in a very tough market, so you had people not showing up to work right, and we got a full year behind where we should have been when we opened. So we opened March 13th of last year in 2024. So by the time this airs, we'll probably have already had our birthday, and so happy birthday to us Absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, but finding the right contractors in the right mix and holding feet to the fire and making sure that they're coming through was no easy task and I remember the lead up to, finally, when we opened. You know you can plan as much as you want, but when you are faced with a bevy of a brand new POS system and stuff's not entering right and our wine shop is fully online, so making sure that that's integrated into our website correctly and when somebody places an order it's actually coming in correctly and we're making sure that we've got our taxes set up correctly Are they taking the 7.5% in sales tax Right? Exactly, there was no shortage of hiccups along the way getting deliveries coming in and even still today it's it's. You get all these call-offs and the business model doesn't necessarily work. Unless Taylor and I are sitting here, right, it doesn't work.
Speaker 1:You know we're here to tell the story, to talk about the business, talk through some of the wine, and we just can't it's. We can't put that expectation on sort of any of the, the, the staff that we have, and and and for that to be here. And that's not to say that we don't have great staff. Um, we do, um, but but I feel like with, especially without Taylor here day in, day out, you know, being here she's she's not just an owner, she's like basically an employee. Like in some days I think she feels here she's she's not just an owner, she's like basically an employee. Like in some days I think she feels like she's like kind of like slave labor here.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm just like and and a lot of the times, I think for the first at least six to nine months I think, we just looked at each other and we said I think we're running this for as a charity for the city and um, and we were like, well, we got to give it more time. We we got to keep moving forward. And finally, by the time we got into Christmas, we saw some light at the end of the tunnel, thank God. But the first nine months was really really rough. Nobody knew that we were here. Nobody even knew we existed. Heck, every day somebody new is coming in and saying I didn't even know you guys existed. Oh my gosh, this is so wonderful. And it's like how do you get that out to?
Speaker 2:individuals. You'll still have that five years in, I promise you. It can be frustrating sometimes.
Speaker 1:I get it. It is, and you can see the frustration on their face too. When they come in, they're like how long have you guys been here?
Speaker 1:You guys have been here for a year, like you know, and it's like yeah, where are you? Yeah, it's um. It is an interesting sort of dynamic and and um, just the, the variation of people. I mean we even started working with um a company called hummingbirds and uh, basically, you, you, you know you can give them from some free swag and and they get to have like a night on you, and so you pick up their tab and stuff like that and they come out and they take a bunch of content and photos and videos and things like that for you and it sort of helps kind of push that out into social media, especially.
Speaker 1:Uh, they were coming from, like you know, cincinnati, dayton and columbus and some of the big metros, so it's like, okay, well, we're also trying to be a regional draw. Right, you come into Sydney, you get to see this beautiful downtown, we get to talk through this story, but you also get to come to us and you can sign up for our wine club and you have sort of this experience that our hope is that it's more than a space, it's a state of mind, and you come here for the experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Again, I can't say enough about the environment and the experience that you've curated here.
Speaker 2:And Taylor is wonderful and does such a great job just making everyone at home and just kind of weaving in and out and she's there and then she's gone, gone and she's filled the water and refilled.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just, you know she, she does a fantastic job and I mean that that is what it takes, you know, and that's what keeps bringing people back, and those small town experiences, I think, are what we we know that we have strength in being able to offer those that maybe somebody can get in a big town or a big city, but I feel like it's not the same and I'm sure you would agree and I believe that the future is bright here in Sydney and it's really exciting to see it. So I appreciate you being on here with me and sharing some of this. I appreciate you being on here with me and sharing some of this. I certainly want to give you an opportunity to share a little more about how folks can follow along with Osteria. I mentioned your online presence and your wine club and all of that. Tell us a little bit more and how people can get here or follow you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. We're open Tuesday through Saturday. We'll change some hours here come summertime, when we open up our patio. Right now we are still running our igloos, so if you want to come and experience sort of a night in sort of an igloo we have that they're heated.
Speaker 1:You do get full sort of service out there, so that's been a huge driver for us for the winter and that's been really great for us. Um, the other area, you know, follow us on Facebook, instagram, at Austeria wine, um, and then our website is there and you can, you can order online, um, you can any. Uh, we actually 13 different States and all throughout the state of Ohio. You can get it shipped to you, uh, and then include sort of the wine club and come in and buy a bottle or let us tell you about some of it and we'll talk through and get you a wine flight. And we've really started sort of this dinner series. That's really taken off Very cool.
Speaker 1:So that's been big, and so we'll bring back Lasagna Night here next month and the second Tuesday of every month we do a Tasting Tuesday and it's always got a theme. So this month we do a, uh, a tasting tuesday and it's always got a theme. Um, so this coming this here on the 11th is actually women in wine, so it's all female winemakers focused, um, so, uh, it's led by myself and taylor specifically. We have a curated and crafted menu. That's legitimate food that we'll bring out. So this time it's going to be, uh, gazpacho, and then shishito peppers, and then we're going to do a little carnitas and a little key lime pie all kind of green themed as well for saint patty's day. Yeah, yeah, um, and we'll pick five wines and then we will pour all five wines specific for you. We typically have about 30 people, which pretty much fills up this space with that many people around um and it's an exciting time.
Speaker 1:People love to get to learn about the wine and get to hear the stories and I think that really does kind of sell it for them and it's exciting getting to learn new stuff. You know it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I love that too from the standpoint, and I we always encourage small business folks, small town folks, events. Events are so, so helpful to a business, getting people out, making awareness. People will come through your door for an event that wouldn't just walk through on any given Thursday night, right, right, and so you're obviously doing a great job with that and they sound like they're super well done and, uh, now I want to come back for for an event, so absolutely love it, uh.
Speaker 2:So thanks again, uh, for for being on being on here and thanks to our listeners for tuning in again. We'll continue bringing great guests. We've got our third person coming up in our Sydney series next episode and so be sure to tune back in and we'll see you then and we'll see you then. Thanks for listening to the Main Street Reimagined podcast. To learn more about Main Street Reimagined Henry Development Group or our work in downtown Marion, ohio, please visit MainStreetReimaginedcom. If you want to connect or if you know someone who we need to interview, shoot us an email at info at mainstreetreimaginedcom. Until next time, keep dreaming and don't be afraid to take the leap.