Gus Comstock is a busy man. Delaware County’s recently-hired economic development director squeezed in a half-hour interview with the Gazette between meetings, and his phone didn’t stop ringing the entire time.

Comstock’s job is to sell Delaware County to prospective businesses looking to build, and he tries to foster a personal relationship with business leaders. He says this can help keep the area competitive when trying to entice new businesses.

“I think the advantage that Delaware County has is that we excel in providing service to businesses,” Comstock said. “There’s that small-town mentality where companies can get familiar with meeting people.”

Comstock, who left a similar position with the City of Delaware to take the county job earlier this year, said his new job has broadened his perspective. As opposed to focusing on the City of Delaware as “the center of the universe,” he said he now focuses on the county as a whole, which has a diverse economy with three distinct regions: retail and urban in the south, manufacturing in the middle and agricultural in the north.

“I feel like I have this huge learning curve,” he said, particularly on becoming familiar with the ins and outs of agriculture.

Just like most private businesses, county government is struggling right now, making it hard to find funding for some of the high-dollar infrastructure investments that would help keep Delaware County financially competitive.

Ignoring his phone’s ringer for a bit, Comstock discussed with the Gazette some of what he sees for Delaware County’s economic future.

What growth opportunity do you see for Delaware County?

One is the opportunity to attract high-tech businesses to the corridor from Delaware to the southern part of the county. There’s a lot of opportunity there. But a strategic investment Delaware County needs to make is to be a player in broadband fiber-optic technology. We need to have a seat at the table, we need to be a leader, we need to be innovative, we need to be creative. We need to make sure the latest technology is being deployed to Delaware County because companies demand that. It used to be with companies that they wanted to make sure you had water lines and sewer lines and there were gas and electricity. Well those are givens now. To me, the premiere issue is what kind of fiber network do you have? What’s the capacity of the broadband connection?

And the other is the area around U.S. 36/Ohio 37 and Interstate 71. I think that’s going to be a huge opportunity for Delaware County. But as you probably know, that interchange can get heavily congested because of design problems, so we have to find a way to deal with that. We’re working with the county engineer and some developers to come up with a plan to find out how that intersection can be best configured so we can determine what kind of development is occurring.

Do you see anything of the caliber of the Polaris Mall development happening at the 36/37 and 71 interchange?

There are some huge opportunities there for development. I don’t know if it would be a Polaris retail development or like Easton or anything like that. But it’s a strategic location. It’s the next exit north from Gemini Place/Polaris Parkway. With Gemini/Polaris, it’s become a retail center. When you’re seeing a lot of offices wanting to move out of the urban areas, I think if we get that designed properly, there’s some opportunity for some manufacturing growth, some office space and some retail. It would be a nice mix. I think that’s the great opportunity at 36/71 that if we design it properly now, it will be a great location for a lot of different opportunities — if it’s recreation, or sports, or manufacturing or offices, or restaurants or something like that.

Delaware County, especially in the south, has the perception of being a bedroom community. Do you think that you could see this area becoming more independent from Columbus in the future?

Yes, I would say because of the economy, people would be more likely to stay close to home to shop and for recreation. I think people are looking for ways to save money, and they would just as soon not drive all the way to Columbus to work. And I say that a little bit because of the companies that have been contacting me over the last year. There are a substantial amount of corporate CEOs and senior administrators for companies from all over Central Ohio that live here in Delaware County. In talking to some of them, a lot of them were with high-tech companies and said they would like to have a facility in Delaware. I won’t mention any names, but right now they live in Genoa Township or Sunbury and commute to somewhere in Columbus. They’d much rather stay close to home, but it’s just a matter of the economy being right and finding the right site. The issue so far with the high-tech companies is that we didn’t have the fiber infrastructure to match whatever else there is closer to Columbus.

You’re talking about some things that would require some financial investment — how does the economy present a challenge when you’re trying to do something like that?

A lot of what we’re talking about will be driven by private investment and by using creative financing tools. There are several proposals going through the Ohio General Assembly now to raise funds for transportation projects that we’re kind of watching so that when they become law (hopefully); we’ll be ready to start using them to raise some of the money we need to make some of the public improvements. Les Wexner helped finance the Interstate 270/Ohio 161 interchange (near New Albany), which was privately-funded. You never know if a developer like that will come along. A lot of it depends on what that person’s trying to do and what they think they can gain from it, how much privately they want to put into it and how much public money is required to close that gap. Some of it will be public, some of it will be private.

Is it tough to find people to make a big investment like that when there’s economic uncertainty?

I think so. People are obviously being very conservative with how they invest their money right now. But my sense in talking to the developers that are kind of involved with development around Delaware is that they’re trying to get ramped back up and ready for projects that may be coming over the horizon, and for the opportunities that they see.

Obviously, most people don’t think the recession is going to last forever and that things are going to start improving. I think (local government’s) role is that we have to make sure we don’t get caught flat-footed. We have to start thinking forward to what our role will be when some of these developments start occurring. And that’s where the U.S 36/Ohio 37 and I-71 project is an important opportunity because you have a developer on the north side of the road with the NorthStar project that is working with developers in that area. We have another developer on the south side of the road who is interested in developing that site. They both have an interest in what type of improvements need to be made, because they don’t want to make an investment knowing that that’s a failing interchange. So the county needs to be at the table and say “Let’s all get together.” We know you guys are major players, you guys have made the major investments. We need to do a study by an independent engineering firm that everybody can use as an engineering document so we can make sure that this development occurs. The county isn’t going to go in and make millions and millions of dollars of changes on speculative opportunities.

(Without proper planning,) suddenly you’ve got all these feeder roads from the county that need improvements. The impact of this goes wider and wider away from that intersection.

Is there anything you can say about any potential higher-profile developments such as the Columbus Crew building training facilities here or the possibility of retaining a new Volvo parts distribution center?

Starting with Volvo, we were actively engaged with Volvo. When we were working with them last fall, they were interested in building a 1.5 million-square-foot facility to fit their growth. And then with the economic change, Volvo truck sales dropped 46 percent between where they were back in the fall, and where they are today. Our understanding in talking to Volvo is that they wanted to wait until later this year, or early next year, to re-start discussions about a site. So, right now everything is on hold. We’re doing everything we can to at least stay engaged with Volvo in kind of a low-key level by trying to stay in contact with e-mails and a phone call once in awhile. We’re to continue to identify people who have contact with Volvo who may occasionally ask “How are things going in Delaware, Ohio?”

And the Columbus Crew? The county suggested U.S. 36/Ohio 37 and I-71 as a possible location for a new training facility.

The Columbus Crew — we’re still talking to them. (pause, smile). That’s really about all that I know. I’ve met with the Crew’s representative. They’re still interested in sites in Delaware. They haven’t identified a site, but they feel that this is a good location for a training facility. But it gets real complicated when you look at the financing they require to support that kind of facility. That’s about all I can say. The proposal that was submitted to the Columbus Crew was the last proposal we submitted to the Crew. I met with them as early as (mid June) to talk about this.

How can you balance development and progress with maintaining a small-town feel?

To me, the importance is keeping government involved with the process. I think what happens, if you look at some other communities, is that private developers have been driving the ship, and government has been chasing behind trying to keep up with what’s going on when it comes to zoning or utilities. But, if you have a progressive, activist, robust government that wants to be involved, you can make sure that these projects are best serving the citizens of the community. As long as they remain engaged and involved, you maintain that small-town feel. It requires the government to interact with the private sector to give citizens a voice. Otherwise you end up like at Morse Road (in Columbus) or you get into these urban projects where developers kind of railroad projects through. You’ve seen Morse Road, how congested it’s been in the past. It’s improved in the past five, six years, but at first stuff was just popping up everywhere.

atobias@delgazette.com