Service Area

Central Ohio

Columbus Market

Commercial Construction in Central Ohio

Fourteen counties around Columbus, from the suburbs out to Richland, Knox and Fayette. Prodigy Building Solutions works with the school districts, cities, villages, townships and counties across all of them, and most of what we build here is for public owners buying through cooperative contracts.

Map of Ohio with Prodigy's Central Ohio service area highlighted — Central Ohio — the fourteen counties around Columbus.

What We Do in Central Ohio

Prodigy is a single source for building work: building renovations and additions, commercial roofing, paving, HVAC, lighting, windows and doors, athletic facilities, career tech centers, theaters and auditoriums, storm damage restoration, and project management from design through closeout. We carry in-house engineering, architecture and project management, so the people who design your project are the people who run it.

Building Conditions in Central Ohio

Central Ohio's complication is that the ground changes fast. ODNR has logged more than 400 feet of glacial fill in parts of Licking County and roughly 30 to 40 feet across much of Franklin, with the Teays Valley — a buried river system older than the glaciers — cutting through toward Circleville. Two sites fifteen miles apart can mean deep foundations at one and rock excavation at the other, which is why borings come before numbers on our projects.

ODNR maps a karst area along the Scioto and Olentangy river gorges in Franklin and Delaware counties, in the Columbus Limestone. Karst means the possibility of sinkholes and sudden subsidence, and it means groundwater moves fast and far. Both are worth knowing before a slab is poured or a detention basin is sited. The bedrock itself changes west to east across Columbus, from massive limestone to shaley limestone to Ohio Shale that reaches 450 feet thick in the east of the county.

The other regional reality is growth, and it splits the work in two. Union County grew 17 percent between 2020 and 2025 and Delaware County 13 percent, against 0.9 percent for Ohio as a whole. In those suburbs that means new buildings on green sites. Thirty miles away in the older districts it means renovating what is already standing. We do both, and they are not the same job.

Design values here are ordinary for Ohio and we will not pretend otherwise: 20 psf ground snow, weathering Severe. What does vary is frost depth — 36 inches in Delaware and Richland, 38 for deck footings in Franklin, 32 an hour west in Champaign. A facilities director with buildings in three counties is working to three different numbers.

Cooperative Purchasing in Central Ohio

Public owners anywhere in Ohio can buy Prodigy's work through the cooperative contracts we hold. Buying through a co-op is a pre-bid path — the competitive process happens at the co-op level, so your district or municipality can move on a project without running its own procurement cycle.

Every contract below is available to public entities across Ohio, including all fourteen Central Ohio counties:

• 791 Coop
• Equalis Gordian
• OSC (Ohio School Council)
• Sourcewell Gordian
• SWOEPC (Southwestern Ohio Educational Purchasing Council)
• TIPS (The Interlocal Purchasing System)
• TOP-C (The Ohio Purchasing Council)
• Vizient Gordian

Which one fits depends on your entity type, the scope of work and any memberships you already hold. Not sure? Call us and we'll walk through it — there's no cost to find out.

Who We Serve in Central Ohio

Map of the fourteen Central Ohio counties Prodigy serves — The fourteen counties of Prodigy's Central Ohio service area.

Central Ohio covers 14 counties — Ashland, Crawford, Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Knox, Licking, Madison, Marion, Morrow, Pickaway, Richland and Union — with 84 public school districts and 38 cities of 5,000 or more.

Map of Central Ohio showing the number of public school districts in each county, 84 districts in total — 84 public school districts across Central Ohio.

Public school districts (84)
Ashland (4) Ashland City · Hillsdale Local · Loudonville-Perrysville Exempted Village · Mapleton Local
Crawford (6) Buckeye Central Local · Bucyrus City · Colonel Crawford Local · Crestline Exempted Village · Galion City · Wynford Local
Delaware (4) Big Walnut Local · Buckeye Valley Local · Delaware City · Olentangy Local
Fairfield (8) Amanda-Clearcreek Local · Berne Union Local · Bloom-Carroll Local · Fairfield Union Local · Lancaster City · Liberty Union-Thurston Local · Pickerington Local · Walnut Township Local
Fayette (2) Miami Trace Local · Washington Court House City
Franklin (16) Bexley City · Canal Winchester Local · Columbus City Schools District · Dublin City · Gahanna-Jefferson City · Grandview Heights Schools · Groveport Madison Local · Hamilton Local · Hilliard City · New Albany-Plain Local · Reynoldsburg City · South-Western City · Upper Arlington City · Westerville City · Whitehall City · Worthington City
Knox (5) Centerburg Local · Danville Local · East Knox Local · Fredericktown Local · Mount Vernon City
Licking (10) Granville Exempted Village · Heath City · Johnstown-Monroe Local · Lakewood Local · Licking Heights Local · Licking Valley Local · Newark City Schools · North Fork Local · Northridge Local · Southwest Licking Local
Madison (4) Jefferson Local · Jonathan Alder Local · London City · Madison-Plains Local
Marion (5) Elgin Local · Marion City · Pleasant Local · Ridgedale Local · River Valley Local
Morrow (4) Cardington-Lincoln Local · Highland Local · Mount Gilead Exempted Village · Northmor Local
Pickaway (4) Circleville City · Logan Elm Local · Teays Valley Local · Westfall Local
Richland (9) Clear Fork Valley Local · Crestview Local · Lexington Local · Lucas Local · Madison Local · Mansfield City · Ontario Local · Plymouth-Shiloh Local · Shelby City
Union (3) Fairbanks Local · Marysville Exempted Village · North Union Local

Map of Central Ohio showing the number of cities of 5,000 or more in each county, 38 cities in total — 38 cities of 5,000 or more across Central Ohio.

Cities of 5,000 or more (38)
Ashland (1) Ashland
Crawford (2) Bucyrus · Galion
Delaware (3) Delaware · Powell · Sunbury
Fairfield (2) Lancaster · Pickerington
Fayette (1) Washington Court House
Franklin (15) Bexley · Canal Winchester · Columbus · Dublin · Gahanna · Grandview Heights · Grove City · Groveport · Hilliard · New Albany · Reynoldsburg · Upper Arlington · Westerville · Whitehall · Worthington
Knox (1) Mount Vernon
Licking (5) Granville · Heath · Johnstown · Newark · Pataskala
Madison (2) London · West Jefferson
Marion (1) Marion
Pickaway (1) Circleville
Richland (3) Mansfield · Ontario · Shelby
Union (1) Marysville

Looking for a different part of Ohio? Southwest Ohio · Western Ohio · Northwest Ohio · Northeast Ohio · Southeast Ohio

About Central Ohio

The LeVeque Tower was the first building in Ohio to sit on a caisson foundation. Finished in 1927 at 555 feet and clad entirely in glazed terra cotta, it was meant to clear the Washington Monument by a foot and managed seven-eighths of an inch. A century later the region is still the busiest in the state: Intel's Licking County site has absorbed more than 6.4 million work hours and 200,000 cubic yards of concrete, and Olentangy voters approved $235 million in 2025 for two new schools.

Common Questions

Do you work with school districts in Franklin and Delaware counties?
Yes. We work across all fourteen Central Ohio counties, from the fast-growing Delaware and Union suburbs out to Richland, Knox and Fayette. The Recent Projects section below shows what we have finished nearby, and we're glad to give you a reference from a district near you.

Which cooperative purchasing contracts can a Central Ohio district or city use?
All of them. Every cooperative contract we hold is available to public entities anywhere in Ohio, including all fourteen Central Ohio counties. Which one fits depends on the entity type, the scope of work and whether you already hold a membership. We'll help you figure that out before you commit to anything.

What size projects do you take on?
Our sweet spot is complex renovation work in the $250,000 to $20 million range, and we do a lot of projects in the $250,000 to $500,000 band. Very small scopes — a short stretch of sidewalk, a single repair — are usually better handled by a local contractor, and we'll tell you so.

Do you self-perform the work or subcontract it?
Both, depending on the trade. We carry in-house engineering, architecture, project management and general labor for some trades, and we buy all material ourselves rather than passing that to subcontractors. That means pre-construction planning has to be exact, which is a large part of why our projects run the way they do.

We've never worked with Prodigy. How does a project start?
Usually with a conversation and a walk-through. We develop the project with you to fit the budget, bring contractors in during budgeting rather than after, and charge little or nothing for the initial design work. You'll know what it costs before you're committed.

Do you handle design as well as construction?
Yes. We lead with engineering — function first, then architecture — and the engineers who design a project also manage it, so small problems get corrected in the field instead of becoming change orders. On large or highly specialized work we partner with outside architecture and engineering firms, and you pay for that only as it's needed.