Worthington City Council unanimously approved a venture grant of up to $750,000 for OPOC.us, a healthcare and benefits firm at 300 West Wilson Bridge Road, in exchange for the company retaining its roughly 200 existing jobs and adding up to 375 more over the next seven years. If OPOC hits the targets in the agreement, the city's annual income-tax collections from the company would roughly triple, from $270,000 today to about $925,000 by year seven.
OPOC, which stands for "one point of care", has been in Worthington for more than 25 years. The company started on Rivers Edge Drive and moved to its current Wilson Bridge Road home about 21 years ago.
What OPOC is committing to
Assistant City Manager David McCorkle presented the deal. OPOC will:
- Sign a six-year extension to its existing lease, locking the company in at 300 West Wilson Bridge Road through the seven-year incentive window
- Maintain its current ~200 jobs and current ~$10.8 million payroll as a baseline
- Add 75 jobs in year one (about $5 million in payroll, at roughly $70,000 per job), then 50 additional jobs in each of years two through seven
- Expand from its existing 30,000 square feet by an additional 20,000 to 40,000 square feet
If the company hits all those targets, OPOC's annual payroll would grow by roughly $26 million on top of the $10.8 million baseline. McCorkle said the company is currently a top-10 employer for Worthington and would become a top-five employer, or higher, under the expansion.
How the incentive is structured
The $750,000 cap is paid out in two parts:
- $100,000 up front when OPOC signs the lease extension, intended to help with the move and build-out of the new space
- An annual performance grant after that — 20% of the company's withholdings on payroll above the $10.8 million baseline, paid each year based on an annual report
Because the annual portion is purely performance-based, the city pays only as OPOC actually hires. If the company underperforms in a given year, no payment is made. If it overperforms, the cap allows it to draw the grant down faster.
McCorkle said the city's internal estimate of total payouts is $640,000 over seven years; the $110,000 difference between that estimate and the $750,000 cap is room for OPOC to overperform. In total, McCorkle said, the city's incentive represents about 16% of the new payroll the company is committing to over the seven-year window.
A council member asked McCorkle for the projected income-tax impact. McCorkle said OPOC currently generates about $270,000 a year in income-tax revenue for the city; by year seven, that figure rises to about $925,000 — "more than triple" the current contribution and "almost just shy of a million dollars a year."
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What OPOC does
OPOC CEO Clark May addressed council and described the business. The company sells employer-side services in four lines: healthcare and benefits consulting (the largest line), HR and payroll, retirement plans, and a wellness company. It serves predominantly small and mid-sized businesses — historically Ohio-based, increasingly national.
May told council that the shift to virtual meetings during 2020 was an inflection point: with travel no longer a constraint, OPOC tripled its business "over the course of the next few years" and has since deployed an acquisition strategy that drove the need for additional administrative-support jobs at headquarters.
"We've decided to deploy on an acquisition strategy. And when we do that across the country, that means we need more administrative support jobs, and we needed to decide where to invest in those. And we decided to do that here in Worthington," May said.
May said the company is roughly 75 jobs ahead of its growth projections over the last 12 to 15 months and that the next 12 to 15 months are expected to be "even more rapid." He credited landlord Crawford Hoying with making the space expansion possible.
Council discussion
A council member asked May whether OPOC employees live in Worthington. May said the company has "a good number" of employees who live close to the office but described his workforce as a "scatter plot" across central Ohio. The council member said the city would aim to keep providing housing options that make it possible for more OPOC employees to live where they work.
The resolution passed unanimously.
Why the income-tax math matters
Income tax is the City of Worthington's largest revenue source. It funds police, fire, parks, streets, and most everyday services. A single employer growing its annual income-tax contribution from $270,000 to $925,000 is, by Worthington's scale, a substantial revenue swing. The grant is designed so the city pays only as that growth actually arrives.