COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Business is growing in the Hilltop. It’s been a little more than a year since the economic development corporation Hilltop Rise hired its first Executive Director, Morgan DeBoth. Her job is to help business owners thrive and bring the Hilltop to its full potential.
DeBoth said her goal when starting this job was to build relationships and trust. She feels she’s accomplished both of those things.
“I think with any community, our small businesses are the heart,” DeBoth said.
DeBoth said there are 400 small businesses in the Hilltop. Many of which she has watched blossom in her year on the job.
“I think what has been the biggest success for me is we’ve been able to take that feedback and really make some changes,” DeBoth said. “We have gone out into the community and had over 250 conversations with folks garnering a lot of feedback, creating connections. And I think that it has been transformational as far as trust goes.”
DeBoth said the Hilltop often gets a bad wrap for being unsafe. Her goal is to show people the good in the area. She’s helping to do that by advocating to clean up physically, upgrade infrastructure and bring in more foot traffic. Something business owners like Terri Nino said they have experienced.
“We’ve had such a great year. Not only in the studio, we just have people come from all different areas,” Nino said.
Nino is about to celebrate seven years of her business, Clay Street Ceramics. She said especially in this past year she and other business owners have built a community amongst themselves. Nino said people in Columbus are taking notice.
“I think people are just ready to support our businesses. They see that we’re really working hard to bring something new and different to the Hilltop, to bring something fun and entertaining,” Nino said.
DeBoth said she’s seen a lot of job growth too with businesses taking over industrial space in the area. She said this year Hilltop Rise has started a monthly empowering business series to give owners networking opportunities.
