The Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center will have a new look — and a new name — by early September, following $14 million in renovations.
Located at 100 Green Meadows Dr. South in Lewis Center at the corner of Powell Road and U.S. 23, the 20-acre hotel and event complex will soon be rebranded as The Ohioan Hotel and Event Center, according to a press release from the property’s owner, Nationwide Realty Investors. Brian Ellis, NRI president, told The Dispatch the hotel and event center already has “significant bookings” for October, and he’s confident the renovations will be complete before then.
Ellis said the renovations include not only aesthetic changes to furnishings and fixtures within the ballrooms, event spaces and 193 hotel rooms, but also a new outdoor courtyard connected to the ballroom. According to the press release, the onsite 2,000-square-foot pub will also be “given a refresh” in the fall.
“The space has grown up over many years, over many decades,” Ellis said. “Your experience is not going to be sort of the generic hotel, ballroom kind of space — it’s a one-of-a-kind experience.”
The facility, which dates back to the 1950s, was first used by Nationwide as a training center for its employees in the 70s, Ellis said. Most of the space was made up of classrooms and basic motel accommodations.
In the early 2000s, Ellis said the company wanted to upgrade and modernize the space, resulting in the addition of 119 hotel rooms and the expansion of both the ballroom and training center.
2015 saw another update, this time to create over 70 more hotel rooms and add a 5,400-square-foot fitness center and pool, Ellis said.
Reflecting on the space’s evolution, Ellis said it’s been nice to see what was once a training center with few third-party events be “discovered” by the public and now be used for everything from business meetings to weddings to national conferences.
“I think of it as sort of being hidden in plain sight,” Ellis said. “It’s been around for a long time, it’s had a number of iterations in its life. This is the latest, and I think there’ll be more to come.”
Why the hotel is now The Ohioan
Nationwide’s training activities have changed in recent years, Ellis said, either relocating to the company’s Downtown headquarters or moving online. That’s freed up the Lewis Center site for other purposes and made it the right time for the renovation.
“Our primary function over most of the property’s lifespan has been to support Nationwide training,” Ellis said. “That is changing.”
It’s in spirit of that change that prompted Nationwide to change the complex’s name, Ellis said. “The Ohioan” was inspired by the facility being located in the heart of the state, plus the Ohio-based company’s soon-to-be 100th anniversary in 2026.
“We’ve owned this property for a long time, so we thought it was reflective of the history of our company and the property itself,” Ellis said. “It has a little bit of a stately feel; I think it just fits.”
Three Ohio-based artists were commissioned by NRI to create artwork for the renovated event center, including visual artist Karen Rumora and abstract artists Anna Sokol and Marti Higgins, Ellis said.
“I think it’s something we can write about, but you have to sort of experience it to see the quality of the work,” Ellis said.
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com, or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center rebranded, renovated as part of $14M project
Reporting by Emma Wozniak, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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