NEW ALBANY, Ohio (WCMH) — As crews ready nearly a thousand acres of New Albany for Intel’s newest and largest semiconductor chip factory, local leaders throughout central Ohio are readying the community for what’s to come.

“Great jobs, a lot of stability, but it’s also going to have growth, and with growth comes challenges,” said New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding. “So, we’re all going to have to work through those together, whether it’s housing, mobility, or workforce. Those are regional issues that we’re going to have to address together.”

To help figure out how to navigate those challenges, Spalding and other local officials visited Chandler, Arizona, where Intel built a chip factory in the early 1980s.

The people of Chandler said that with growth comes some pain, but overall, Intel has changed their community for the better.

“We have a housing shortage here,” said Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke.

Still, Hartke said Chandler’s shortage has presented opportunities for other cities in the Phoenix area.

“We have people who work at Intel that really will live in all of our surrounding communities,” he said.

While Chandlerites expressed concerns over the cost of living with Intel in their backyard, they credit the tech company for starting an economic ripple effect.

“This Intel plant just sucked in all of these higher educated people — these higher income individuals — and then that has been matriculated out into the rest of the community,” said Matthew Cartia, a Chandler resident who works for the real estate website Zillow.

“There’s a lot of new industries coming to this town because they see it…it really has everything you want in a community,” said Chris Russell, a restaurant employee who relocated to Chandler from New York in 2017. “So, it’s building there– more of everything, more housing, more restaurants, more places to work, more places to eat.”

Hartke had this advice for central Ohioans: “There will be some that will say it’s getting too crowded, there’s new traffic. But there will be greater educational attainment. There will be greater opportunities for jobs. There will be a whole lot of new people that will take an interest in that community, a passionate interest in want to serve and make it better from within and without. I honestly don’t think of any downside from having Intel inside the community.”