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Just ahead of the upcoming Jungle Jim’s Weekend of Fire show, word comes to us that the CaJohns Fiery Foods home office will be relocating. The fact that a new building was needed was far from being new news to anyone who was familiar with the old place. A former fire protection equipment building, the aging brick building in northeast Columbus, OH certainly had its better days behind it. Faced with rising costs of rent and other expenses and less-than-attractive neighborhood demographic, it seemed to be a matter of time before CaJohn found some new digs for his hot sauce empire.

However, where would that be? With a plethora of real estate available (just like in about every market in this country), all that had to be done was to find a good location that would support the needs of the business of hot sauce. How hard could that be, right?

In comes the “let’s make a deal” part of the show. Take a look at what’s behind doors number one and two:

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Behind door #1 was is this delightful property on Science Blvd. in Gahanna, OH (on the east side of Columbus) that sits adjacent to a golf course and is very close to our airport. While not having the completed kitchen (which would be built in over time), it did offer some more wide-open space in its surroundings compared to their current digs. However, with a leasing conflict with one of the current tenants/prospects, this property may be hung up in leasing limbo (and in court) for quite a while to come. The chances of this happening? Not so good.

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Behind door #2 is a space in this Greencrest Drive locale in Westerville, OH, which is one of the due-north suburbs of Columbus. Definitely amidst the suburban-urban sprawl parts of town, it certainly offers a better access to other commerce not to mention a building closer to CaJohn’s home residence. With a building owner that’s dedicated to making a deal work by helping to finance the construction of the kitchen, this place seems to be the more likely of the two to be the next home of CaJohn’s Fiery Foods. Chances here look good…for now.

This may have some effect on what people who come to the CaJohns “open house” this Monday may get to see, so stay tuned for more developments as the details become available. Stay tuned!

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