Small Business of the Month, pres. by First Merchants Bank

The Columbus Blue Jackets are excited to partner with First Merchants Bank to recognize small businesses in our community.

Each month throughout the season, one company will be featured as the CBJ Small Business of the Month presented by First Merchants Bank.

If you are proud to own or work for a small business, sign up now for the chance to see your brand up in lights at an upcoming Blue Jackets home game.

October: CREC Real Estate Capital

You may not have heard of CREC Real Estate Capital, but that might change at some point.

Founded in 2001 by Jeffrey Coopersmith, the growing private equity real estate firm was created with a focus on investors. Now into its third decade of serving a rapidly growing Columbus market, CREC Real Estate Capital has close to $1.2 billion in real estate assets and aims to work with passion, discipline and experience to get the job done.

November: Design Collective

Whether it’s in the corporate, hospitality or retail market, Design Collective has produced memorable spaces that many in the Columbus area have enjoyed.

With a client-focused approach and a keen eye for detail, the firm takes pride in offering a wide range of design solutions for a diverse list of regional and national clients in the corporate, hospitality, retail and senior living markets.

December: Anchor Pattern Machine

Orby Kelley and Chris Zych went to Dublin Coffman High School together, but as the two Shamrocks looked into their futures, they likely couldn’t have imagined what would happen down the road. The 2009 graduates of Coffman have ended up as business partners, having purchased Anchor Pattern Machine about a year ago from its longtime owner.

The 55-year-old Columbus company puts the small in small business, boasting just a handful of employees, but it has a big impact engineering products for automotive, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods.

January: Lifetime Pet Wellness Center

At Lifetime Pet Wellness Center, the goal is to always find a solution to the problems facing their patients.

Sometimes, the answer isn’t conventional, but that doesn’t stop Dr. Jim Carlson and his staff. While Lifetime Pet Wellness Center offers the usual services that any pet care facility would as well as boarding and grooming, the staff also provides such services as homeopathic medicine, spinal manipulative therapy, acupuncture and holistic medicine.

March: Assured Glass Services

Assured Glass Services is a small- to mid-sized commercial glass contractor that does around $7 million in revenue per year and boasts 21 employees. Keeping it in the family has its perks to vice president Alyssa Wolf, who has watched her father and grandfather develop deep ties in the glass industry. 

The company specializes in storefronts, curtainwalls and all things glass and glazing, and you can see their work at such places as apartments at the Grandview Yard and Southern Station, the Grandview high school and middle school renovations, the Del Mar restaurant at Easton and the Westerville police headquarters.

April: Lincoln Construction

It’s everyone’s goal to find joy in what they do, and that is the case at Columbus-based Lincoln Construction.

Founded in 1971 by Kurt Schmitt, the family-owned business is still thriving thanks to quality work and a good company culture. And the best part, as a construction business, is being part of the process from beginning to end and literally building something from plans to completion, vice president of construction services Chris Hoff said.