New Albany, Ohio
Meta’s Prometheus campus east of Columbus. What’s left of the work here, what it costs, and the city tax that follows the job.
First edition. Some sections are still being sourced, and they say so. Know something we got wrong? Tell us.
Most of this one is built
Meta says 1,200 skilled trade workers were on site at the peak. Its Prometheus AI cluster is running, and Meta has put more than $1.5 billion into the New Albany campus since 2017.
That makes this the smallest crew on our list and the furthest along. If you’re offered work here, ask what’s left and how long it runs.
Who’s building it
Meta owns it. The main campus is on Beech Road, in the Licking County part of New Albany.
General contractor and what’s still being built: we’re still sourcing this. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Your employer is the company doing your trade’s work — not Meta. Get its name before you agree to anything.
Nineteen more of these are coming
Eight guides are written. Leave an address and the next one reaches you when it is done — nothing here is behind a wall, and nothing else gets sent.
Each new site guide when it’s done, and a note when a new tool goes up. Nothing else, ever.
Columbus is next door
New Albany sits on the edge of the Columbus metro, so there are more beds in reach than at a rural job.
Rents, hotels and RV parks: we’re still sourcing this. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Beech Road
Traffic and gate times: we’re still sourcing this. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Who holds Licking County
We’re still sourcing this. We confirm a hall’s jurisdiction on its own page or by phone before we print it. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Ask whether your package is union, merit shop, or both. It decides your rate, your overtime and whether a hall can help you.
How the one-year rule works
What counts is how long the job was expected to run. Not how long it actually runs.
- Expected to run a year or less, and it does. Per diem stays out of your wages.
- Expected to run longer than a year. Wages from your first day, however long it actually runs.
- Expected short, then extended past a year. Wages from the day a year or less stopped being realistic — not your 365th day, and not when the paperwork catches up.
It doesn’t reach back. Expect nine months, get extended at month eight, and the first eight months stand. That’s the IRS’s own example. The day you were told matters more than anything else here.
Keep three things: what you were told at the start (offer letter, requisition, the recruiter’s text), the day the extension came down and who it came from, and proof of a home you pay for while you’re away. Without that last one, none of the per diem was tax‑free to begin with.
What you’d actually keep here
The per diem rate here, Ohio’s two income taxes, and what to ask before you accept.
The county line, and the city line
Per diem. The campus is in Licking County, which gets the standard rate: $113 lodging plus $68 meals, $181 a day, since 1 October 2026. Franklin County next door — Columbus — is $138 plus $80, $218. The rate follows where the work is, so a bed in Columbus doesn’t change it.
That’s the most that can come to you tax‑free. Anything over it is wages and lands on your W‑2, whatever the recruiter calls it.
Ohio cities charge their own income tax, and it’s charged where you work. Ohio’s own rate is a flat 2.75% for 2026, on income over $26,050. New Albany’s city tax is 2.0% on earned income, collected by RITA, the state’s regional tax agency.
Some business‑park land around New Albany sits in joint tax districts with their own rules. Ask your employer which city tax it withholds for your gate.
Before you accept
- What’s left to build here, and how long is my part expected to run? Will they put it in writing?
- Is the per diem taxed from day one, or could it get reclassified later?
- Which city income tax will you withhold for this site?
- Who is my employer, and is my package union?
- Is the per diem paid seven days a week, or only days worked?
- How many hours are guaranteed, and is overtime daily or only past forty? (Union daily overtime doesn’t count for the federal overtime deduction.)
If they can’t answer the first two, you don’t have enough to decide.
Run the whole offer through the calculator.
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Sources
- Workers at peak and the investment: Meta, October 2026.
- The campus address and county: Measured AI, 2026, from county property records.
- New Albany’s income tax: City of New Albany. Ohio’s rate: Kent State NewsLab, May 2026.
- Per diem rates: GSA, fiscal year 2027 (Ohio table, checked 22 October 2026). The one-year rule: IRS Publication 463 and Tax Topic 511.