McGinness Innovation Park, a major project in Columbia borough that’s been on the drawing board for years, is moving full speed ahead, thanks to an infusion of state funds.

Columbia Borough has received $1 million in grant funding to begin early site preparation and infrastructure work on a former airport property the borough purchased in August. 

Columbia, Lancaster County-based Burning Bridge Antiques Market has been sold to Murphy Acquisition Group LLC for an undisclosed amount of money. 

Columbia Borough Council approved the purchase of a 56-acre former airport for approximately $1.5 million.

Columbia Borough Council plans to move forward with the approximately $1.5 million purchase of the 57-acre McGinness Property, former home of a small airport, and the municipality’s last large tract of land.

A 57-acre property in Columbia Borough could provide an all new tax base and foster job opportunities in the borough if the Columbia Borough Council decides to move forward with acquiring and developing it.

Officials and real estate professionals in Columbia, Lancaster County believe the potential for development there can be just as good as it is in bigger markets because of the borough’s federally designated opportunity zones, which include most of the downtown.

A vacant warehouse in Columbia is being renovated into commercial office space and the real estate firm behind the project aims to find interest among companies that may have trouble finding space in Lancaster city.

One of the last metal-ingot manufacturers in the country is planning to reignite the furnaces of a foundry in Columbia that closed last year.

Redevelopment efforts in Columbia are working to rid the Lancaster County borough of blighted properties - a process that Gov. Tom Wolf said could be helped along by a state severance tax.