Pip: There is a building in Oxford, Ohio, that spent decades feeding college students and then spent a few more years being quietly forgotten — which, honestly, tracks for most institutional food service.
Mara: Rich Hoffman takes us inside that building’s second act, and into the argument underneath it about what government is actually for and who shows up when the work is real.
Pip: Let’s start with the building, the people who were already there, and the aircraft company operating out of Suite 117.
From Nightmare to Innovation: The College@Elm Story
Mara: The central question here is what good government actually looks like in practice — not in a press release, but in a building that almost got torn down.
Pip: The post opens with the framing that sets everything else up: “When you vote people into government, you are not voting them in to manage your life. You are voting them in to manage something you need done at the local, state, and federal levels, and then to get out of the way so good minds can finish the work.”
Mara: That is the operating theory behind the whole College@Elm story. The building at 20 South Elm Street was constructed in 1933, ran as Miami University’s central food service facility for 68 years, then sat vacant. Selling it and tearing it down were both live options.
Pip: Miami University President Gregory Crawford did not take the path of least resistance — a phrase that deserves to be stitched on something. He started walking potential partners through the building around 2017 and 2018, asking whether they could see what it might become.
Mara: By 2020 there was a plan, and by February 2023 the Lee and Rosemary Fisher Innovation College@Elm opened after a renovation costing about 10.7 million dollars, part of a total public-private investment of 17.55 million from the State of Ohio, JobsOhio, Butler County, the City of Oxford, and private donors.
Pip: And here is the part that caught the author off guard: he invited State Senator George Lang to come hear him speak, looked into the audience, and discovered Lang had been part of the building’s origin story for nearly a decade already.
Mara: Lang put it plainly in his own remarks: “It’s the only place, literally the only incubator in Ohio, that I know of in the country, where you can go from concept to production all under one roof and have everything right there.”
Pip: That is the kind of sentence a politician says and usually doesn’t mean. The difference here is that Lang apparently spent real political capital getting state dollars into the project before anyone was sure it would work.
Mara: Auditor Nancy Nix was in that same audience on September 21. She had been invited out when Crawford was still pitching the vacant building, and she came then too. Michael Ryan, who won the Republican primary for Butler County Commissioner in May 2026 with about 72 percent of the vote, stood up and spoke that day as well.
Pip: The pattern the post keeps returning to is simple: you can tell who your friends are by who shows up before the thing becomes important.
Mara: Which brings us to who is actually operating inside the building now. Volynt Aero, the company where the author serves as COO, develops hybrid-electric uncrewed aircraft for cargo logistics, mobile power generation, and forward communications — the work where you cannot always count on a runway or a fuel truck. Their aircraft is called the Vyper, spelled with a Y, because Volynt also uses a Y.
Pip: Suite 117, 20 South Elm Street. A few miles from the Miami University Airport with its 4,011-foot runway. For a company building uncrewed aircraft, that proximity is, as the post notes, not a small thing.
Mara: The closing argument is about the long clock. The things done today are what people are standing inside of nine years from now — and the post holds College@Elm up as evidence that government, used properly, does not dream for people. It keeps the road open so the people who do dream can get the work to market.
Pip: Dreams on Elm Street, not the extended nightmare — and on that note, the ideas here connect forward to something bigger about who builds these roads and why it matters.
Mara: The thread running through all of this is that good things, done over a long period of time, eventually just happen — and the people who make them happen are usually the ones who showed up before it was obvious.
Pip: Worth watching what Suite 117 looks like in nine years. We’ll be back with more from The Overmanwarrior next
Rich Hoffman
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About the Author: Rich Hoffman
Rich Hoffman is an author, political consultant, and strategic advisor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the creator of The Politics of Heaven—a unique framework that connects biblical theology, ancient history, and modern power structures to explain how moral alignment and spiritual forces shape global events. Blending real-world political experience with deep research into archaeology, UFO phenomena, and suppressed historical narratives, Hoffman offers compelling commentary on topics ranging from ancient civilizations and the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern populist movements, paranormal continuity, and leadership strategy in chaotic environments. As the author of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and the forthcoming Politics of Heaven, he brings a grounded yet provocative voice to media discussions, supported by firsthand experiences and a cross-disciplinary approach that bridges science, history, and theology. For interviews, speaking engagements, or expert analysis, visit richhoffmanbooks.com or contact directly via phone at 513-307-5815 or email at rhoffman@richhoffmanbooks.com. If you’ve seen the movie, Disclosure Day and want to talk about it and the implications of Presidnet Trump’s UAP disclosures, let me know and we can bring some color to your coverage. https://richhoffmanbooks.com/media-inquiries-broadcast-topics-and-contact-info/?frame-nonce=ad51e7ecba I do have a firsthand UFO encounter to discuss..
