After all the money that the state, the city, and the CMH port authority threw at SKYBUS, you better believe that Netjets isn't feeling the love right now. NJ has a thousand times more economic impact on the city of Columbus than SKYBUS does right now. Obviously another reason NJA has entertained other offers is to enhance their negotiating position with Columbus. They need to have the ability to walk away if Columbus starts dicking around. It can't just be an empty threat.
One big problem with the CMH location right now is the CMH airport radar. It is placed in an area such that nothing can be developed on the north side of the airport where NJ's current building sits. Nothing taller than a parking lot can be built in that area. NJ actually had to modify the design of it's current building in order to accommodate the radar signature.
NJ wants to build one giant campus on an airport location so that ALL NJ Columbus employees are in the same spot. Right now they are scattered at 3 different locations throughout Columbus, two of which aren't even within earshot of the airport. Possibly build a hotel within the campus. Plus FlightSafety wants to build a new building as well, preferably within that NJ campus. So as you can see, NJ needs a lot of space and right now Columbus has little of it to offer (pending their proposal). Meanwhile, RDU and MCO have empty space for miles and miles. The line about the link with Ohio St is just stupid. You mean to tell me that RDU doesn't have any college-educated potential employees nearby.
But at the end of the day, I highly doubt NJ is going anywhere. It's a pain to move and I have no doubt that Columbus will pony up the bucks.
For most (no, I didn't say all) pilots at NJ, this move has no affect on us anyway, except that it would be a hell of a lot nicer to attend company recurrent in RDU or MCO during the winter time.
I vote for RDU.