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Positive economic development

Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown City Government
Forum Name: Economic Development
Forum Description: Local government efforts to develop the local Middletown area economy.
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6175
Printed Date: May 06 2024 at 6:43pm


Topic: Positive economic development
Posted By: Vivian Moon
Subject: Positive economic development
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 4:32am

Posted: 7:10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015

Middletown seeing positive economic development efforts

By  http://www.journal-news.com/staff/ed-richter/" rel="nofollow - Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

The Towne Mall Galleria is continuing its rebirth with the announcement of another new tenant, Planet Fitness.

The gym is planning to open inside the Towne Mall sometime before Dec. 31, city officials said. It’s the latest in a series of positive changes at the once-struggling mall on Ohio 122 near Interstate 75 that include the repaving of the parking lot, the opening of a new Burlington store last spring and the future opening of a Gabriel Brothers store on Oct. 10. On top of that, several outlot stores and restaurants such as Buffalo Wild Wings and Aspen Dental could be future tenants.

“Little by little, the mall is on its way back,” City Manager Doug Adkins said Tuesday.

The news about Planet Fitness was among a list of positive economic development news Adkins revealed during a 20 minute presentation Tuesday to the Middletown Rotary Club. Adkins told the crowd that so many positive things were happening in Middletown on the business front that it would be difficult to keep his comments brief.

The city manager outlined several key projects that are already underway in Middletown or soon will be and pointed out the amount of investment or reinvestment being made in the city, which values more than $700 million.

Among the top projects are:

·                       the $500 million Middletown Energy Center, a 500 megawatt natural gas power plant that will begin construction this fall;

·                       the Middletown City Schools’ upcoming new school construction project and renovations that are being paid for with a $95 million bond issue approved by the voters;

·                       the $36 million AK Steel Research and Innovation Center overlooking Interstate 75 that is expected to be completed sometime in late 2016;

·                       the $7 million Cohen Electronics Recycling Center that is expected to open in Spring 2016;

·                       the expansion of Valicor’s facilities on Cincinnati-Dayton and Lefferson roads;

·                       the $20 million Nicholas Place Apartment complex with 216 new, market rate luxury apartments;

·                       the $14 million Covenant Village, which is a 93-bed physical therapy center;

·                       and several new small businesses in and around the downtown area including Society Gift Shop, Blue Goose Deuce Restaurant, Combs BBQ, Uptown Country Boutique, Triple Moon Coffee Company, Emage Signs, and the newly opened Mockingbird’s Cafe.

Adkins said the $6 million invested for a new Burlington store that opened in a portion of the former Dillard’s store, is on track to more than doubling its projected sales from about $6 million to $14 million in its first year.

Other projects Adkins cited included the $1.8 million Commerce Corner gas station, restaurant and convenience store at Commerce Drive and Ohio 122; the proposed $1.25 million Butler County MetroParks River Center facility to be constructed in Spring 2016 near the Great Miami River near the Bicentennial Commons park; the proposed $12 million to $14 million Manchester Hotel and Snider Ford/Sonshine Building renovations to create a hotel and a brewery downtown; and work on the $5 million renovation of the Sorg Opera House.

More housing projects are also being planned for the Renaissance subdivision. He said 33 homes are under construciton and 78 patio homes are being planned.

While these projects are in the planning stages or soon will or are already under construction, Adkins said the city’s economic development philosophy has to focused on preparation.

“Our philosophy centers on being prepared to do the best business for the city every single day,” he said.

Adkins said that preparation included hiring an additional assistant economic development director and placing them in areas of their strengths and expertise.

He said key focuses of the economic development staff are site development, incentives management, workforce development, infrastructure development, business retention of both large and small businesses, downtown development, small business development, and redevelopment of the city’s airport.

Adkins said the city needs to develop standard operating procedures, a capital improvement plan and a maintenance plan for the airport to open up aerospace and industrial development there. He said he will meeting with FAA officials in Detroit next month.

“We’re working with The Chamber (of Commerce serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton) on workforce development,” Adkins said. “With Butler County’s unemployment rate at about 5 percent, workforce development is our most critical need because the first thing a business wants to know if there is access to an available workforce.”

Other procedural things are being streamlined, such as developing a one-page break-even incentive sheet to make quick determinations of what might be available for a company; working with City Council on what level of income tax and fee rebates would be available to a business; and working in partnership with the Middletown and Franklin school boards on possible property tax abatements would be appropriate for new projects.

Adkins said the city is also using new tools such at the Port Authorities in Butler and Warren counties; the Butler County Land Bank; working with Middletown Moving Forward to create a reinvestment fund for gap financing of projects needing additional capital to get a project underway; rewriting the city’s 50-year-old zoning code; improving traffic flow in the city; improving interchange gateways

Major projects for Middletown

Middletown Energy Center, $500 million

Middletown City Schools, $95 million

AK Steel Research and Innovation Center, $36 million

Cohen Electronics Recycling Center, $7 million

Nicholas Place Apartment complex, $20 million

Towne Mall Galleria, $6 million

Covenant Village, $14 million

Source: City of Middletown

 


Replies:
Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 6:04am
Wow. All of this development mentioned by Adkins. Such a myriad of projects, all to better the city with a touch of "feeling really good about the city" built into the storyline by old Adkins himself.......

then why do I feel as if we are still light years behind the surrounding communities, have a feeling that the city leaders will, somewhere down the road, screw half of these projects up and, as Spider says, Hamilton is eating our lunch on attracting new opportunities and why do I still feel as if we are still looked upon as a city with the plague and one to stay away from?

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I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.

Posted By: Bill
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 6:08am
Vet, you notice one thing missing from much of the fluff spouted about investments -- where are the job numbers?  Hamilton is adding thousands of jobs.  What is this town accomplishing?

Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 9:16am
Good point Bill. I'd like to also add an interest in not only the job numbers but are the jobs paying livable wages with a benefits package or are they garbage service industry positions at less than $12/hour with no bennies? Those jobs don't count toward any real accomplishments IMO.

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I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.

Posted By: Middletown News
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 1:31pm

Economic Development

http://citymanagermiddletown.com/2015/09/16/economic-development/" rel="nofollow - SEPTEMBER 16, 2015 http://citymanagermiddletown.com/2015/09/16/economic-development/#respond" rel="nofollow - LEAVE A COMMENT

Bu Doug Adkins

I’m going to go on a little rant this morning, and hopefully you’ll allow me to vent a little….

I gave a speech on Economic Development at Rotary yesterday and the contents of that speech ended up in today’s Journal News.  I started by listing the current projects underway in the City:

Middletown Energy Center, $500 million; Middletown City Schools, $95 million; AK Steel Research and Innovation Center, $36 million; Cohen Electronics Recycling Center, $7 million; Nicholas Place Apartment complex, $20 million; Towne Mall Galleria, $6 million; Covenant Village, $14 million.

Almost $700 million in new investment in Middletown.  The apartments will bring 216 higher income families to Middletown.  AK is adding 15 new engineers over the next few years.  Middletown Energy will bring 35 full time new high paying jobs when complete.  Cohen is adding employees.  Covenant Village will need medical staff sufficient to treat 93 beds of rehab patients 24/7.  Towne Mall has or is in the process of developing over 75,000 sq ft of retail space and working on seven outlots, all with new jobs.

Downtown was empty a few years ago.  You now have Cincinnati State, Pendleton Arts Center, Pendleton Café, Society Gift Shop, Blue Goose Deuce Restaurant, Combs BBQ, Uptown Country Boutique, Crabapple Books, Canal House, Triple Moon Coffee Company, Emage Signs, and the newly opened Mockingbird’s Café.   The Butler Metroparks River Center is scheduled to begin construction in the spring of 2016. All of these new downtown businesses have employees on the payroll.

Despite the good things happening in town, most of the comments in the blogs and on the Journal web page talked about how we haven’t really made any progress, that the projects probably aren’t real, that we aren’t bringing jobs to the City and that we are way behind cities like Hamilton.

Really?  $700 million and all of those new and expanding businesses is no progress?

I applaud Joshua Smith and respect the work he has done bringing Hamilton back to prosperity.  He just celebrated his fifth year on the job, so he has a four year head start on me.  With 5% unemployment, it is going to be a challenge for Hamilton to draw 2,000+ lower paying call center employees to Hamilton to fill those new jobs. Hopefully Middletown residents still looking for work can help fill those positions.

Folks, I have said this over and over and over.  You can’t fix Middletown on Thursday.  It takes incremental change and doing the right thing every single day to build us back up to sustainable levels.  We are working hard to do the right thing every single day.  We won’t always get it right, but never think we aren’t working hard to make your lives better.

At some point this community simply MUST stop talking about should have, could have, would have, used to be, and start looking forward from where we are now.  There is nothing any of us can do to change the past.  If we could have or should have, in some cases, we just didn’t.  You can’t fix it or change that, so let’s move on.   My energy has to be spent looking forward, not back.

Take a moment to appreciate the good things that are happening in your city.  We have years of hard work ahead to rebuild the city. Celebrate the little daily victories.  Over time they add up to become a sustainable, high quality city.  Your city.



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Posted By: John Beagle
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 1:34pm
From Adkins:

"Despite the good things happening in town, most of the comments in the blogs and on the Journal web page talked about how we haven’t really made any progress, that the projects probably aren’t real, that we aren’t bringing jobs to the City and that we are way behind cities like Hamilton."

I wonder if he reads our little forum?


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http://www.johnbeagle.com/" rel="nofollow - John Beagle

Middletown USA

News of, for and by the people of Middletown, Ohio.

Posted By: John Beagle
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 1:39pm
Well if he does read this site, Bill asks a good question:

"where are the job numbers? "


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http://www.johnbeagle.com/" rel="nofollow - John Beagle

Middletown USA

News of, for and by the people of Middletown, Ohio.

Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 2:07pm
The city of Middletown initiated MMF, hand picked city council members, and buying downtown for the renaissance based exclusively on a false narrative, that Middletown was doing better and everyone should be happy. It has failed, and will fail going forward.

Both Doug Adkins, Dan Picard, and others, who equate mindlessly, capital expenditures somehow reflect prosperity. Nothing further can be truthful. Job numbers, income levels, tax income, property values, and school system ranking,  are the scorecard against performance, not the amount of money spent to build a massive plant, an RD facility, new school buildings, or a hospital. One only has to look at the move at Bishop Fenwick and the Atrium to see the correlation between city decline and movement where the population was growing and the economy stable.

The false narrative may work to keep many professionals from leaving but it is not working as a true depiction of Middletown. And, it defies logic the developer in Kentucky is building a complex for high income earners. Knowing countless sons and daughters of the city residents, they are down in Mason and West Chester, making a good buck and paying no taxes. Only those that can't sell their houses for what they paid for decades ago are remaining in Middletown.

In 5 years, 10 years, the narrative will be the same; the results dismal, just like it has been for 40 years. Money spent on buildings doesn't measure success nor progress, unless your measurement is so desperate, reliance is made upon the income tax for the short time construction is taking place. That must be Doug Adkins measuring stick, short term tax income from the builders.      

Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 3:52pm
Allow me to vent a little bit and respond to Adkins and his thoughts on the negative feedback to his "good news".

Adkins, you and your current little group of city ruiners have certainly done your fair share of damage to a once proud city. The remainder of the blame goes to the incompetents who proceeded you the last 30 years. You have brought the city to it's knees with your ghetto building invites to lower income, Section 8 overabundance, druggies type invites,and helped continue the poor image for the city and have created a "them against us" mentality in this town where your little band of merry men have shut the door on the majority of wants and needs of the average citizen. You have no intention of listening to what we have to say nor would you implement any of our ideas if we presented them to you. You are hell bent on having it your way and will not take no for an answer. Just as you get tired of all the negativity on the blogs, so to, do we get tired of all the money wasted downtown. the continual plans that go awry and the failed direction this city has taken the last several decades. The city is a joke to surrounding communities and is a shadow of what it once was.

It is difficult for me to not get angry having lived through the great years of the 50's and 60's touching on the early 70's and then seeing it in the condition it is in today. You would feel the same way if you were a native son and lived here during that time period and being able to make the comparison.

If you would open the doors to city hall and open your minds to some suggestions that may go against the grain of the "grand plan" you have for the city, perhaps the relationship between "Johnny average citizen" and city leaders would be better and we could work together. As long as you want to run the entire show, with no input from the people who really care about the city, it will remain adversarial at best.

You want the negativity to stop? Then stop loading the gun with blanks and start doing some pertinent things to grow this town and don't take decades to do it either.

You ranted......I ranted. We both feel better now, I'm sure.

Oh, and not looking backward may be a mistake on your part. How else are you going to gage the excellence that was this city in the past versus the situation you have now? Good things can still be emulated even today. Learn from the successes and mistakes of the past.

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I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.

Posted By: Factguy
Date Posted: Sep 16 2015 at 4:42pm
I am confident Doug Adkins has some good ideas and is analytic. He likes facts and figures.

However, he talks about Middletown's glory in the past. He is right, as the old industries have moved to China, and down south. But, city council and MMF are filled with members that have grown up in these industries, such as Dan Picard, family of paper pulp, the Mulligans, around town for generations, Cohen, metal recycling filling Armco's needs. There is the contradiction. Recognition of the fact Middletown's industrial base has changed, but placing key leadership and advisers having strong roots and knowledge, only of the old smoke stack industries. Hard to re-imagine when surrounded by those that see and remember smoke stacks and don't want the city to change. The goal is to make sure no power is lost is transferred, and the old way is the new way, preventing progressive change.    


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