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By Olivia Barrow – Senior Reporter, Dayton Business
Journal - 4 years ago
A nonprofit development group in Middletown is starting on
a $2.5 million project to redevelop an old, vacant office
building into apartments and retail space.
Grassroots Ohio is finalizing funding to redevelop the historic Fifth Third Bank Goetz Tower, which will convert the 30,000-square-foot office building at the corner of Central Avenue and Main Street in downtown Middletown into between 24 and 28 apartments and some first-floor retail spaces, said Mike Robinette, president of Grassroots Ohio.
The project will be the first residential project in downtown Middletown, and could be a catalyst for further revitalization.
Robinette, also a partner in the project, believes there’s a strong demand for downtown housing.
“When Cincinnati State announced their downtown campus, that convinced us to move ahead with the project,” he said. “We think the demand for downtown housing would be there without Cincinnati State, but that makes it even a stronger housing project.”
Cincinnati State opened its Middletown campus in fall of 2012, and has been growing rapidly in enrollment.
Robinette said the floorplans haven’t been defined yet, but he expects the market-rate apartments to be between 800 and 1,200 square feet, and plans to rent them for between $800 and $1,200 per month.
The project could have a snowball effect on further development, said Denise Hamet, economic development director with Middletown.
“I think it’s transformational,” she said. “If you look at any area, whether the Oregon District, or Over the Rhine (in Cincinnati), (housing) is always one of the essential pieces to revitalizing an urban area — it puts feet on the street.”
Robinette said demolition has already been started, but the project probably won’t be complete until March of 2015, since the historic restoration will take longer than a normal redevelopment project.
Downtown Middletown is booming with redevelopment projects. Work already started on renovating the former Middletown Journal building into future housing or office space, and Cincinnati State has purchased several buildings in anticipation of enrollment growing up to 5,000 students in the next 10 years.
And downtown has several restaurants in the works, including the Blue Goose Deuce, a wings restaurant planned for the corner of Reinartz Boulevard and Verity Parkway, Hamet said.
The city is also planning a kickoff of its riverfront plan soon, which will invest at least $200,000 into developing the riverfront into a local attraction in partnership with the Miami Conservancy District.
“There’s a number of projects downtown,” Hamet said. “It’s the start to something great.”