April 6, 200718 yr What bugs me is what Michael Redmond said on another post, that investors from Dayton are investing in Cincinnati redevelopments in OTR/Main Street, I think. I believe this is what you are talking about there is more two this than what has been discussed by Paul in the articles, this is more than just another wave of idealistic entrepreneurs working on this (and forget the Loop, that was a Mike Spalding thing) and it envolves some of the largest property owners on the street with people working on this as far away as Dayton. Do not discount this just yet, no one more than 15 people even have the real information, just wait a bit longer before it is judged. I think you may have misunderstood (or I misspoke) about Dayton. We are recieving non monetary help for Main Street by some groups in Dayton and they are proving to be very useful. I didn't comment but that was really icing on the cake for me...that Dayton money is not investing in Dayton. No money is being given at all (except by us to these firms), only consulting and legal work. My point in the other post was commenting about an article that was claiming that the next fly by night group was coming through and trying to get something going on Main. I responded in that this group is one, well established, and two, far reaching. Unfortunately at this time, nothing about what we are doing is "public" but it is well on its way. So once again, we are taking nothing from Dayton, only asking for a bit of advise.
April 7, 200718 yr Michael, thank you for that clarification. I misread your post, or mis-remembered it, thinking it meant Dayton investors or developers, not legal/consulting work.
April 7, 200718 yr Michael, thank you for that clarification. I misread your post, or mis-remembered it, thinking it meant Dayton investors or developers, not legal/consulting work. I will say this, the DDP has been especially helpful to us granting us meetings, giving us advise and pointing us to resources. We have found not just the DDP but other organizations in Dayton simply wonderful in their willingness to help us.
May 22, 200718 yr From the 4/25/07 DDN: Downtown partnership sticks with Gudorf Group tabs its interim president to keep the job; she'll focus on existing and developing businesses. By Joanne Huist Smith Staff Writer Wednesday, April 25, 2007 DAYTON — — The Downtown Dayton Partnership's new president said she'll intensify efforts to keep and grow businesses downtown, along with making sure large developments in the works happen. The partnership named Sandra K. Gudorf president Tuesday. Gudorf, 51, has served as interim president since September, when her predecessor, Maureen Pero, resigned to become vice president of strategic management and legal affairs for CareSource Management Group. Read More...
May 22, 200718 yr From the 4/26/07 Dayton Business Journal: Area leaders gather for town hall forum on downtown Dayton Dayton Business Journal - April 26, 2007 by Yvonne Teems DBJ Staff Reporter Government and business officials gathered Thursday morning to discuss how new projects, a good business environment and workforce development all play roles in building a thriving downtown Dayton. The Town Hall meeting at Sinclair Community College was sponsored by WDTN-TV Channel 2, the Dayton Business Journal and Sinclair. It featured a panel of speakers consisting of Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin; J.P. Nauseef, president and chief executive officer of the Dayton Development Coalition; Debbie Lieberman, president of the Montgomery County Commission; Sandy Gudorf, president of the Downtown Dayton Partnership; Rashad Young, Dayton city manager; Phil Parker, president and chief executive officer of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce; and Richard Stock, director of the University of Dayton's Business Research Group. Young gave an update on the city's progress with Ballpark Village, the proposed $230 million office, entertainment, housing and retail project in downtown Dayton. He said the city is working to assemble land and expects to enter a development agreement summer or fall. Read More...
May 22, 200718 yr From the 5/14/07 Dayton Business Journal: GRAPHIC: Changes: More than 65 percent of people surveyed by the Downtown Dayton Partnership report that downtown is the same or better than it was three years ago. The Dayton Dragons and potential $230 million waterfront project are reasons for optimism. ASHLEY NEHLS DBJ Downtown Perception Study points to optimism in downtown Dayton Dayton Business Journal - May 11, 2007 by Yvonne Teems DBJ Staff Reporter Matt Hutman has worked in downtown Dayton for a year as a technology recruiter. He and his wife, a lawyer, both have jobs in Fifth Third Center at Main and Second streets. As a kid growing up in Beavercreek, Hutman said he remembers coming downtown once for an arts event. But now, he's here everyday. He parks in First Street Garage, eats at Swisher's and sits on Courthouse Square at lunch time, enjoying the sun and socializing with colleagues. Read More...
September 14, 200717 yr KeyBank eliminates call center, 200 jobs BY RYAN JUSTIN FOX | DAYTON DAILY NEWS September 14, 2007 DAYTON — KeyBank announced Thursday it will eliminate nearly 200 jobs by shutting down its call center and help desk operations based downtown. KeyBank officials informed employees at its branch at 34 N. Main St. that the business is consolidating operations to call centers across the country over six to eight months. The consolidation will affect approximately 150 to 200 jobs. An internal company memo obtained by the Dayton Daily News indicated the local center will be consolidated into call centers in Cleveland, Buffalo and Tacoma. "This was a difficult decision and one made carefully," said Ed Reilly, president of Key's Southwest Ohio District. "During this transition period we will work with the affected employees to provide severance programs, outplacement counseling and job search assistance both in and outside of Key." Read More...
September 16, 200717 yr Smart people will invest there money where they think they can make money (unless their's a REAL civic calling or corporate initiative). If it's not Dayton, then so be it... Perhaps everyone in Dayton is very smart and should be looking to bring in more dumb ones to invest their money. Or perhaps you're right, the companies in Dayton don't really care enough to improve the city...dumb because good luck getting and SUSTAINING and top quality talent...ultimately affecting bottom line. C-Dawg, I expect that people will begin "rediscovering" the cheap Ohio midwest, in about 2100 when every major comparable city in the south...think Huntsville or Greensboro maybe...become comes too crowded and possibly hot, depending on when global warming makes a real noticable difference in the winters. Randy and I disagree on this, but I personally think its a LONG way off. There wont be a mass migration to Ohio from the south in a very, very long time. That doesnt mean however that Dayton can't improve on its own, but its going to take a hell of a lot more work/money/brainpower and more imporatantly time. (After having typed this I realized I'm responsing to posts from April, but don't feel like deleting it)
September 17, 200717 yr I just don't agree with the notion that everything is market-driven and that people are the ones who created the demand for suburban sprawl...and likewise continue to demand it. I would agree with that if there were real alternatives presented to people...but it is one of two options (if you're middle class)...either you move in the city and send your children to sub-par schools (not everyone has to deal with bad schools, but you get the idea) or you move to the 'burbs and send your kids to a good school. Not to mention the other factors involved. It is a fantasy that suburban sprawl has been completely market driven. If it weren't for the HUGE government subsidies and incentives the whole era of sprawl may not have even existed...or at least not to the extent that it has. I contend that if government policies shifted and this kind of money was directed at redeveloping inner-cities and subsidizing people's living, in the city...that the same type of boom would occur in the urban centers that has occured for suburban sprawl. Like I said...give people a real alternative and then see what they choose. You can't say that Americans demand the auto-oriented lifestyles when there isn't even a real alternative to that kind of transportation. When people actually have a choice as to whether drive their car or take transit, then you can see the outcome of the market forces at play.
September 18, 200717 yr Smart people will invest there money where they think they can make money (unless their's a REAL civic calling or corporate initiative). If it's not Dayton, then so be it... Perhaps everyone in Dayton is very smart and should be looking to bring in more dumb ones to invest their money. Or perhaps you're right, the companies in Dayton don't really care enough to improve the city Current thinking (as of this June) from Citywide Development was this: 4.2.3.2. New Product and Reuse. Create new building product that is more aligned with the demands of today’s marketplace by providing: * large horizontal floor plates * close in parking and other amenities. Find reuses for obsolete office buildings that can be transformed into non-traditional re-uses” 4.2.3.4. Downtown Office Space….Work with community partners to develop strategic shovel-ready sites for potential development”. The model is probably CareSource and it’s new garage with, apparently, some ground floor commercial space. Worst case examples could be ConAgra in Omaha or Owens-Corning in Toledo, or redeveloping downtown into generic spec office pancake buildings.
September 27, 200717 yr WOW. . .now even the FBI is leaving downtown for the suburbs! 9/21/2007 6:17:00 AM Email this article • Print this article FBI to take up residency in Centerville By Jim Good Staff Writer No link for article.
September 27, 200717 yr They are doing the same thing in Downtown Cincinnati and leaving for Clermont County if I remember correctly.
October 20, 200717 yr County Buisness Patterns has a web page linked to it called “Zip Code Buisness Patterns”, which gives similar information as CBP. Unfortunatly, some of the good detail is suppressed, though they do have number of business establishments for the various NAICS code, and gross numbers going back to 1998 for NAISC and 1994 for an earlier coding. So one can plot a bit longer trendline for some of the info. Looking at 454202, the zip covering downtown Dayton and environs, one can get a picture of the economic fortunes of the Dayton’s central area. The big caveat is that this looks at private sector (for and non profit establishments), not government. So the big government presence in this area is not picked up. The number of private sector establishments in this area as dropped quite a bit since 1994. Even with the big drop in the early 00s, the trend is unmistakenly downward. The aggregate payroll and employment have not dropped that much (meaning stability in some larger business establishments), but one can see that the most recent years show employment dropping below a certain range, which may continue due to announcements of relocations in 2006 and 2007, years not available at the CBP site. The most important graphic. Downtown is insiginfigant to economic life of Montgomery County. The overall employment and payroll of downtown is less than 10% of the county, and is dropping. It contributes little in private sector payroll or private sector employment. For average people downtown could disappear and no one would notice. Yet, these are gross numbers. For some things it is signfigant. Taking at look at the business mix in the central area: One can see it dominated by the Professional, Scientific & Technical sector, though the place is fairly diversified, albeit declining. Only a few of these sectors are growing. Taking a look at some of the smaller sectors that are growing, one sees a definite uptick in “Information” and a lesser trend in the arts. Starting to move into real small numbers now. Opening up the information sector one sees that it is things like ISPs, online services, internet publishing, databases, and software publishing that are leading the growth. The central area does have a regional concentration in ISPs, with over half downtown. As PS&T is the largest sector lets take a closer look at it. Overall trend is up, but after all the ups and downs not much real growth. PST&T by subsector. Note that legal dominates, which makes sense as the courts are downtown. Opening up the sectors below legal, one sees the good performers are accounting/tax prep and consulting. Engineering and Architecture (and they are almost all architectural firms—very few engineering firms downtown) are slowly dropping. We can expect more of drop with Woolpert relocating: one firm, but with a lot of employees. An interesting thing is to watch the growth and then decline of computer services (systems design and custom programming) downtown. One year (2002) this subsector beat out Architecture & Engineering as having the most firms in the central area for this set of PS&T establishments. As legal is the dominant PS&T subsector, taking a look at the detail. And trends are disturbing. This sector is quite concentrated downtown in the number of firms vis a vis the county, but the % of firms downtown is dropping. The overall number of firms downtown is declining, too. This central area is pretty weak. And it is declining in the one area where it is strong: legal services. The only interesting bright spot is the growth in arts (this area remains the dominant one for the performing arts), information, and maybe consulting and accounting. And the government and courts, not shown here. Yet for private sector employment and payroll it is pretty insignifigant.
October 23, 200717 yr And that's why the Mead Tower's lights are off. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
January 21, 200817 yr Tech company moves downtown January 18, 2008 | DAYTON BUSINESS JOURNAL DOWNTOWN - CompTech Computer Technologies Inc. has moved to downtown Dayton. The company, which moved in on Jan. 4, was previously based at a residence. It has relocated to 11 W. Monument Ave., where space had been vacnt for about a year, said Anthony Pinto, from the Beerman Realty Co. The new location will serve as the main office for the technology firm, which has offices in Columbus, Philadelphia and New Jersey. The company has 18 total employees and four locally. Read More...
January 22, 200817 yr Well, a little bit of good news for downtown. Maybe this will be a reversing trend...
January 23, 200817 yr Hate to be a debbie downer...but The fact that the Dayton Business Journal is celebrating four new employees moving downtown is evidence to how bad it really is.
January 23, 200817 yr Well, we all know it's pretty bad. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
January 23, 200817 yr 4 or 400, It's one less vacant space downtown. As reported that space has been vacant for over a year. I'm all for it. Who knows, they may expand to 8 employees down the road ;-)
January 25, 200817 yr You guys really need to get out and see what's happening! The Arcade will soon be under development (see the Arcade thread); CareSource is building it's headquarters downtown (see the CareSource thread); Ballpark Village is moving ahead (see the Ballpark Village thread); downtown condos are 98 percent filled and more are on the way (several threads on this). What is still below the radar is that the Schear family (former Liberal markets) wants to open a full-service grocery downtown. Yes, you can find the negatives ... Bimini Bill's is closing. But that happens in the restaurant business wherever you look. 2008 is going to be a watershed year for downtown. Stay tuned.
January 26, 200817 yr Full-service, you say? "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
January 29, 200817 yr You guys really need to get out and see what's happening! The Arcade will soon be under development (see the Arcade thread); CareSource is building it's headquarters downtown (see the CareSource thread); Ballpark Village is moving ahead (see the Ballpark Village thread); downtown condos are 98 percent filled and more are on the way (several threads on this). What is still below the radar is that the Schear family (former Liberal markets) wants to open a full-service grocery downtown. Yes, you can find the negatives ... Bimini Bill's is closing. But that happens in the restaurant business wherever you look. 2008 is going to be a watershed year for downtown. Stay tuned. I Get out and see what's happening everyday that I work downtown. No need to tell me! ;-)
January 29, 200817 yr 2008 is going to be a watershed year for downtown. Stay tuned. Man do I hope you're right...you may very well be the UncleRando of Dayton. :-D
February 12, 200817 yr Blueprint for success Columbus business expands into Dayton BY JACOB DIRR | DAYTON BUSINESS JOURNAL February 8, 2008 DOWNTOWN - A Columbus-based blueprinting and construction graphics company is making a strong push to gain a share of the Dayton market and beyond. Cannell Graphics, a minority, woman-owned company, is moving into new office space in downtown Dayton after buying the building that formerly housed the Bimini Bills nightclub on Ludlow Street near Fifth Street. The company does anything and everything that pertains to printing in the residential or commercial construction industry, such as blueprints, said Nicole Dobson, Cannell chief executive officer. Prices could run about 8 cents to 10 cents per square foot for a large format print of a building. Read More...
February 12, 200817 yr "The Dayton market is hot," she said. That's about the best thing I've read this year!
February 12, 200817 yr Don't know all the details, but the Oregon District is on the verge of a major revamp. Check out the thread at http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,15282.0.html.
February 12, 200817 yr Probably something to do with that arts district thats been talked about. I know two new galleries opened up there.
March 13, 200817 yr "You can't swing a dead cat in Dayton without hitting an architect," he said. Wow, now that's a quote to repeat! hahaha
March 14, 200817 yr Why does it gotta be a dead cat? Why can't it be a carrot or a shoe or something?
March 25, 200817 yr I know. Or like a baseball bat. That would almost be as funny as the dead cat—more painful though I suppose.
March 29, 200817 yr This morning I viewed the April issue of the Downtowner on the Downtown Dayton Partnership's wesite. The issue says that the April issue of the Downtowner is the last one. Does anyone know what's going on? :?
March 30, 200817 yr PhillyEngineer - is the the paragraph you are referring to?: "The Downtowner is a free publication that's all about the things happening in your downtown. It's produced monthly by the Dayton Daily News in cooperation with the Downtown Dayton Partnership and is distributed at locations throughout downtown. You can also view the last issue online." If so, I believe what the mean by "last issue" is actually "most recent issue" (since you can't view previous issues online, only the most current one).
March 31, 200817 yr PhillyEngineer - is the the paragraph you are referring to?: "The Downtowner is a free publication that's all about the things happening in your downtown. It's produced monthly by the Dayton Daily News in cooperation with the Downtown Dayton Partnership and is distributed at locations throughout downtown. You can also view the last issue online." If so, I believe what the mean by "last issue" is actually "most recent issue" (since you can't view previous issues online, only the most current one). Nope, I believe it is on page 6. . . .there's an editor's note that say, this will be the final issue of The Downtowner. .
March 31, 200817 yr That's right - page 6. There's a photo essay from past issues since the April issue is the last one. Billy - Do you know what's going on? BTW - The DDN is reporting that Key Bank will move into the old Mead Tower by the end of the year. They are going to put their logo atop the building where the "Mead" sign was. Maybe they will light up the tower again?
April 1, 200817 yr ^ damn, I didn't know about that being the final issue. I'll find out what is up....
April 2, 200817 yr Ok, it is true... here is what my friend from the DDP told me: "Yes, it is true. The April issue was the last for the Downtowner. The Dayton Daily News decided to eliminate the Downtowner a few months ago since they are launching a new ActiveDayton.com publication. Declining ad sales also were part of the reason. The new publication will be out later in April, and it will be a free weekly that is distributed throughout the area. The DDP is working with the DDN to make sure that our downtown events and activities are highlighted in the new publication. "
April 3, 200817 yr That's sad. I remember when it first started in the early 80s it was a weekly publication.
August 15, 200816 yr Is anyone else outraged to discover that Maureen Pero (Head of the Downtown Dayton Partnership) is paid $182,000 with another $25,000 in benefits for managing a staff of 12 people when it's clear that she is an abysmal failure? Why would any business want to locate in downtown Dayton and have to pay the additional "assessment" for the downtown Dayton special improvement district when the vast majority of these funds are used for is to pay the exorbitant salaries of people who are clearly not succeeding in their jobs? I'm sure that there are many people on this site that would love to make improving downtown Dayton our full time job and would do so for a quarter of what Maureen Pero is making, I know I would. Maybe I am naive. Maybe the DDP is a good thing and I'm just missing the boat, but it seems to me that downtown would be way better off without an additional real estate tax.
October 22, 200816 yr Kevin Riley: Downtown too important to slip off radar By Kevin Riley Sunday, October 12, 2008 Last week the Downtown Dayton Partnership announced a plan to have local architects look at 10 downtown buildings and imagine what's possible with them. The idea goes well beyond the impressive sketches that we'll eventually see. The architects' ideas will be shared with developers. This volunteer effort, laudable in itself, offers a peek at behind-the-scenes efforts concerning downtown — and a renewed effort to transform it.
October 22, 200816 yr Who is Kevin Riley? I think he is either the new editor or publisher of the Dayton Daily News. It's a sad sign that he had to entitle his op-ed "too important to slip off the radar": sort of an indication on how peripheral downtown has become to the life of the Dayton metro area.
October 22, 200816 yr Seems like a good effort. Gotta get more people living there. Most all cities should be trying to pack in as many people into their downtowns as possible. This will create demand for service retail and entertainment. That will create jobs, tax base, and liveliness.
October 23, 200816 yr ^ parking authority? In Dayton? Hah! Gotta get more people living there. Most all cities should be trying to pack in as many people into their downtowns as possible. Yeah, but note that they aren't talking about getting people to live there, its more about office & employment stuff. Some buildings may need to go. We might need to see that downtown can't satisfy everyone. But without a plan, it will satisfy no one. ...translation, more parking lots.
October 23, 200816 yr I think there is some sort of zoning policy on this, but not a firm moratorium as there was a demo for parking last or the year before last. But there has been discussion of the need for "strategically located parking"...that the parking isnt in the right places. (or something). Im just suprised at this emphasis on "offices" or employment. 27.9% vacancy for class B/C and 26.8% vacancy for class A in 2007....tells me they are having trouble with the existing inventory (not including buildings that are empy but not on the market) Downtown isnt working as an office center anymore.
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