Industrial property in West Dayton to be sold
City agrees to sell former McCall building to Wisconsin investors.
An out-of-state investment firm that plans to purchase a large industrial property in West Dayton contends it can be renovated and attract a new tenant after years of not being used.
Wisconsin-based Phoenix Investors proposes spending millions of dollars to rehab the last remaining part of the McCall printing campus near the DeSoto Bass housing project.
The 350,000-square-foot building has sat empty since 2010 and has fallen into disrepair because of neglect, vandalism and metal theft.
The project builds on the city’s strategic investments in West Dayton and dovetails with a $1.5 million federal grant Dayton was awarded to re-imagine the area
around DeSoto Bass Courts, said City Manager Shelley Dickstein.
“Economic development is an important part of our asset-development strategy,” Dickstein said.
McCall was a magazine publishing factory that produced weeklies including Newsweek and Life, as well as dress pattern books that were sold in fabric shops, Klein said.
Dayton commissioners on Wednesday authorized selling the former McCall site at 2333 McCall St. to Phoenix Dayton LLC, an affiliate of Phoenix Investors. The city has owned the property, located in the Westview Industrial Park, since 2001.
The real estate company has agreed to buy the 24-acre property for $300,000, though it can terminate the sale at any time during a 90-day due diligence period.
Phoenix Investors, located in Milwaukee, has a record of acquiring and revamping distressed and underutilized industrial properties to lure new tenants. The firm’s portfolio features nearly 12 million square feet of commercial properties spread across 19 states.
“This is the type of product we focus on,” said Patrick Dedering, vice president of acquisition and leasing for Phoenix Investors.
Renovating the McCall building would take at least six to nine months, and Phoenix and the city will work together during that time to market the property to find a new occupant, Dedering said.
The site is most suitable for use as a warehouse or production plant. But the building needs extensive work after years of deterioration tied to metal theft and deferred maintenance.
“It will be a lengthy, expensive process to bring the building back online, but this is our core business and we like the metrics the Dayton market brings,” Dedering said.
The Dayton market has a strong industrial history and low commercial vacancy rates, and the McCall building has attractive traits that include its size, proximity to the freeway, active rail line and infrastructure, Dedering said.
A railroad line feeds into the interior of the building.
City officials touted the project is a major investment in West Dayton.
Residents and neighborhood groups have accused the city of too often overlooking West Dayton for investment and redevelopment.
“This shows the city is consistently and constantly working to improve the west side of the city,” said Keith Klein, senior development specialist with the city.
The city still owns more than 15 acres south of the McCall site, across the street. The city also owns some acreage to the north and southeast.
The land includes the former Nibco Foundry property, which closed in 1989 and was donated to the city in 2002. The city began demolishing the property in 2004.
Klein said he worked on the McCall deal for about a year with Phoenix and has spent the better part of a decade trying to economically revive that area. The original McCall factory, located to the east, was demolished around 2000.
The building that stands today was an addition that was constructed in the 1960s, Klein said. The building was occupied until 2010 and was last used to process steel.