UD, Premier extend fairgrounds lease
Montgomery County Ag Society to stay through spring 2018.
The Montgomery County Agricultural Society will keep calling the fairgrounds home through the spring of 2018.
The University of Dayton and Premier Health have extended a lease to the agricultural society that will allow it to ready its future home at Judge Arthur O. Fisher Park in Jefferson Twp. The lease also allows UD and Premier to develop a master plan for the 38-acre site, UD announced Thursday. Under the original terms of
the sale finalized April 14, the agricultural society was slated to vacate the property in October when the partnership would take possession.
UD and Premier agreed to each pay $5.25 million for the $15 mil
lion property, while the Dayton-Montgomery County Port Authority will chip in a $2.5 million state grant and the county will contribute $2 millionto preserve the Roundhouse. The university and health care provider joined forces to buy the fairgrounds after two development proposals were rejected in December. Extending the lease will benefit all three parties.
The society will be able to move from the fairgrounds directly to its new home in Jefferson Twp. and the partnership will have more time to map out the future of the property.
“This is great for the agricultural society because it means we won’t have to move twice,” said John Yancik, agricultural society board president. “We’re looking forward to celebrating the fair’s more than 160year history at this site this summer on July 10-15 and the new site in 2018.”
Premier Health and UD formed a joint venture, Fairgrounds Redevelopment Ltd., to redevelop the property. The two entities are conducting a national search for a firm to work with Premier, UD and the community to help develop a site plan, said Andy Horner, UD’s vice president for finance and administrative services.
“Premier Health and the University are taking steps to redevelop the property in a collaborative manner,” said Buddy LaChance, director of campus planning and real estate for Premier Health. “In the meantime, we are pleased to do what we can to make this a smooth transition.”
Plans for the fairgrounds have remained largely unclear in the months that followed the announcement that UD and Premier would jointly buy the property.
The property could be a good location for more UD partnerships with companies such as General Electric and Emerson, Beth Keyes, UD vice president for facilities management said late last year. The fairgrounds are directly across the street from both GE Aviation’s EPISCenter and Emerson’s Helix Innovation Center.
After the fairgrounds announcement, officials repeatedly batted down rumors that the fairgrounds would become the site of a new University of Dayton Arena. Plans for a renovation and expansion of the existing arena were announced last month.
Premier and UD will at some point seek community input on what the fairgrounds should be used for, UD president Eric Spina told the Dayton Daily News in April. The fairgrounds are “too important” so UD and Premier must be “thoughtful” in deciding what to do with the property.
“We’re not going to do something there that’s going to be selfish. We’re going to do something there that benefits our institutions and the community,” Spina said. “It’s too important. So, we screw this up, shame on us.”