Construction could start soon on Dayton Children's health center

Planned $28 million facility had been tied up in litigation.

Dayton Children’s Hospital may soon start construction on a long-planned $28 mil- lion community health center on a former industrial site, Dayton-Montgomery County Port Authority officers said Tuesday.

The independent pediatrics hospital last year said it will build a 50,000-square-foot medical facility by its main campus, to be called the Center for Community Health and Advocacy.

Late last year, the city of Dayton approved rezoning the former Dayton Electro- plate property at the corner of Stanley Avenue and Valley Street to make way for the new center, to be built by Beaver- creek-based Synergy & Mills Development.

In the interim, the hospital asked the Port Authority to take title on the property, hold it and then deed the site back to the hospital at the appropriate time, said Jerry Brunswick, executive director of the Port Authority.

Brunswick said he believes the hospital may be ready to proceed with construction.

A message seeking comment was left with a spokes- woman for Dayton Children’s.

“We’ve owned it (the prop- erty) for purposes of facilitat- ing that process,” Brunswick said. “And now we’re ready to pass title back to” the hospital.

No action was needed by the Port Authority’s board of trustees to enact the transfer.

The Port Authority was “dragged” into litigation on the site with a former owner, Lexington Ky. developer Gar- rett Day, but Brad Evers, the authority’s general counsel, said the authority has had very little to do with that lawsuit.

The hospital sued Garrett Day LLC, alleging last year that the developer defrauded the hospital when it didn’t prop- erly clear the site.

Garrett Day princi p al Michael Heitz placed a lien on the property for $40,000, claiming he did the site work he agreed to before turning over the property to the Port Authority.

“They are paying all of our expenses for the litigation,” Evers said of the hospital. “And I think we’ll get out of the lit- igation now.”

Brunswick said there have been additional environmental reviews at the site. “That now has come to the point where the site is now ready for development.”

Jared Barnett, president and chief executive of Synergy, told the Dayton Plan Board last year that the developers were well aware of the site’s history, which is “something that’s been taken into consideration.”

The land sat vacant for years as an eyesore next to Dayton Children’s Hospital.

“It has been remediated currently to the satisfaction of all parties involved,” Brunswick said.