Land sale paves way for West Carrollton facility
Cross Street Partners: Owning 8 of 9 sites is a ‘big step’ in the process.
City seeks to sell to Spike-It LLC, which wants to build a $4.5M complex with sand volleyball courts, a restaurant and bar.
The group redeveloping the Dayton Arcade has acquired eight of the complex’s nine properties, displaying confidence that its ambitious rehab plan will move forward, officials said.
Acquisition of the real estate is a “big step” toward starting work on the more than $90 million first phase of the project, said Dave Williams, senior director of development for Cross Street Partners, the Maryland-based developer.
Projects like this always have risk, but the easiest way to develop real estate is to control it, Williams said.
“We wanted to make the financial close simpler,” he said. “This really helps us. By getting the real estate out of the way, we aren’t dealing with that at the same time as everything else.”
Developers hope to close on financing for the project in December or January.
Acquiring the eight properties was no easy feat, considering some of the legal complications and the fact that they were encumbered with about $2.6 million worth of liens from previous owners, said Frances Kern Mennone, Cross Street Partners’ development director.
Cross Street Partners is the arcade’s lead development partner, but the group is working closely with McCormack Baron Salazar and Model Group. They created a limited liability company called Dayton Arcade Partners for the project.
Development partners spent about $750,000 to get control of the real estate, which included costs for air rights, legal fees and settlements to close out the liens, Mennone said. About a dozen different groups and people worked