Downtown building to have rooftop dining
The owner of Dayton’s tallest downtown officer tower is aggressively marketing office space for lease in the building, showing clients proposed rooftop entertainment options.
Artist renderings released to the Dayton Daily News on Monday show rooftop restaurants and a bar on the lower rooftop level above Main Street on Stratacache Tower, formerly known as Kettering Tower.
“As we continue to upgrade and enhance the building, we’re continuing to try to make use of any of the available space that’s not used today, both internally and externally,” said Chris Riegel, who is founder and chief executive of Dayton-based digital technology business Stratacache. “It’s just part of that agenda to fill the building and bring it back to life.”
Riegel’s goal is to have the building 90% to 95% filled by the end of 2021, an occupancy the tower has not seen since probably the early- to mid1980s.
In downtown Dayton’s central business district, office real estate was about 26% vacant as of the end of 2019, according to Colliers International.
About 14 months ago, Stratacache’s real estate acquisition arm, Arkham Ventures, bought what was then Kettering Tower for $13 million. That purchase came less than two months after the global company also bought the Courthouse Plaza tower at 10 N. Ludlow St. for nearly $1.7 million.
A law firm will move to the tower, as will another company he said he could not name. A third large-bloc tenant will likely be announced in the next several weeks, Riegel also said.
Artist renderings provided by Riegel offer distinct clues to his plans for reactivating the tower’s lower level. He still plans to open a exterior rooftop patio restaurant atop the attached lower tower, with an eye toward making the building an overall “hub” in that part of downtown.
Vectren remains Air Show sponsor
The Vectren Dayton Air Show will continue being the Vectren Dayton Air Show — for three more years, at least.
A little over a year ago, Vectren completed a merger with a Houston energy company, CenterPoint Energy Inc. A Vectren spokeswoman at the time said the merger wasn’t expected to change the air show’s identity, and on Monday, air show officials confirmed that.
“Officials of the Vectren Dayton Air Show Presented by Kroger announced today that Vectren, a CenterPoint Energy Company, will remain as the title sponsor of the show,” the show announced Monday. “Vectren has held the top sponsor position for 21 years. The new agreement extends the partnership for an additional three-year period or through 2024.”
This year’s show will be June 27 and 28 at the Dayton International Airport. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels are the headline event.
Manufacturers watching coronavirus
Manufacturers in Dayton and beyond are warily eyeing the possibility of a coronavirus-triggered recession.
Ned Hill, an Ohio State professor of economic development, said he simply doesn’t know if a recession is likely. But he does expect some impact.
“The only truthful answer to that is nobody knows,” Hill said Tuesday at the University of Dayton (UD), in a presentation of results from an annual survey of Ohio manufacturers. “But we do know the supply-side shock is going to be pretty strong.”
There has been no uptick in national jobless claims yet, Hill said. But even before the COVID-19 situation, purchases of big manufacturing equipment and machine tools already had slowed, he said.
Continually adding 200,000 jobs every month to the national economy is difficult, especially when the population isn’t keeping pace, he said.
“Is the United States overreacting to this?” Hill asked. “I think the answer is probably yes.” At the same time, he added, the costs of “inaction” are too high.
The Covid-19 situation is changing daily, even hourly sometimes, noted Phil Raterman, director of Dayton manufacturing consultant Fastlane.
He said some manufacturers are concerned about a negative impact to sales due likely to cancelled trade shows and restricted travel.
Also Tuesday, Manpower released a new quarterly survey of Dayton-area employers, finding a slight dampening in local plans to hire more workers.
The new survey found that 22 percent of local respondents plan to add workers in the second quarter of 2020.
That’s down from the first quarter of 2020, when 26 percent planned to hire more workers. It’s down farther from the first quarter of 2019, when 28 percent intended to hire.
Hara Arena to be leveled
Michael Heitz, the developer of the Hara Arena property, said Monday that sometime in the next two to three months, demolition of about two-thirds of the tornado-damaged property should begin.
Heitz said he is assembling a legal description of the recently rezoned former entertainment property, with an environmental report and surveys, for JobsOhio. He expects JobsOhio, the state’s private jobs creation arm, to put its marketing muscle behind the 130-acre site, to help him find a future user.
“This is one of their biggest tracts in the state of Ohio, under one piece of land,” Heitz said in an interview. “We’re talking about 130 acres. They want to get involved in this, especially since we got the zoning changed from recreational. (Until then) they couldn’t do anything about it until we got it industrial (zoning). We’re working very closely with them on that right now. “
“At this time, there is no commitment to the Hara property,” said Shannon Joyce Neal, a spokeswoman for the Dayton Development Coalition, which works with JobsOhio in the Dayton region. “We do provide a platform for local property owners to list their properties on the site selection tool on the DDC and JobsOhio websites.”
Last week, the Dayton Daily News reported that Trotwood City Council had rezoned about 25 acres of the site for light industrial uses. Now, Heitz says he will approach Harrison Twp. for a similar rezoning for the township’s part of the former arena property.
“We want to do this one step at a time,” Heitz said. “Then we’re taking the other acreage we have — about, I think, 60 acres in Trotwood — and (we want to) get that rezoned right now, too.”
Clean-up work of the site is happening now, he said.
Sassy Acai Bowls opens in Kettering
The founders of a new healthy-options carryout-and-delivery restaurant have opened their first location in south Kettering, and they are hoping to expand the concept throughout the region.
Sassy Acai Bowls opened quietly last month at 5707 Bigger Road in an out lot in the Oak Creek Plaza, across the street from another recently opened restaurant, Thai Street Noodles, and around the corner from Marc’s grocery store.
The specialty bowls are made from either acai or pitaya (dragon fruit); granola (regular or gluten-free); fruit options that include banana, blueberry, peach, strawberry, pineapple, kiwi and mango; and choice of toppings such as agave, sliced almonds, cacao nibs, chia seeds, coconut flakes, caramel, peanut butter or raisins.
One of Sassy Acai Bowls’ co-founders, Hector Gonzales, is co-owner of Dayton-area Victor’s Taco Shop locations and founder of Hector’s Taco Shop in Fairborn.
In an interview at the new Kettering carryout location, Gonzales said he got the idea for Sassy Bowls from a similar operation in the San Diego area, where members of his family live.
His own wife and daughters helped convince him to launch the new venture because of the shortage of restaurants offering healthy options, he said.
“I love this concept,” Gonzales said.
Jillian Hopkins, the restaurant’s manager, said, “We don’t use sugar. We use all-natural sweeteners, and everything is made fresh. We make all of our sandwiches and other menu items to order.”
Acai (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) berries are a reddish-purple fruit native to Central and South America and rich in anti-oxidants. Dragon fruit also is high in antioxidants.
For more information, check out the Sassy Acai Bowls Facebook page or call 937-331-8030. Delivery via DoorDash and Uber Eats is available.
Pour Haus has new owner
The Pour Haus in Washington Twp. has a new owner who is planning several upgrades to the sports bar and pub at 536 Miamisburg-Centerville Road.
Mark Rothwell of Butler Twp., who was affiliated with Little York Tavern for 11 years, purchased the Pour Haus three weeks ago. Multiple improvements are in the works, the new owner said.
“We will start with a standard remodel, with new floors, upgraded paneling, and some repairs to the bar,” Rothwell said. “We will upgrade the kitchen, install a hood and a flat-top grill and a fryer. We want to serve top-of-the-line bar food. And we will bring in some top-shelf bourbons” to the nearly two dozen beer taps, most devoted to craft brews.
Plans also call for adding some live music and D Js, as well as karaoke and trivia nights.
Rothwell, who loves to hunt and fish, said he will introduce an outdoor theme that will give the bar a bit of a lodge feel.”We will still be a hometown sports bar, but it will have more of an outdoor tone,” he said.
Rothwell served as general manager of the Little York Tavern in Butler Twp. for several years, and before that, he oversaw a Little York Tavern Pizza franchise operation in Franklin from 1995-2001.
“I wanted to get back into the business and work for myself,” Rothwell said about his decision to purchase the Pour Haus. “With my 21 years in the food business, and even more years than that in management, I wanted to run my own place. I wanted to control my own destiny.”
Rothwell has no intention of renaming the pub. “Everybody knows the Pour Haus name,” he said.
The space has housed a sports pub for decades, with names such as Screamers and The Ritz, and it has morphed into JD’s Pour Haus by the mid1990s. It changed hands a few times until 2012, when it was purchased by Jerry Gordon and Joe Lakatos, who maintained ownership until selling it to Rothwell a few weeks ago.
“We’ve had a great run, and it’s time to pass the torch,” Gordon and Lakatos said in a Feb. 19 post on the Pour Haus Facebook page. “We would just like to thank you for all of the amazing times and your continued support. We have had the pleasure to get to know you and made friendships that will last a lifetime. It has been our honor to serve you and love you with all our hearts.”