Huntsville, Ala., base chosen for U.S. Space Command
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Wednesday that the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., is the Department of the Air Force’s preferred location for the headquarters of Space Command.
“The governor is proud to announce that Huntsville’s Redstone Region is set to house the headquarters,” a statement from Ivey’s office said. “This morning, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Instillations Bob Moriarity called Gov. Ivey to inform her of Secretary Barbara Barrett’s Space Command headquarters preferred candidate basing decision.”
In November, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base did not make a list of six finalists to be home to Space Command headquarters, with its expected 1,400 new jobs, a disappointment to Dayton and Wright-Patt advocates.
Huntsville won a spot on that list of finalists, as did Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico; Offutt AFB, Nebraska; Patrick AFB, Florida; Peterson AFB, Colorado; and Port San Antonio, Texas.
Redstone, near Huntsville, is a U.S. Army post that has served as a garrison for the Army Material Command, the Army Aviation and Missile Command, the Missile Defense Agency and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, among other missions.
U.S. Space Command was created by President Donald Trump in 2018. While U.S. Space Force headquarters has been — and will remain — in the Pentagon, Space Command was provisionally located in Colorado Springs until a new location was named.
Honda to create 120 new jobs at Ohio plant
JobsOhio has approved a $2.8 million development grant to boost a planned investment in Honda’s engine plant in Anna, according to the state development arm’s monthly incentives report.
The project would entail a commitment by Honda of America Mfg., Inc. to an investment of $200 million, an investment that would create 120 new jobs, with an attendant new payroll of $5,304,000.
Retained would 2,367 current jobs, according to a JobsOhio summary of the project. The fixed asset investment would reach $200 million, the report says.
In June 2019, Honda filed a building permit application for a $15 million expansion at its Anna plant.
The reason given for the permit, filed for the 12500 Meranda Road factory, is “plant expansion,” records show.
The value of the expansion is given as $15 million, according to Shelby County building permit records.
The size of the facility is 74,374 square feet, records show.
Located about an hour’s drive north of Dayton, the Anna plant in Shelby County has operated since 1985, growing from 100 workers into what Honda says is its second-largest Ohio operation, employing more than 2,800 people.
The plant annually produces more than 1 million four-cylinder, V-6 and turbo engines for Honda auto plants across North America. In addition, the plant also produces pulleys for Continuously Variable Transmissions used in the Honda Accord and CR-V.
BBQ restaurant closes
The locally owned and operated Crossroads BBQ & More restaurant, which moved into a former Cadillac Jack’s space in Fairborn in April 2019, will shut its doors at week’s end, its owners announced on their restaurant’s Facebook page.
“We’re sad to announce we will be closing permanently at the end of this week,” the restaurant’s owners wrote last week. “Thanks for your support.”
The restaurant also had a food truck, but there are no plans to continue operating the food truck after the restaurant shuts down, Crossroads’ owners said in a comment in their Facebook post.
The announcement sent a shock wave through Crossroads BBQ’s Facebook followers, who responded with comments of support and sadness.
The restaurants owners planned to host many different kinds of events, including car shows, bike shows, cornhole tournaments, trivia and karaoke, as well as live music — activities most adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cafe gets overwhelming response
Cafe 1610 co-founder Xtine Brean didn’t know what to expect recently when she issued a heartfelt Facebook plea for help for the vegan restaurant that she and two business partners opened four months ago in Dayton.
The response was overwhelming.
“I’m an owner of Dayton’s only all-vegan café, and we are struggling for real,” Brean wrote on her personal Facebook page on Jan. 4. “I really could use some support! If you’re vegan or ever just wondered how good vegan food could be, won’t you please give us a try. (If it sounds like I’m begging ..... i kinda am).”
The post was shared by more than 7,900 Facebook users — a staggering number, especially for a post on a private Facebook page. It received more than 1,100 “likes” and 1,300 comments.
The viral post also generated a surge in business last week — a surge that Brean told this news outlet she and her fellow restaurant owners were not prepared for.
Brean had previously operated a local vegan food truck, Om Nom Mobile Cafe. The other co-founders of the restaurant at 521 Wayne Ave. are Molly Blackshear and Blackshear’s mother, Cathy Mong.
“Don’t get it wrong — we’re ecstatic at the increase in orders coming in to our little café,” Mong said. “But it has been an overwhelming experience, and we hope, first and foremost, that anyone not receiving the very best service try to understand this is way beyond anything we’ve experienced since opening Sept. 5, and we’re doing what we can to offer a great experience.”
Cafe 1610 operates out of the market-style space called the District Provisions building, also known as the Dietz Block building, which was built in 1886 at Wayne Avenue and Jones Street in Dayton. The restaurant closed
its dining room six weeks ago to focus solely on carryout, curbside pickup and delivery.
Culver’s owner buys property
It’s official: A former Ruby Tuesday restaurant site in Vandalia has a new owner.
Miller Lane Property Management LLC bought the Ruby Tuesday property at 6425 Miller Lane from a Maryville, Tenn., limited liability company, Store Master Funding XIII LLC, for $1.45 million, Montgomery County records show.
Records give the sales date as Monday.
State records link the Miller Lane Property Management LLC to David Potts, who owns D&L Sales and a pair of Culver’s franchises in the Dayton area.
Potts, a Miami County native who launched the Culver’s restaurant in Troy in 2004 and added the Sidney location in 2007, told this news outlet last month that his partnership has closed on the former Ruby Tuesday.
Construction will start soon on what is expected to be the new Culver’s location closest to Dayton for the Wisconsin-based restaurant chain, known for its ButterBurgers and Fresh Frozen Custard.
Two restaurants to close temporarily
January is a brutal month for restaurants even in the best of times — and these, of course, are not the best of times.
As a result, two more Dayton-area restaurants have decided to pause operations temporarily through the end of January due to the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on sales during on top of what is traditionally the slowest month for the restaurant industry.
“We want to thank everyone for their love and support this last year. We have decided to close for the month of January to rethink, reinvent, and refuel,” the owner of The Winds Cafe in Yellow
Springs wrote on the restaurant’s Facebook page Jan. 2.
Plans call for The Winds Cafe to reopen on Feb. 2. The adjacent Winds Wine Cellar is scheduled to reopen two weeks earlier than the restaurant, on Jan. 19.
In Dayton, Texas Beef & Cattle Company, a Texas-style barbecue restaurant at 1101 W. Third St., also will suspend operations for the rest of the month.
“It is notoriously an extremely slow month; add in COVID, and we’re looking forward to a little mental rest,” owners James Nuñez and Erin Belangia-Sanchez said in a Facebook post. “We hope to see you all in 2021!”
No reopening date has been set. Nuñez and Belangia-Sanchez said in a phone interview Monday that they are uncertain what the end of January will bring. The restaurant’s business has been hurt by the extended closure of the West Third Street bridge over the Great Miami River, a reconstruction project that is expected to last another year.
Wright-Patterson to allow development
Developers, take heed: Ohio’s largest single-site employer is looking for collaborators in developing Air Force land.
The Air Force Civil Engineer Center and 88th Air Base Wing will host the first “virtual industry exchange” Jan. 21 to explore possible mixed-use commercial development at the base, the Air Force Civil Engineer Center said Wednesday.
The virtual exchange forum opens the door to the Air Force’s Enhanced Use Lease program.
Gerlaugh Farm, as Wright-Patterson leaders call it, is one of two parcels the base has announced could be open to extended use leases or EULs. Such leases open federal property to investors or users for possible leasing and development. Those investors pay fair market rent or in-kind considerations to use what could be prime commercial sites.
Besides Gerlaugh Farm, the second tract of base land to be made open to EUL exploration is what the base called “the Area B Hilltop Tract,” which covers 23.92 acres.
Enhanced Use Lease projects can include hotels, business parks, solar arrays, sports complexes, energy and commercial mixeduse developments.
The Air Force has released a draft Request for Lease Proposal on https://beta.sam.gov/. The draft RFLP closes Jan. 29.
To register, search “WPAFB Virtual EUL Industry Exchange” on BigMarker.
For questions regarding industry exchange or registration, send an email to WPAFB.EUL@SpecProSvcs.com.
DP&L sells power station property
Dayton Power & Light has sold former power station property off the Great Miami River in Miamisburg for just over $866,000 to a New York redeveloper of industrial properties.
A DP&L spokeswoman, Mary Ann Kabel, said the property was sold to Frontier Industrial Corp. She referred questions to Frontier and declined to say whether the sale is contingent on further environmental remediation at the site.
“We’re in compliance for the sale,” Kabel said Tuesday.
Buffalo, New York-based Frontier describes itself as a “worldclass, comprehensive, industrial contractor offering a wide range of demolition and redevelopment services.”
In June, Frontier took over about 2,500 acres of a shuttered American Electric power plant in Conesville, Ohio, near Coshocton. According to a report in the Coshocton Tribune, the objective there is to develop a “Conesville Industrial Park.”
Demolition of structures and remediation of land in Conesville will take about seven years, that newspaper reported.