Kettering looking to draw jobs to property
City to offer companies incentives, JobsOhio giving aid to modernize site.
— A local and state KETTERING economic incentive package will help modernize a Miami Valley Research Park property officials say can attract jobs near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The incentives are the latest in efforts by the City of Kettering to help make the Miami Valley Research Park more attractive to companies.
Kettering plans to provide up to $600,000 in grants while JobsOhio will add an amount currently unspecified to modernize a 135,000-square-feet commercial building on 10 acres at 1900 Founders Drive that its owner said is part of a multimillion investment at the research park.
The site’s size and proximity to Wright-Patt was cited by JobsOhio as a key factor in its interest and the incentives will help give the building formerly home to defense contractors a large amount of “class A” office space, helping to spur more jobs in Kettering, officials said.
Officials said the site — which had housed Booz Allen and Northrop Grumman — has been virtually vacant since 2018. It was bought last year by Kettering Founders LLC, operated by Industrial Commercial Properties, a Cleveland-based business that owns about 50 acres at the research park.
“Investing in 1900 Founders Drive will revitalize a building that has been vacant for too long,” J.P. Nauseef, JobsOhio president and CEO, said in an announcement this week by the Dayton Development Coalition.
“With assistance from ( JobsOhio), 1900 Founders Drive will be a premier site with a large space near Wright-Patterson, making it ideal for innovative companies that are looking to grow,” he added.
After upgrades, “the site would be primed for defense contractors looking for space near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, corporate headquarters or regional offices,” officials stated.
“Large class A office space is rare in the region as there are no other sites with more than 25,000 square feet available in the East Dayton market,” they added.
The investment, ICP owner Chris Semarjian said in the announcement, “will allow us to market the site to businesses and site selection consultants as a premier office location.”
ICP owns four other buildings at the research park and “our redevelopment of and improvements” to those properties “will be a multimillion-dollar investment,” company executive Dean Miller told the Dayton Daily News.
ICP’s research park buildings can offer defense-related businesses options at a time when office space closer to Wright-Patt is limited, he said.
“The east market out there, the area around the Air Force base — or driven by the Air Force base — is relatively tight, space-wise,” Miller said. “So I think it’s a good opportunity for both the city and for us.”
The Founders building has 141,000 square feet of space, with all but 6,000 of it available, according to ICP’s website.
JobsOhio will offer aid though its new Site Inventory Program, said Matt Englehart, communications manager for the organization. The program offers grants and low-interest loans to support speculative site and building development projects with no identified end user, officials said.
Englehart said details on the amount of JobsOhio’s commitment will be released when its agreement is executed.
An economic development incentive agreement approved by Kettering City Council on Tuesday night will reimburse ICP and “strengthen the city’s opportunities for economic development, as well as redevelopment,” Kettering Mayor Don Patterson said in the announcement.
“This, in turn, promotes the potential for new employment opportunities within our city,” he added.
ICP plans “a total renovation on this building,” including revamping the interior and exterior, said Gregg Gorsuch, Kettering economic development manager.
A draft of the Kettering deal states ICP will also build a parking lot with “new asphalt pavement, full depth curbs, landscape islands, parking lot lighting, landscaping, sidewalks, ADA curb ramps, and a driveway and sidewalk connection to Spaulding Road.”
The 200-space parking lot alone is expected to cost in excess of $600,000, Gorsuch said.
The building, one of the first in the Miami Valley Research Park, was built in 1986, officials said.
In December, the city said it was building a new road in the commercial park as part of land sale to Life Connections of Ohio for its new headquarters. The city said the roadway also will help open more land for future development.
Life Connection of Ohio is an organ donation center which plans to move its regional office from Dayton to Kettering as part of an expansion that could eventually nearly double its number of jobs, its Chief Executive Officer Matthew Wadsworth has said.
Earlier this week, Industrial Commercial Properties told the Dayton Daily News the company is looking to build multifamily residential housing on about 28 acres at the northwest corner of Research Park Boulevard and County Line Road.