Gionino’s Pizzeria to open second location
Gionino’s Pizzeria, which opened its first Miami Valley restaurant on East Third Street in Dayton’s Huffman Historic Area in 2019, will open a second location in the coming months on Far Hills Avenue, expanding the Akron-based pizza chain’s reach into Dayton’s south suburbs.
The new pizza shop is coming to 4015 Far Hills Ave. at Stroop Road in Kettering. The tenant space in the Castle Hills Shopping Center, located across from the Town & Country retail center, previously housed an Edible Arrangements shop that relocated within Kettering in July 2020.
The new Gionino’s location “will be primarily a take-out and delivery operation, as the space is not large enough to accommodate indoor seating,” said Tony Clark, the Dayton-area franchise owner of Gionino’s.
Clark and his franchise ownership group are excited about the future. “(We are) looking to expand our brand quickly throughout the Dayton region,” he said. “We are already looking into locations for our third and fourth stores. If all goes well, we will hopefully start the build-out for those stores later this year.”
The new Kettering carryout and delivery restaurant will employ about 20.
Florentine to add craft brewery
The owners of The Florentine in Germantown, the Dayton area’s oldest restaurant which traces its history back more than two centuries, are gearing up to add a craft brewery.
“We are SUPER excited about this and have been talking to customers to keep an eye out for our first batch to be tapped,” co-owner Beth Vanden Berg told this news outlet. “In fact, one of our customers is doing quite a lot to help us get set-up and will help us get the craft brewing going.”
The Florentine is located in Ohio’s second-oldest inn that dates to 1816. Only the Golden Lamb in Lebanon traces its lineage back farther than The Florentine.
Clay Alsip and Vanden Berg, the husband-andwife team that purchased the Florentine at 21 W. Market St. in January 2018, reopened the historic 7,000-square-foot restaurant to the public in March 2018 following some kitchen renovations.
Additional details about the new brewery will be available soon. The Florentine’s owners recently applied to the Ohio Department of Commerce
Division of Liquor Control for a craft-brewery license that will allow them to operate.
In a 2007 book “A Taste of Ohio History: A Guide to Historic Eateries and Their Recipes,” authors Debbie Nunley and Karen Jane Elliott note The Florentine “has withstood the passage of time.”
Air Force investment fund awards $700M
The Air Force investment fund, called AFVentures, has awarded more than $700 million in contracts in two years.
In all, the “open topic” contract award program used to attract SBIR (small business innovation research) and STTR (small business technology transfer) proposals resulted in 2,300 contract awards, totaling $710 million in investment in small businesses with commercial technologies the Air Force believes will boost warfighter capabilities.
The information came from Air Force Ventures’ annual report, released from Air Force Research Lab on Wednesday. AFRL is based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The University of Dayton received one of those contract awards, while the University of Dayton Research Institute received four, according to the report. Wright State University and the former Wright State Research Institute also received two. Sinclair Community College received two, the report said.
In all, nearly $26.7 million went to Ohio partners, with 116 awards, leaving the state ranked seventh nationally in the value of awards. California topped the list, with 582 awards valued at $222.3 million.
Maj. Jason Rathje, director of AFVentures, said the report details the program’s return on investment for the Air and Space Forces.
AFVentures’ portfolio companies have received $2.22 billion in private sector investment after receiving contract awards, the report says. That translates to a 3:1 private capital return on investment for the Air and Space Forces.
Home sales slightly increase in February
Sales and median prices for single-family homes and condos in the Dayton area increased in February despite continued inventory challenges, the Dayton Realtors trade organization said Monday.
With the number of local sales rising only slightly locally and actually falling a bit statewide, poor winter weather last month may be at least partly to blame, said Nationwide Senior Economist Ben Ayers.
“This should be a temporary cool down for the housing market as demand is expected to remain strong during the prime spring selling season,” Ayers said.
Locally, sales reached 1,020 in February, a 1.8% increase over the 1,002 single-family and condo sales reported in February 2020, Dayton Realtors said.
February’s local average sales price totaled $194,047, beating last year’s February figure by almost 11% The median price also grew, by 7% from last year to $159,900.
The month saw a cumulative sales volume of $197.9 million, a jump of more than 12% from last year.
Year-to-date numbers: The January-February average sales price was up 12% to $193,507, while the median price rose 10% to $160,000. The cumulative sales price rose 18% to $396.6 million while the number of sales grew 5.7% to 2,050.
Tight inventory continues to be an issue in the Dayton area (and beyond), and listings submitted in February reflected this, falling 26% to 1,056 entries, the trade group said. For January and February together, 2,190 listings were entered, down 21% from last year’s 2,794 listings.
Locally, the overall active MLS single-family and condo inventory of available listings at the end of February stood at 763 and represented less than a month’s supply of listings based on February’s resale rate.
Domino’s hiring 150
Looking for a job? Domino’s needs about 150 people across 35 Dayton-area stores.
The open positions include delivery drivers, customer service representatives, assistant managers and managers, the pizza chain said in release Monday.
“We have a huge need to hire additional team members,” said Tristan Koehler, who owns Domino’s in Dayton. “We want to continue providing great service and delicious pizza to our customers, and in order to do so, we need more part-time and full-time team members.”
Domino’s stores provide contactless delivery and carryout, as well as carside delivery to those who prefer it.
“We know that people are looking to get back into the workforce — and Domino’s has a lot of great jobs to offer,” Koehler said in the release.
Those who are interested in applying should visit jobs.dominos.com.
KOA near Brookville sold
Kampgrounds of America has bought the Dayton KOA campground property from Tall Timbers Recreation LLC for $6.7 million, according to recent Montgomery County real estate records.
The commercial campgrounds property consists of nearly 41 acres in the Clay Twp./Brookville area, according to records for the sale dated last week.
Tall Timbers is a limited liability company based in Lewisburg, according to state business records. The land was conveyed to the company in 2015.
The address for the property, which includes a multi-use office building, was given as 7796 Wellbaum Road.
COVID-related restrictions temporarily closed recreational camping last spring across Ohio. But the local KOA site reopened by early June last year, with some areas and activities either closed or temporarily altered.
The site is looking forward to a new camping season. A recent Facebook post by the local KOA last week said the site is preparing to welcome a new host, Wendy Jensen.
Jessup Wealth Management to expand
Jessup Wealth Management Inc. is expanding its offices at 35 Park Ave. in Oakwood.
Chambers Architecture, with Manfreda Construction, will renovate 2,520 square feet of space in the firm’s building, the business said in a news release.
Once completed, the new space will encompass four offices for additional employees, two new conference rooms, five workstations, two intern workstations, an updated kitchen and new bathrooms.