Downtown Dayton has seen big changes since 2000
■ April 2000: Day Air Ballpark opens, hosting first Dayton Dragons baseball game (stadium was called Fifth Third Field then)
■ May 2001: RiverScape MetroPark and Five Rivers Fountain of Lights open
■ March 2003: Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center opens
■ 2003: Total employment downtown is 25,690 jobs
■ Late 2007: MeadWestvaco’s lease for a downtown office tower expires; the company, which was one of downtown’s largest employers, moved hundreds of jobs out of urban center in the years leading up to the lease ending
■ 2007: Total employment downtown is 23,600 jobs
■ July 2008: Reynolds and Reynolds announces it is relocating hundreds of downtown jobs to the suburbs
■ 2009: CareSource completes construction on its $55 million headquarters at the corner of Main Street and Monument Avenue
■ 2010: The Greater Downtown Dayton Plan launches
■ Late 2011: Charles Simms Development breaks ground on 18 new townhomes near the Dayton Dragons stadium that are called Patterson Square
■ 2015: Crawford Hoying and Woodard Development complete their first project in the Water Street District; the developers open 215 new apartments called the Water Street Flats
■ May 2015: The new Link Dayton Bike Share launches
■ 2017: The Wheelhouse Lofts opens near the Oregon District
■ August 2017: The new downtown Dayton Metro Library hosts its grand opening
■ Summer 2018: Windsor Companies takes over as the lead developer of the Fire Blocks District, begins work on a $35 million overhaul of Elks and Huffman Block buildings to create new housing and ground level storefront space on the 100 block of East Third Street
■ August 2018: Levitt Pavilion Dayton opens and hosts its first free concert
■ October 2018: The Fairfield Inn & Suites opens in the Water Street District, which was Downtown Dayton’s first newly constructed hotel in more than four decades
■ November 2018: A new free Flyer shuttle bus launches that operates on a short route from downtown to the area around the University of Dayton campus
■ Spring 2019: CareSource opens a new office building at First and Jefferson streets
■ March 2021: The Dayton Arcade hosts a grand opening after being closed since 1991
■ Early 2023: The Water Street District adds a new hotel called the AC Hotel Dayton and 195 new apartments. Crawford Hoying and Woodard Development have created roughly 700 new marketrate apartments in downtown since 2015.