$800M Miami County project gets funding

Warren County to finance $13M in bonds for Stillwater Crossings.

A Warren County WEST MILTON — agency approved a key step for a 100-acre Miami County development expected to draw more than $80 million in investment.

The Warren County Port Authority on Tuesday approved the sale of up to $13 million in bonds to finance the roads and other infrastructure for Stillwater Crossings, a mixed-used development in West Milton, a village in Miami County.

The project is to include a Randall Residence for senior citizens, more than 130 homes, 80 “senior care” condominiums, retail, including restaurants and a gas station, a medical facility and offices.

“It’s huge deal for West Milton,” said Village Manager Matt Kline.

West Milton is about 50 miles north of Lebanon, west of the Dayton International Airport. The new residents moving into the community could take the population beyond the 5,000 mark, qualifying it as a city.

The project is being developed by a company headed by Ron Coffman on a former farm at Ohio 571 and Iddings Road, about five miles west of Interstate 75.

“We’re just excited that it’s happening,” Kline said. “I can’t wait til they break ground and do it.”

The bonds will be repaid through tax increment financing (TIF), diverting all of the property tax on the homes for four years and businesses for 15 years, according to Kline.

A new community authority has also been formed to help pay for the development, according to Andy Brossart, the port authority’s financial advisor.

The bonds are being sold to cover $11.7 million in costs: $8.1 million for the infrastructure, $2.9 million in reserve funds for investors and $680,000 in fees to the port authority, Brossart and other consultants working on the project, according to Brossart and Martin Russell, executive director of the port authority.

The resolutions for the bonds authorize sales of up to $13 million as a contingency, Brossart and Russell said Tuesday before the port board vote.

The board unanimously approved the resolutions during a meeting Tuesday in the Warren County Administration Building in Lebanon.

The deal is expected to qualify the county for a rating from Standard & Poors for the authority’s Ohio Communities Accelerator Fund, Russell and Brossart said.

Russell said the rating would leave the county with “a very, very important economic development tool” to use in assisting local governments and businesses throughout the region in borrowing money to finance big projects.

Russell said the project, just one of the deals involving economic development outside Warren County, was the result of a discussion with Coffman begun over a different project.

Coffman is known for developing Settlers Walk in Springboro and more recently for Randall Residence senior care developments in Centerville and Tipp City. He could not be reached for comment.

The company for this project is Grace Developments, according to a website marketing the project.

Kline said the West Milton facility would offer memory care and assisted and independent living. He looked for Coffman to begin selling the commercial properties in July.

“This is something we’ve been working on a long time to make happen,” Kline said.

Kline said the project was conceived in 2014, after he visited his mother and realized the community needed senior care facilities.

West Milton commissioned a feasibility study for the project.

Kline said he negotiated the purchase of the former farm in 2015. The land-use plan and TIF were established in 2017.

The TIF is set up so that “after four years, the schools get 100 percent of what they would earn” from homes built at Stillwater Crossings, Kline said.

All property tax from commercial development will go to the bond debt for 15 years.

At this point, the school district would begin getting its portion, about 70 percent, according to Kline.

Property tax otherwise going to Miami County, the village and other entities would continue to go to pay off the bonds for 30 years, Kline added.

The homes are to be built by Ryan Homes.

The commercial development is to include restaurants, a gas station, car wash, medical, doctor and other professional offices.