Area home sales off to strong start in 2020
The first month of 2020 brought continued strong home sale numbers in the Dayton area, with nearly 930 transactions reported to the Multiple Listing Service, the Dayton Realtors trade organization said Friday — a number that bested January 2019’s mark by 5%.
For sales of single-family homes and condominiums, 928 transactions were reported to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in January, Dayton Realtors said.
That represented a cumulative sales volume of $157 million, a 23% jump over the same point in 2019.
The average sale price for January also surged, 17% compared to last January, to $169,769. Median sale prices did likewise, ending the month at $142,750, also up 17% from last year.
Entries of single-family homes and condos during the month grew 10% compared to last year, the organization said.
The trade group continues to watch supply. The total of active listings for sale in the MLS — a system of entering and sharing information for Realtors — at the end of January stood at 2,648, down from the 3,211 active listings available last year at the same time.
The supply of listings, based on January’s pace of sales, was only two months, Dayton Realtors said.
Last month, the organization said average price, median price, number of sold units and sales volume for all of 2019 bettered record-setting marks in 2018.
Kroger Marketplace nears opening
The new Kroger Marketplace in Moraine is hiring to fill jobs as it nears its opening, targeted for the end of the month, according to the city.
The new store – an investment of about $4 million by the company — is expected to more than double Kroger’s retail space at the Alex Bell Plaza off Ohio 741 in Moraine and add jobs, officials have said.
Signs indicate an ongoing hiring effort at the new site being built just north of the 57,000-square-foot existing store. “Kroger is proposing to be open by February 27,” according to Moraine city records.
Grand opening will come later after demo of existing building and parking improvements.”
Plans call for the Kroger Marketplace to be about 122,000 square feet, including both floor and “back-of-house” space, company Spokeswoman Erin Rolfes has said. Attempts to reach Rolfes Tuesday regarding the opening date, jobs and other store details were unsuccessful.
Moraine City Manager Michael Davis confirmed the target date for the opening. Davis said he expects the new store to add jobs and invigorate nearby business activity.
Part of Victoria’s Secret sold to private equity firm
Victoria’s Secret, which once defined sexy with its leggy supermodels prancing around in their bras and oversized angel wings, is being sold as women increasingly look for styles that more realistically fit their body type.
The company’s owner, L Brands, said that the private-equity firm Sycamore Brands will buy 55% of Victoria’s Secret for about $525 million. The Columbus company will keep the remaining 45% stake. After the sale, L Brands will be left with its Bath & Body Works chain and Victoria’s Secret will become a private company.
For 25 years, L Brands has operated a Kettering call center, which supports Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. The 5959 Bigger Road call center employs about 900 though has regularly held hiring surges seeking thousands of seasonal workers.
Les Wexner, who founded the company in 1963, will step down as chairman and CEO after the transaction is completed and become chairman emeritus. Wexner has been grappling with his own troubles, including questions over his ties to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was indicted on sex-trafficking charges.
The selling price for Victoria’s Secret signifies a marked decline for a brand with hundreds of stores that booked about $7 billion in revenue last year. Shares of L Brands, slid more than 7% Thursday.
“We believe the separation of Victoria’s Secret Lingerie, Victoria’s Secret Beauty and PINK into a privately held company provides the best path to restoring these businesses to their historic levels of profitability and growth,” said Wexner in a prepared statement.
Deadline soon for SBA tornado help
The deadline for area businesses and nonprofit organizations affected by the Memorial Day tornadoes to apply for Small Business Administration economic injury disaster loans is March 18.
An extended deadline for physical damage disaster loans already passed in September.
Low-interest loans of up to $2 million remain available to private nonprofits and businesses — even those whose buildings were not directly hit — to alleviate financial hardship stemming from the storm.
The loans are designed to meet the working capital needs of small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private nonprofit organizations, according to the SBA.
“If there was a business that was damaged economically, where they couldn’t get supplies of something for some reason, or a road was out or the electricity was out for a time and damaged their business that way, we also work with those loans as well,” said Rob Scott, the SBA’s regional administrator.
Businesses with less than 500 employees can apply for the SBA loans, which can also go toward a payroll shortfall resulting from the disaster, Scott said.
“If they had to put out money to pay employees yet weren’t making any money, we will step in and actually provide capital loans to use as a line of credit if they need it,” he said.
A record 16 tornadoes hit western Ohio on Memorial Day, including four that damaged Montgomery County. The most destructive, rated an EF4 by the National Weather Service, tore a swath from Brookville to Riverside.
About 9% of the more than 4,400 properties damaged by tornadoes in Montgomery County were commercial or industrial, according to auditor’s office data, but the businesses accounted for about 42% of property tax revenue losses, or $711,974. Nearly half of the 387 commercial properties affected were in Harrison Twp.
Interest rates on the economic injury loans are as low as 4% for businesses and 2.75% for nonprofits. Loan amounts and terms are set by the SBA and are based on each applicant’s financial condition.
Small businesses and most private nonprofit organizations in the following Ohio disaster-declared counties are eligible to apply: Auglaize, Darke, Greene, Hocking, Mahoning, Mercer, Miami, Montgomery, Muskingum, Perry, Pickaway.
Fuyao to honor filmmakers
Leaders of Fuyao Glass America plan to honor Yellow Springs-based filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar next week.
Reichert and Bognar, with their team, were the creative force behind the acclaimed Netflix documentary “American Factory,” a film exploring up-close the creation of Fuyao’s automotive glass production facility in the shell of a former General Motors plant.
The documentary recently won an Academy Award for “best feature length” documentary.
Jeff Liu, Fuyao Glass America’s chief executive, said company leaders, as well as guests from JobsOhio, the Dayton Development Coalition, the city of Moraine and others will be on hand to honor the filmmakers at Taste of the World, Fuyao’s plant restaurant Wednesday evening.
Reichert and Bognar — longtime pillars of Dayton’s art and film community — received the Oscar in the “documentary feature” category at the awards ceremony Feb. 9. They share the award with Jeff Reichert.
Julia Reichert, a nationally acclaimed artist who has been called the godmother of the American independent film movement, is battling cancer.
J.P. Nauseef — a Miami Valley native who leads JobsOhio as president and chief investment officer — and Jeff Hoagland, president and chief executive of the Dayton Development Coalition, urged
Reichert and Bognar to make the film that became “American Factory,” shortly after Fuyao announced its plans in early 2014 to build in Moraine.
Reichert and Bognar are also well known for their HBO documentary examining the closure of the GM-Moraine plant, “The Last Truck.”
Fuyao has more than 2,300 employees in its sprawling plant off West Stroop Road in Moraine.
Local Appvion paper plant to be sold
A South Carolina company has announced its intention to acquire a Wisconsin paper maker’s Dayton-area assets.
Domtar Corp. announced recently that it entered into an asset purchase agreement with Appvion Operations to acquire its “point of sale” paper business.
The agreement includes the coater and related equipment located at Appvion’s West Carrollton facility as well as a license for all relevant intellectual property.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter.
“Appvion and Domtar have enjoyed a strong mutually beneficial relationship over the last several years as part of our long-term supply agreement,” Graeme Hodson, president of Appvion’s paper division, said in a statement.
In October 2017, Appvion and some of its subsidiaries filed voluntary Chapter 11 cases, seeking protection from creditors. By the spring of 2018, a bankruptcy court approved the sale of Appvion’s assets to a lenders group.
Beer pub making changes
A Kettering beerthemed pub is transitioning into a family-oriented restaurant, with a new name to match its new concept: Junior’s Pizza, Wings & Subs.
Gary Leasure Jr., owner of The Growler Pub & Grub at 3808 Wilmington Pike, said the business will morph into Junior’s Pizza, Wings & Subs today.
The restaurant is in the process of changing its limited liability corporation ownership, so it would have had to transfer its liquor license to serve alcohol. But Leasure said he has been looking to change the concept anyway.
The craft-beer market has changed considerably in the last five or six years, Leasure said. Earlier in the decade, beer enthusiasts had to go to a craft brewery or one of a small handful of beer pubs to buy high-quality craft beer. Now, high-end craft beers are available at many grocery stores and gas stations, the pub owner said. The concept change will give his business a better chance to survive and thrive, Leasure said.
“In the long run, I think we’ll have a great product in a great location, and our concept will make us unique again,” Leasure said.
Arepas to close second location
The owners of Arepas & Co Colombian Comfort Food have closed their second restaurant in the last three months, and will focus their attention on the sole remaining Arepas & Co location in downtown Dayton, a manager of the downtown restaurant said Wednesday.
The lease was up at the Arepas restaurant at 1122 E. Dorothy Lane in Kettering, and a decision was made to close the location, in part because of medical issues in the family that owns and operates Arepas, the manager said.
The Kettering space, set back from the road and tucked in behind another business, had earned a reputation as a graveyard of restaurants of sorts prior to the arrival of Arepas, which survived there for nearly six years, considerably longer than its predecessors.
The closure comes less than three months after another Arepas location on State Route 725 in Washington Twp., which had opened in June 2017, also shut down. At that time, Arepas & Co co-founder Lisa Perdomo said family medical issues led to the decision to close. Efforts to reach Perdomo were unsuccessful.
The Arepas restaurant in the former Wympee building on East Third Street at Wayne Avenue in downtown Dayton was open and operating Wednesday, and its manager said the owners would “re-launch” and focus efforts on that location in the coming days and weeks.
The Perdomos opened their first location inside the Second Street Market in downtown Dayton in 2012, using the market as an incubator and a springboard to open free-standing locations. They opened what was then their second location in March 2014 at 1122 E. Dorothy Lane in Kettering. Another Arepas opened in the former Olive Urban Dive space at 416 E. Third St. in downtown Dayton in January 2016.