Another building set for business corridor
Despite slow economy, investment expected to top $15M next spring.
MIAMISBURG — Another building is planned for a growing Miamisburg business corridor as part of investment expected to top $15 million by next spring.
A 60,000-square-foot spec office/light industrial building is proposed as a fourth site at Austin Business Park on Byers Road near the Austin Boulevard interchange of Interstate 75, Miamisburg records show.
Plans for that project — estimated to cost about $4 million and involve 6.45 acres — are expected to go before the Miamisburg Planning Commission later this month, said Jason Rudzinski of Mark Fornes Realty.
Rudzinski said the success in attracting companies to the business park and the type of tenants it appeals to is a key reason for the project going forward during a slowing economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Throughout this coronavirus the retail and office markets have struggled somewhat,” he said. “Whereas, what we’ve seen, the light industrial space has remained strong and steady. So that’s why we’re optimistic about going forward and why we’re going to do this building.”
The business park is home to about 300 jobs, Miamisburg Development Director Chris Fine said. City records show a fourth building would bring the total square footage at the development to about 245,000.
Meanwhile, it would increase the investment to between $16 million and $18 million, Rudzinksi said.
“We would like to break ground on the building this summer ... and have it ready for tenants by probably March of 2021,” he said.
The business park is owned by BW Partners Ltd., a partnership of Fornes Realty and private investors, Rudzinski said. Located on the west side of I-75 across from Austin Landing, about 16 acres of the park has been developed with nearly 68 acres still vacant, said Miamisburg
City Planner Ryan Homsi.
The park is just north of two businesses that have built their North American headquarters near the Austin interchange.
Combined, Yaskawa America and United Grinding have brought hundreds of jobs closer to I-75 in recent years, with UG’s $13 million home the key part in a project that brought a new connector road expected to spur further development.
The fourth building at Austin Business Park would be north of Nickolai Boulevard, the road built by the city from Byers to United Grinding.
“We are excited to see the fourth building under way at Austin Business Park and we hope to see the momentum continue into 2021,” Fine said in an email.
“The community’s investment, some 15 years ago, in the Austin interchange and Byers Road realignment projects paved the way for the tremendous economic development opportunism we see today,” he added.
Construction of the third building — totaling 62,000-square-foot — has been completed and the site is full, Rudzinski said.
“We build all of these buildings as speculative. We build them and we carve them up as tenants come along,” he said.
“In Building III, we were very fortunate,” Rudzinski added. “We had leases on the entire building signed before we even started (putting up) the walls.”
Ryan Homes, Wurth Electronics and Winter Guard International occupy that site. Fornes Realty is talking with potential tenants for Building IV, but has no leases signed at this point, Rudzinski said.
Tenants of Buildings I and II include Fornes Realty, Nautilus Hyosung, LJR Electronics, ElectriPack, ChangeUp Inc., AIG Studios, Orion Sports Medicine and Prosource, Fine said.