Old Scratch is closed briefly

Old Scratch Pizza closed its original location in Dayton for a week starting Wednesday, May 20, for renovations in both the kitchen and the dining room, co-founder Eric Soller said.

The restaurant will reconfigure kitchen equipment to boost the kitchen’s production capacity, Soller said. And the dining room, which was based on a communal-dining atmosphere with picnic-bench style seating, will be reconfigured as well, “with an eye toward reopening to the public in a socially distant way,” Soller said.

Curbside carryout will resume May 27 at the Dayton location.

“We are still evaluating our dining-room reopening, but it will not happen on May 27,” Soller said.

“We had previously scheduled a one-week shutdown even before the stay-at-home order” that was initiated in March, Soller said.

The Old Scratch location at 812 S. Patterson Blvd. opened in October 2016. A second location opened last fall at 440 Miamisburg-Centerville Road in Washington Twp. That restaurant will be open and operating for curbside carryout this week and will not be affected by the Dayton location’s renovation project.

Dayton Club owner responds to suit

The owner of the Dayton Club responded to a recent lawsuit in a new message to club members Wednesday, charging that its landlord has kept club employees locked out of the club’s space atop Stratacache Tower.

That landlord, Arkham Ventures, owner of Stratacache Tower, responded in turn by saying it secured the property after Dayton Club owner ClubCorp failed to make rent payments.

Arkham last week sued the former Dayton Racquet Club in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, saying the club has failed to make April and May lease payments and left perishable items in the “unsecured” club space.

The suit also alleged that people have availed themselves of the club’s “fully stocked” bars since the club’s closure in March.

A new message from Dallas-based ClubCorp — the Dayton Club’s owner — does not directly say whether the company intends to reopen the club. When the Dayton Daily News contacted ClubCorp’s general counsel this past week, she declined to comment.

The message to club members from Dallas-based ClubCorp said, “As you know, due to COVID-19 and the governor’s order, our club has been closed for full service to members since late March. (A Dayton Daily News article) and lawsuit reference the club being abandoned and unattended; however, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have had staff at the club to handle administrative tasks, as well as to provide meals to our furloughed employees.”

“Just last week and without notice, our landlord boarded up the club and is not allowing us to access our space,” ClubCorp added. “This action has forced us to close our doors until further notice. We strongly disagree with their position and the assertions in the article and lawsuit they filed.”

ClubCorp said that in April, the company communicated that it would issue “usage credits” to eligible members “as the company evaluated its plan and navi

gated the impacts of the governor’s order.”

“When we billed your dues in April, we had no knowledge that our landlord would lock us out of our club and prevent any entry by our employees or members,” ClubCorp said in its emailed message. “With this recent action by the landlord and no longer having access to the club, in the coming weeks, we plan to refund all members for their prorated dues paid in March as well as for the entire month of April.”

Chris Riegel, chief executive of Stratacache and owner of Arkham, said Wednesday he and his colleagues have communicated with ClubCorp for three months. Club representatives have been clear in their communications that they intend to close the Dayton Club, Riegel said.

However, if the club wishes to reopen, that’s simple enough, he added.

“It’s super simple. ClubCorp, pay your rent,” he said.

Riegel dismissed the company’s email as a “charade.”

Ten club members had appointments to go to the club Wednesday to retrieve personal property, Riegel also said. “We’re facilitating that day in and day out with members,” he said.

DP&L Foundation gives recovery funds

The Dayton Power and Light Co. Foundation is awarding $26,306 to support recovery efforts from last year’s Memorial Day tornadoes.

The tornado recovery grant will go to Rebuilding Together Dayton, the foundation said Wednesday.

After last year’s tornadoes, the DP&L Foundation Board set up a fund to allow AES (DP&L’s parent company) and AES employees worldwide to contribute to the Dayton region’s long-term recovery, the foundation said.

The grant from this fund will allow tornado recovery projects to move forward, “helping to lift our community and accelerate the long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts that have slowed due to the COVID-19 shutdowns,” the foundation said in an announcement Wednesday.

Dayton competing for Space Command

Dayton has everything to gain and nothing to lose in competing for the headquarters of the U.S. Space Command, a national location specialist familiar with the

Dayton area said Monday.

But competing for the command and its 1,400 good jobs will be a distinct challenge for Dayton, said John Boyd, owner of Princeton, N.J.-based Boyd Co., a national location consulting firm.

“Dayton clearly is an outlier in the competition for the new Space Command headquarters,” Boyd said Monday.

On May 15, the Department of Defense invited communities to nominate themselves as a home for the U.S. Space Command, which was formed last August as the military’s 11th unified combatant command, overseeing U.S. military missions in orbit.

The future headquarters is expected to have about 1,400 military and civilian employees.

Loren Thompson, a Virginia-based

defense industry analyst familiar with the Dayton area, says Colorado Springs already has the “critical mass” in place for hosting the command. The command is based provisionally at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

“I think Dayton or any place in Ohio would be a long shot in seeking the location,” Thompson said.

Even as it faces an uphill climb, there are strengths the Dayton area enjoys that advocates can emphasize — assets that can boost the region in other ways, drawing positive attention from a global corporate audience, Boyd said.

For example, the Dayton area boasts impressive intellectual capital, and Dayton leaders should talk more about that, he suggested.

“Only four markets in the nation have more science and engineering graduates in the labor market,” Boyd said. “How many executives know that right now? Not enough.”

Big Sandy Superstore to open 2nd location

Big Sandy Superstore, which entered the Dayton-area market last fall with a store near the Dayton Mall in Miami Twp., has decided on a location for it second Dayton-area location: Huber Heights.

The company has submitted site-development plans to the city to open a new store at 5239 Taylorsville Road, which formerly housed the Huber Heights Racquetball Club.

Big Sandy invested in its first Dayton-area location last year, transforming a 53,360-square-foot building at 2400 Miamisburg Centerville Road.