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By Tim Tresslar, Staff Writer 5:43 PM Saturday, December 26, 2009

Stress testing wasn’t just for banks in 2009.

Rampant foreclosures, plummeting home sales, spiking unemployment, struggling banks and auto companies ushered in a year fraught with economic worries for consumers, business owners and policy makers. Business news in the Dayton area often spurred its own share of heartburn. In June, NCR Corp. made public its plans to migrate from its longtime Dayton home to a new headquarters in Duluth, Ga., in 2010. Air-freight hauler DHL Express shuttered its Wilmington hub and eliminated thousands of jobs.

Not all the news was bad. Earlier this month, Caterpillar Logistics announced plans to build a $68 million distribution center in Clayton, bringing with it between 500 and 600 jobs. And on Dec. 21, the University of Dayton said it had bought NCR’s former world headquarters building, Old River Park and the surrounding 115 acres to house the University of Dayton Research Institute and an alumni center.

Among the year’s other significant business stories:

• Iams strays: In October, Procter & Gamble, parent of Iams-Eukanuba, moved the pet-food companies headquarters and 240 jobs from Vandalia to Mason. An online auction of the property resulted in the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 75 and an investor agreeing to buy the two-building campus for $1.95 million. The union plans to move 100 jobs there next year. Also in November, P&G announced plans to shift nearly 200 jobs from Iams and Eukanuba’s research and development facility in Lewisburg to Mason.

• Hospital project announced: Kettering Health Network unveiled plans to build a 259,000-square-foot, 90-bed Beavercreek Medical Center for $135 million. When it is completed in early 2012, the medical center is expected to employ 1,000. Kettering Health Network purchased the new hospital’s 35-acre site from Mills-Morgan Development for $14 million.

• A deal struck in November between Behr Dayton Thermal’s unionized workers and company management was expected to keep open the plant at 1600 Webster St., Dayton, and save 900 jobs. The pact approved by members of the International Union of Electronic Workers - Communications Workers of America Local 775 is expected to trim $12 million in operating costs, officials said. Had the union spurned the agreement, company and labor leaders say it would have prompted Behr to shutter the plant, which makes heating and air conditioning parts.

• Real estate: After a weak start early in the year, new and existing home sales began to regain their footing — sometimes in fits and starts — thanks in part to federal tax credits.

In Dayton’s market for existing homes, sales jumped 42.8 percent in November over the same month in 2008, while the average sales price for the homes jumped 16 percent. Permits for new homes and condos grew nearly 30 percent during the month.

In commercial real estate, Aegon USA Realty Advisors Inc., said it plans to close all but the ground floor of its 32-34 N. Main St. office tower — formerly the site of KeyBank’s local headquarters — during first quarter 2010.

Looking forward, Richard Stock, director of the University of Dayton’s Business Research Group, said the region should see some job growth in the second half of 2010, though how much depends on the performance of the national economy.

“I think the issues are we look a whole lot more like the national economy than we did a year ago or eight years ago because of the dramatic decline in our manufacturing base,” Stock said. “What happens to us I expect to be very closely tied to the national economy.

The region will see positive events, such as an influx of jobs to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, but the change in the types of jobs available here will make it a challenging time for some workers.

“Our problem is that ... we still sit there with a substantial number of people that are going to have tremendous difficulty finding employment in this area because the nature of the jobs that will be available in this area will dramatically change,” he said.

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