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Funding woes hinder Tech Town development
After three years of planning, initial construction at the site will begin this spring.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
DAYTON — When city officials announced plans in 2003 to convert the former Harrison Radiator factory on Monument Avenue into a high-tech business park, they expected to have the work well under way in three years if funding could be obtained.
Today, Tech Town consists of a six-story factory riddled with broken windows, five other derelict buildings marked for demolition and 8.25 acres of ready-to-build-on land along Monument Avenue.
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Economic development officials have said progress on Tech Town has been slow with clean-up and demolition done piecemeal because of a constant search for funds. They also have said the high-tech campus will begin to emerge on the old manufacturing site this spring.
"We've shown we can tear buildings down. The next step is to show we can build a building and put people in it," said Gwen Eberly, Dayton's acting economic development director.
Construction of a 48,000- square-foot building — a Creative Technology Accelerator to help launch companies on the campus — begins this spring.
Dayton's new Institute for Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology will be the first accelerator and Tech Town tenant.
The institute will use a $28 million grant from Ohio's Third Frontier Commission for research and development of remote sensing with radar, infrared radiation, long-range cameras and other high-tech devices as well as chemical and biological sensors for detecting pollution and monitoring health.
"It's great to have them as a tenant, but that (grant) is for their programs only," Eberly said.
The city has garnered nearly $11 million of its own for Tech Town since 2004 in county, state and federal funds, with most earmarked for cleanup and demolition. Eberly said she expects the first building to open in 2008, but the campus could take up to 20 years to fully develop.
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Money for cleanup and development of Tech Town
2003-07: Dayton commits $600,000 to the project.
January 2004: Dayton gets $3 million Ohio Clean grant for demolition and environmental cleanup of 8.25 acres of the former Harrison Radiator plant site on Monument Avenue east of downtown.
May 2004: Montgomery County Commission approves $400,000 ED/GE grant for development of Tech Town.
2005: Tech Town project gets a $1 million federal grant from the Army Corps of Engineers for site preparation. Clean Ohio Conservation grant of $450,000 to buy 4 acres for a park on the Tech Town campus.
December 2005: The Clean Ohio Council gives the city $3 million to continue cleanup and redevelopment of the old manufacturing plant. Asbestos removal from five buildings that will be demolished begins in March, along with clean up of the six-story building that will be renovated.
January 2006: Montgomery County Commission gives $500,000 ED/GE for Tech Town.
September 2006: Dayton receives a $2.5 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to build a Creative Technology Accelerator to help launch high-tech companies on the Tech Town Campus. The 48,000-square-foot, two-story building will be built on the site. The accelerator is the first of nine to 10 buildings planned for Tech Town and will open in 2008.
December 2006: Dayton's Institute for Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology gets a $28 million grant from the Ohio's Third Frontier Commission to create a center at Tech Town devoted to researching and commercializing sensor technologies. The center, led by the UD Research Institute, will create 364 high-paying jobs within eight years.
February 2007: Development Projects Inc., established by the Dayton Development Coalition to assist in development projects that create jobs and attract business to Dayton, commits $1 million for Tech Town projects.
