DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — If all plans come together, customers could begin shopping in June 2009 at new retail stores where a public housing project now stands.

A first wave of development — offices, restaurants and shops — also could open to the public that same summer at Ballpark Village, a proposed downtown waterfront development.

"It's all tentative until funding is secured, but it's moving ahead," Shelley J. Dickstein, a special projects administrator for the city of Dayton said. "All signs continue to point to go."

The $230 million project was proposed in November by Bear Creek Capital of Cincinnati and Ballpark Consultants Inc., a subsidiary of Mandalay Baseball Properties of Los Angeles, which owns the Dragons.

"It's not just about who has the money and who has the land. It's who has the know-how and Mandalay does," said Stanley Early, Dayton's assistant city manager.

The developer plans to meet with Dayton officials in mid-April to review environmental and financial feasibility studies.

"I think we are just as excited about this development and just as committed as we were in November," Vaibbhav Gupta, president, Mandalay Real Estate Group, said Friday.

North of Fifth Third Field and overlooking the river, the plan for Ballpark Village includes a gourmet grocery, shops, restaurants, a fitness facility and entertainment venues. At the Parkside site, the partners envision a shopping area anchored by a couple of big-box retailers.

Dickstein said the developer has two restaurants and up to four businesses interested in leasing space at Ballpark Village, and they're talking to six big-box retailers for the Parkside site.

"Nothing has been inked," she said.

The development also would include an upscale apartment and condominium project across the river in what is now Deeds Park. The city has not received a time frame for that project.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2362

or josmith@DaytonDailyNews.com.