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Paying firms to stay doesn't help Dayton, mayor says

Mayor Gary Leitzell said the relocation fund process has become a game that doesn't work long-term.

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By Lucas Sullivan, Staff Writer Updated 11:38 AM Tuesday, August 10, 2010

DAYTON — As the city of Dayton struggles to balance its operating budget and attract businesses downtown, it has resorted to paying thousands of dollars to convince firms already downtown to stay.

Since 2008, the city has given $400,000 in public funds to help law firms and nonprofits already downtown relocate — sometimes across the street. The city has also lured Logos@Work and Deloitte Consulting LLP from Kettering with a combined $200,000.

City officials said the money is an investment to retain the income tax revenue from the few hundred jobs, but Mayor Gary Leitzell said the process has become “a game” by downtown law firms and said that spending the money doesn’t help the city long-term.

“They come to us and line up and say our lease is up, what is the city going to do to keep us here,” he said. “Wouldn’t that (money) be better spent in programming to attract people to Dayton so they want to be here?

“Our mission is get people to want to come to Dayton, not pay them to stay,” Leitzell said.

Those who have received funds said they want to be downtown and the city’s incentive is a small, but nice gesture.

“In our case we’ve seen a lot of growth in the last three to four years,” said David Reed, a partner at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, which received $100,000 from the city to relocate. “We have grown from 12 attorneys to over 30. We appreciate the incentive funds from the city, and I don’t want to downplay that, but our overhead costs to move were significantly more than that.”

Who has received  city funding since 2008?

Flanagan, Lieberman, Hoffman & Swaim: $50,000 to relocate from 318 W. Fourth St. to 15 W. Fourth St.
Area Agency on Aging: $200,000 to relocate from 6 S. Patterson Blvd. to 40 W. Second St.
Logos@Work: $65,000 to relocate from Kettering to 937 S. Patterson Blvd.
Vocalink Language Services: $40,000 to relocate from 40 S. Perry St. to 405 W. First St.
Deloitte Consulting: $140,000 to relocate from 10 W. Second St. and Research Park in Kettering to 220 E. Monument Ave.
Taft, Stettinius & Hollister: $100,000 to relocate from 110 N. Main St. to 40 N. Main St.

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