DAYTON — Owners of the downtown Arcade announced Saturday, June 5, their plan to reopen the complex in December 2012 after area residents pressed them why renovations haven’t begun in the 14 months since it was bought at auction.

“As long as we get the funding, which we expect to do very soon, that is the plan,” said Wendell Strutz of Plymouth, Wis., co-owner of the 108-year-old complex on West Third Street, across from Courthouse Square.

Strutz said he and co-owner Gunther Berg should have the remaining $3.5 million of $40 million needed to renovate the Arcade by the end of the month.

He said repairs and cleaning of all the windows will start thereafter, along with the hauling away of much of the decaying walls and decor inside the complex.

Hundreds of people walked through the building Saturday at $15 a head; part of a three-stop Gem City Tour, which also featured the Dayton Woman’s Club and YWCA Dayton. Proceeds benefited Friends of the Dayton Arcade, the Dayton Woman’s Club Foundation and YWCA Dayton, all nonprofit organizations.

“It really breaks my heart to see it this way,” said Sherry Alessandro, who remembers Charlie’s Oyster Bar and Charlie’s Crab restaurant when she frequented the building decades ago.

Alessandro said a casino would be great in the complex, while others said residential uses would be appropriate.

“There’s no chance of a casino,” Strutz said. “The plan is to have it be restaurant heavy.”

Strutz and Berg purchased the Arcade in March 2009 for $615,106.02 at a sheriff’s auction with aggressive plans to revitalize it. Strutz said City Manager Tim Riordan has been “one of the biggest champions” of the project and the city is helping to get abatements to help with the $89,100 in delinquent property taxes on the complex.

“We’re doing this, it’s going to happen,” Strutz said.

Jim Brooks, 60, of Springboro listened as Strutz said many of the inside additions to the building will be gutted back to the original walls, which will be restored.

“I would love to see that happen because many of these walls weren’t in here when I lived in an apartment here in (the 1970s),” Brooks said. “This was a great building and if they can restore to its original appearance it would be something for this city.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2494 or lsullivan@DaytonDailyNews.com.