Chris Fine, development director for the city of Miamisburg, said he will contact the shopping center’s owner to get leasing information in the hopes he can help find a new tenant for the space.
“People call us on a regular basis looking for space, and I can try to play matchmaker,” Fine said.
The new Dayton Mall H.H. Gregg store is scheduled to open in mid-May, shortly after the existing store closes.
Local auto sales lagging
Auto-title numbers from the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts office may lend some support to the theory that the federal budget sequestration and the uncertainty it created for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base employees may have dampened local new-car buying. We reported Wednesday the robust sales nationwide for new-car manufacturers, some of which recorded their best sales month in March since 2007, before the recession began.
Figures provided by Clerk of Courts Gregory A. Brush show that the number of original titles processed the first three months of 2013 dropped nearly 6 percent to 45,346. New-car titles actually make up a very small portion of that figure, so it’s difficult to draw any firm conclusions, but Brush noted that income-tax refund checks — which often fuel car sales — were delayed for many taxpayers this year, which may have had an impact on both new-car and used-car sales.
Closing, but not leaving
My colleague Chelsey Levingston recently reported that Huntington National Bank has closed its downtown branch in the building Courthouse Plaza SW, 10 N. Ludlow St.
In a follow-up interview, the property manager told Chelsey that while losing the retail operation is unfortunate, the small space wasn’t ideal for a full bank branch. The good news is that Huntington is keeping its lease on office space for loan officers and wealth advisers, said property manager Craig Kenley.
The building’s occupancy rate is more than 90 percent, Kenley said. Law firms and U.S. Bank are among the other tenants.
Huntington has leased space in the building since the 1970s, Kenley said. “They are long-time tenants,” he said.
Kenley works for Towne Properties, which manages the building for ownership group Courthouse Properties, a group of attorneys.
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