“It definitely is a problem,” West Carrollton Mayor Jeff Sanner said. “It hurts a community.”
West Carrollton is still trying to refill the building Motoman once occupied along Interstate 75. It’s been empty since the robotic systems company consolidated operations in Troy and West Carrollton in a new $18 million building just west of the Austin Boulevard Interchange.
The other companies include cement and masonry products supplier Dayton Superior and label printer Hooven-Dayton. All have located along a corridor between Interstate 75 interchanges at Austin Boulevard and the Dayton Mall.
“Everybody wants new and better. That’s the draw,” said Ron Hill, an owner of Construction Managers of Ohio and Mehland Developers, the Miamisburg-based companies that will build and lease the $4 million, 75,000-square-foot building to Think Patented, a printing and marketing firm.
After more than 30 years in Dayton, the company, formerly known as Patented Printing, plans to consolidate two facilities in Dayton in one of Mehland’s industrial parks in Miamisburg.
The move frustrated development officials in Dayton who said they were unable to overcome the lack of vacant land for new development within city limits.
“A farm field beats a brown field,” said Timothy Downs, Dayton’s deputy director of economic development. “If people always want new, it’s really tough for us to compete.”
Downs said Dayton offered an attractive package to keep Think Patented in the Tech Town North development in Dayton.
“It literally would have been perfect for them,” Downs said.
Niels Winther, chairman and part-owner of Think Patented, said the decision to move ultimately came down to the property’s readiness for development and his company’s relationship with Construction Managers-Mehland.
“I come from the big picture. I am still in the Dayton region. I just saw an opportunity with a company I like to do business with,” he said, adding the closeness to his home was not a major factor.
Winther estimated the company would invest $4 million in new offset and digital presses and add about 20 workers in the next three years. On Monday, the Miamisburg Planning Commission approved the site plan for the project in the Southpointe Business Park, west of Interstate 75 and south of the Dayton Mall interchange.
Miamisburg is expected to offer a job creation tax credit worth up to $307,000 over six years, officials said. Terms of state incentives were unavailable.
Miamisburg provided more than $1.5 million in local incentives to Motoman, Dayton Superior, Hooven-Dayton and Think Patented in exchange for job retention and creation commitments,
Winther said Think Patented’s location choice was unaffected by the incentives offered.
“It’s all the same, wherever you go,” Winther said.
Think Patented was started in Dayton more than 30 years ago by Ed Patent and acquired by Winther’s group in 2006, Winther said. It has expanded into digital printing and other marketing services. This year, gross revenues are expected to reach $14.5 million, Winther said.
The deal is the latest in Miamisburg benefiting Construction Managers-Mehland, which controls land in Dayton, Brookville and Vandalia, in addition to interests in three business parks covering 160 acres in Miamisburg. The city loaned the developer $270,000, forgivable over five years if Hooven-Dayton meets commitments to retain and create jobs.
Hooven-Dayton, provided $300,000 for relocation, left facilities in Vandalia and Huber Heights for a facility with about $1 million in renovations in Miamisburg leased in Mehland’s Byers Road Business Park, north of the Austin interchange. Mehland is leasing space to another Dayton company, Endolite, for a corporate headquarters in the Byers Road park.
Construction Managers built Dayton Superior’s facility in the Byers Road park, since sold for $6 million to a partnership established by auto dealer Frank Zorniger, according to property records.
Through a partnership with Mark Fornes Realty, Construction Managers-Mehland and Miamisburg are developing a new 80-acre commercial park between the interchange and the Byers Road park, north of the Motoman headquarters and the Austin Boulevard interchange.
In addition, as builder and land owner, Construction Managers-Mehland is able to offer low lease rates, Hill said. “There’s tremendous savings, especially when you have control of the land,” he said.
Construction on the Think Patented building is to begin in coming weeks. The company plans to move in by June 2013.
In keeping with protocols set out in Business First, a regional economic development pact, Miamisburg notified Dayton and Montgomery County it was planning to move Think Patented in from Dayton, said Chris Fine, economic development director in Miamisburg.
While a loss to Dayton, the move keeps the business and jobs in Montgomery County.
“Ultimately it’s good for the region,” Fine said.
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