Applegate remembers his sinking feeling at Japanese executive’s question.
In a sense, it’s a question Union and Montgomery County officials have been trying to answer for close to 20 years as Union assembled purchase options on land for what today is its Global Logistics Airpark.
Union recently requested $750,000 in county Economic Development/Government Equity (ED/GE) funds to further the park’s development. It’s the largest funding request in this latest round of ED/GE applications, and county leaders will visit the site May 10.
The money would be used to purchase the land which the city has already annexed. “We don’t have money to buy ground like a lot of communities do,” Applegate said.
“The potential economic impact will be on a large scale not only for the city of Union and immediate jurisdictions, but will also positively affect the region,” the city’s ED/GE application said.
The hope is to develop the site, currently zoned light industrial, intoa home for logistics and distribution companies. The region has had success with those kinds of companies in recent years — especially around the intersection of interstates 70 and 75. Since 2008, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Caterpillar Logistics, Collective Brands, White Castle and others all have been drawn to open land in Northern Montgomery and Southern Miami counties. Those companies alone employ or will employ some 1,260 workers.
At some 600 acres, Union’s park is notable for its size — Union itself only has 6,400 residents and covers 17 square miles — but also its proximity to Dayton International Airport. On the park’s eastern edge, a child probably could throw a rock across Dog Leg Road to airport property.
“It’s extremely close (to the airport),” said Steve Stanley, executive director of the county Transportation Improvement District (TID). “That very likely creates some long-term potential for enhancement.”
It was the lack of a clear access to the property that may have persuaded the Japan-based company to move on. Applegate said the leaders never named their company to him. But to address that issue, last November, TID trustees voted to improve access to the airpark, transforming Dog Leg from a two-lane rural road to a “three-lane urban roadway,” in the words of the trustees’ resolution.
Stanley credits Union for patiently annexing the right parcels. A legal fight with Butler Twp. over one parcel, nearly 80 acres off Jackson Road, went to the Ohio Supreme Court in 2006. The overall annexation process started in the early 1990s, Applegate said.
“I’ve always looked at the airport as an economic hub,” said Applegate, who has lived in Union for most of his life and whose father, Glenn, served as mayor of the small city.
“In this location, it is obviously a natural for logistics facilities and distribution facilities,” Stanley said.
Applegate compares the site to Vandalia’s Stonequarry Crossings development, which has drawn White Castle and trucking firm Carter Express.
“That’s an economic engine waiting to be utilized,” Applegate said of Union’s park and the airport.
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