A nearly $15 million renovation of the Air City parking garage across from Levitt Pavilion is one of three planned investments on East Fourth Street that developers and local officials hope will increase the vibrancy and improve public safety in a “strategically crucial” part of downtown Dayton.
The other two projects in that area near the downtown RTA bus hub include the rehab of the Centre City office tower and the construction of a new downtown police station.
“Without the restoration of the parking garage, the structure would continue to be obsolete and blighted,” said Zach Woolard, senior developer with the Model Group, which plans to rehab the Centre City building and the Air City Garage. “With its prime location next to Levitt Pavilion, the Dayton Arcade, transit hub and other downtown businesses, bringing the parking garage back to a productive state can only benefit the downtown.”
By the end of this month, the Ohio Department of Development is expected to announce which projects have been awarded state historic preservation tax credits, and the only project in Dayton that applied for incentives in this funding round was a proposed renovation of the Air City Garage.
Model Group has requested $2 million in historic tax credits for a $14.7 million rehabilitation of the garage located at the northwest corner of South Jefferson and East Fourth streets, adjacent to the Wright Stop Plaza transit hub and the vacant Centre City Building. Greater Dayton RTA is providing $10 million in funding for the project.
Developers and officials say renovating the six-story garage and the seven retail bays in the ground floor of the structure will help catalyze additional investment. Right now, only two of the commercial street-level spaces are occupied.
Fresh off helping revitalize the Dayton Arcade, Model Group says rehabbing the parking garage will help create a diverse and economically viable community for many years to come, according to the firm’s Ohio historic preservation tax credit application.
When it reopens, the garage would have about 390 spaces and would provide connected covered parking for the Centre City building, plus parking for Greater Dayton RTA employees, Woolard said.
Woolard said most of the financing has been secured to transform the 21-story Centre City building into about 220 new housing units. The rehab of the empty office tower is expected to cost about $105 million.
Woolard said remediation work to address environmental issues in the Centre City building should begin in the next couple of weeks and should take about about six months to finish. After that, Model Group will take ownership of the building, at which point construction should begin. The renovation could take about 18 months.
The Greater Dayton RTA recently closed on the acquisition of the Air City garage and will hold onto it until the larger renovation project begins later this year, said Lasserre Bradley, president of development for the Model Group.
Model Group will acquire the garage and will own it while it is redeveloped, but ownership eventually will switch over to the RTA.
Sharon White, vice president of the Greater Dayton RTA’s Board of Trustees, last month said the Air City Garage has a history of blight and crime and is a deterrent to the “well-being and livelihood” of nearby properties.
Greater Dayton RTA owns about half of the property on the city block that is between South Main and South Jefferson and East Third and East Fourth streets, White said.
RTA officials say the Air City Garage project will help meet the transit agency’s parking needs while supporting the redevelopment of vacant and underutilized properties that have negative impacts on that area of downtown. The RTA’s $10 million contribution to the project comes from capital funds that were previously set aside to help pay for a new parking garage.
Also, the city of Dayton last month approved spending $1.4 million to acquire property at the corner of South St. Clair and East Fourth streets, about a block from the Air City Garage and the bus hub.
The properties at 101 South St. Clair Street (a former nightclub and diner) and 118 E. Fourth St. (a former DP&L “power house”) will be turned into a new downtown police station. The current station for the Central Business District is on the 200 block of Salem Avenue, in northwest Dayton.
Police officials say this site is the perfect location for a new, multimillion-dollar station, because it is very close to the bus hub, the Levitt Pavilion Dayton and the Oregon District.
Dayton police Major Paul Saunders said downtown in general is very safe, but the area around the new station site is the one exception.
“It’s in the heart of really the one spot that has been a problem for us crime-wise,” he said. Police have responded to a significant number of calls for service on South Jefferson Street, near the bus hub and the Levitt Pavilion Dayton.
Some community members, however, have criticized the acquisition of these properties for a new station, saying they believe there’s probably a better and less expensive site for a police facility.
Levitt Pavilion Dayton Executive Director Lisa Wagner earlier this year said she fears the area around the free outdoor music venue could become a “ghost town” if crime issues aren’t addressed. She said some concert-goers and downtown visitors do not feel safe.
Wagner recently told the Dayton Daily News that, “I can say that we are very excited about the reinvestment and revitalization of the City Center building and now the Air City Garage. Seeing downtown continue to come alive is really exciting for everyone already invested in the success of our urban core.”
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