The developers say they hope to close on financing this spring, and city government recently approved $6 million in funding to help remediate and redevelop the 21-story office tower.
Tony Kroeger, Dayton’s planning division manager, said this is not some run-of-the-mill building or project.
“This is a big day for Dayton,” Kroeger said. “It’s a big day for the history of Dayton, for the architecture of Dayton, for downtown and for addressing the need for housing.”
The Centre City building, located at the northeast corner of Fourth and Main streets, is one of downtown’s most prominent skyscrapers and a big part of the city’s skyline.
The vacant building, which essentially is three combined structures, was the tallest reinforced concrete building in the country when it was completed more than a century ago.
A local journalist, historian and downtown booster once called the Centre City building “the quiet, grand old dame of downtown Dayton buildings.”
Lasserre Bradley III, president of development for Cincinnati-based Model Group, says rehabbing the vacant and deteriorating office tower will preserve an architectural gem while helping make that part of downtown a revitalized and thriving hub of activity.
The Centre City building is across Main Street from the Dayton Arcade complex, which is being transformed into a mix of new uses after sitting dormant for decades. It is across Fourth Street from the Levitt Pavilion and Dave Hall Plaza.
The redevelopment plan is to convert the building into 80 affordable housing units for seniors, and the rest of the units will be market-rate, though some apartments will be “workforce housing” affordable to people earning 80% or below the area median income.
The project also would create 11,000 square feet of new ground-floor commercial space.
Bradley said the building is in a strategic and vital location and its renovation will benefit the the long-term health and well-being of downtown.
“Our urban cores cannot remain static. They are either moving forward or regressing,” Bradley said. “The loss of a significant historical icon building like the Centre City building would leave an unanswerable hole in these districts and the Main Street corridor.”
Bradley said this is a challenging project that requires a complex capital stack of funding from public and private sources.
“The building is deteriorating, which is a health, safety and welfare concern for this section of downtown,” he said. “There is a significant need for remediation, structural repair and stabilization.”
Dayton City Commission this week approved giving $6 million to the Montgomery County Land Bank to help with remediation, pre-development and other kinds of costs.
Some of this funding is expected to help match millions of dollars in state demolition funds for internal remediation activities, such as asbestos work, said Paul Bradley, executive director of the Montgomery County Land Bank.
Bradley said $2 million will be used to help cover “soft costs,” like architectural and engineering work, plus materials for the building, like furniture and fixtures. He said the property is in rough shape.
Several years ago, the city authorized spending $2.5 million to repair and secure the exterior of the office tower, which was crumbling and falling down onto the street and sidewalk.
“I strongly believe that every year this building sits, it tips further and further towards demolition,” Bradley said. “This current effort led by the city of Dayton is the best opportunity I’ve seen to transform this eyesore into a key piece of our downtown landscape.”
There have been a variety of proposals to renovate the Centre City building over the years. But they all fell flat, even after the building was awarded state historic tax credits to help pay for its rehab.
This time, however, the Centre City developers have secured millions of dollars of tax credits from both the state’s historic building preservation program and its transformational mixed-use development program.
Model Group and Cross Street Partners managed to redevelop the Dayton Arcade — which was a feat that many people, going back years, thought was impossible. Local leaders hope the duo can work their magic once again.
The Centre City building is special because of its history, architecture and location, city officials said.
Veronica Morris, Dayton’s economic development manager, said it is located near key assets and destinations.
This includes the RTA bus hub; the Levitt Pavilion Dayton, the free outdoor music venue that some people call downtown’s “living room;” and the Dayton Convention Center, which is undergoing tens of millions of dollars in renovations.
The Centre City Building also is close to the Grant-Deneau Tower, which is under renovation, and the Fire Blocks District, which has been reactivated in recent years.
Morris said the $6 million from the city will leverage $110 million in investment in this critical Main Street corridor. Of the city’s contribution, $2 million will come from federal COVID relief funds.
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