Business owner restoring former NCR Sugar Camp guard house in Oakwood

Credit: FILE

Credit: FILE

OAKWOOD — A business owner is restoring the Sugar Camp guard house in Oakwood after buying it last year.

National Processing Solutions President Natalie Dunlevey said she plans to invest about $350,000 into the structure built in 1900 near the front of the Sugar Camp business complex.

Dunlevey said she bought the building last year from Sugar Camp owner Lee Schear for $88,750 “to preserve a piece of Dayton history. I always loved the building.”

Credit: FILE

Credit: FILE

Sugar Camp was a National Cash Register (NCR) sales training camp when the company was based in Dayton. It was used by the U.S. Navy during World War II to develop a secret project.

NPS is an electronic payment processor for commercial, non-profit and municipal clients that Dunlevey started in 2003. It has operated in a nearby Sugar Camp building and guard house renovations are ongoing.

The inside work is complete and Dunlevey said — if all goes well — the project should be done in the coming weeks.

“We have some…artifacts from 1900 and we have the original plaques that were on all of the different Sugar Camp buildings,” she said, noting some rooms will have historic themes.

NPS has five employees and will typically have two or three administrative staff work “day-to-day” in the 1,500 square foot building at 10 Sugar Camp Circle, Dunlevey said.

One step in opening is gaining an occupancy permit. Another is getting city approval to change the use of the building from delicatessen to professional office/business.

That request is set to be heard by the Oakwood Planning Commission today.

The building has been vacant for several years and never operated as a food service establishment, Oakwood records show.

“No significant changes” will be made to the building’s architecture and “landscaping will be compatible with the surrounding development,” according to city records.

A 10.5-square-foot bronze colored wall sign is being proposed. The move is not expected to change traffic patterns and no new parking will be constructed, as Dunlevey has indicated she has no plans for expansion, Oakwood documents state.

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