West Carrollton marketing, selling vacant properties for new river district project

West Carrollton City Council approved a measure Tuesday allowing it to sell three quarters of an acre at 1100 East Dixie, on the southeast corner of Dixie and Manchester Road, to GOC Realco LLC for a new Dunkin’ restaurant.

“We have a purchase contract (for them) to purchase three quarters of an acre for $500,000,” Lucking said Wednesday.

The deal is the first city-owned land sold in an area designated for a multiphase, mixed-used development just west of the Exit 47 interchange. Located adjacent to a planned whitewater park, the river district is designed to include service retail, multiple restaurants and a small watercraft marina, plus a hotel, medical office building, 26 high-end townhome condominiums and a 214-unit apartment project.

Sale of the land is “very significant,” Lucking said.

“First of all, it’s the type of use that we want to have at that location, so that’s substantial itself,” he said. “Having a quality user like Dunkin’, prior to even really going all-out in terms of our marketing effort ... it demonstrates confidence in the site, so we’re very pleased about that.”

Lucking said the city has been “purposely doing an assemblage” of the properties over the years.

“I would say we were opportunistic,” he said. “It’s kind of taking charge of your own destiny because we knew the type of environment that we wanted to have there.”

The deal for the Dixie Drive site comes less than a month after West Carrollton City Council signed off with Dillin LLC and Woodard Development for “master development plan requirements,” including a marketing timeline.

Those requirements include a schedule for the river district. Design of it is slated to run through August. Construction of public improvements south of Dixie is set for this September through March 2024 with improvements north of Dixie planned to follow from March 2024 to September 2024.

Marketing of properties within the site will launch later this month at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual convention in Las Vegas, said Larry Dillin, president and CEO of Dillin LLC.