Work on Xenia Market District continues as some surrounding businesses are listed for sale

Both the KFC and Tim Hortons are still open.

Credit: Bryant Billing

Credit: Bryant Billing

The sale of the business sites does not necessarily mean the businesses will close. The city of Xenia previously sold the land the Market District was built on to developer Dillin LLC, starting in 2023. The majority of those businesses are still in operation.

The former Fifth Third location next door to the KFC has been on the market for some time, after the bank branch closed and moved to another location on the west side of Xenia, but the building has had interest from buyers in recent months, said CEO Larry Dillin.

Dillin is the developer responsible for the overall redevelopment effort.

“We looked at buying it at one point, but stepped aside when another buyer came to the table that we thought was really good for the project,” he said.

Credit: Bryant Billing

Credit: Bryant Billing

The former Fifth Third Bank site, located at 100 W. Main Street, incorporates 7,600 square feet of class C retail space, according to the listing, and the current listed sale price is $475,000.

KFC, located at 124 W. Main Street, is listed for nearly $1.4 million. The Tim Hortons asking list price is not publicly available.

The Dayton Daily News reached out to the parent companies of the three locations for comment.

Simultaneously, work continues on the $140 million Market District Project itself. Construction of streets, utilities, and public park space is underway and expected to be completed by the end of 2025 or early next year.

“That work is moving along at a pretty good pace, and should be wrapped up around the end of the year,” Dillin said.

With the initial construction phase coming to a close, Xenia residents should start to see walls going up in the vacant parts of the property towards the end of the year or early 2026, he said.

“We’ve begun marketing the site heavily to end users, and so we have a handful of restaurant groups that we are currently negotiating with, and there’s a hotel project that we are coordinating as well,” he said.

Credit: Bryant Billing

Credit: Bryant Billing

That hotel, rather than being located on the site of the former Ramada, would be more centrally located in the overall Market District plan, north of the planned green space.

Earlier this month, Xenia City Council voted to accept the final streets and right-of-way layout for the project, an act which also formally renamed the site from Xenia Towne Square to its current iteration.

“Projects like this have lots of moving parts and pieces, and so it takes a little longer for the pre planning, pre development work to be completed. But all of that is moving along just fine,” Dillin said.