Dayton OKs $170k in funds to bring 100 jobs downtown

Dayton city commissioners have approved a development agreement that gives $170,000 to a company that relocated from Beavercreek to downtown.

JJR Solutions — a 10-year-old defense contractor that offers technology, digital and insight and management services — has moved its corporate headquarters into a newly renovated space at 607 E. Third St. The company has pledged to create about 100 jobs with an average salary of $90,000 in the next three years, city documents state.

The company has renovated about 13,900 square feet of space for its new offices, which staff moved into this month.

“I think this really reflects the growth of the innovation ecosystem here in the city of Dayton,” said Ford Weber, Dayton’s director of economic development.

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The city agreed to give JJR Solutions $50,000 in grant money as well as $120,000 in Montgomery County Economic Development/Government Equity Program funds.

The funds are intended to help defray a portion of the roughly $1.6 million the company committed to investing to pay for tenant improvements, furniture, machinery, equipment, relocation costs and training, according to the development agreement.

The building, renamed the Avant-Garde, is being transformed by Woodard Development, one of the developers of the thriving Water Street District.

The roughly 35,000-square-foot building was formerly the Lotz Paper Co. facility. It is five stories and sits next to the recently rehabbed Dayton Steam Plant.

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JJR Solutions decided to leave Beavercreek and move to East Third Street to be part of downtown’s growing energy and development as a hub of entrepreneurship, Weber said.

JJR solutions works on sophisticated software development programs and trains and helps companies adopt new technology, he said.

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