State coming to Dayton Arcade to award tax credits

UPDATE: Dayton Arcade wins $5 million in state tax credits

INITIAL REPORT: In a good sign for the long vacant Dayton Arcade, the Ohio Development Services Agency is holding its announcement of the next round of state historic tax credits at the downtown complex.

The group that wants to redevelop the Dayton Arcade earlier this year applied for about $5 million in state historic tax credits after being turned down for the incentives in 2016.

RELATED: Dayton Arcade could house 2nd Warped Wing, Boston Stoker, DVAC

According to the official invitation, the Ohio Development Services Agency’s round 18 announcement of tax credit awards will take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the arcade building at 26 S. Ludlow St.

The development team that wants to rehab the massive complex has said obtaining tax credits is one of the last major pieces of the “capital stack” needed for the project to move forward.

RELATED: Arcade ‘very close’ to securing financing, developers say

The first phases of the arcade project (labeled the Fourth Street Project) are expected to cost more than $56 million and would transform three vacant historic buildings, according to the development team’s application requesting tax credits.

The Ludlow and Fourth Street buildings will offer 72 units of affordable housing, as well as ground floor commercial space.

The Commercial and Lindsey buildings also will be rehabbed to offer 54 affordable apartments, constructed above street-level restaurant space, the application states. The housing will be geared for artists and creative types, and the arcade will have studio spaces, an art gallery and other creative spaces.

The rehab would convert the arcade’s three-story rotunda into an “innovation hub,” which is a collaboration between the University of Dayton and The Entrepreneurs Center.

The arcade would house classes, offices, meeting and co-working spaces and would allow students, faculty, businesses, start-ups and groups from higher education, research and the arts to work together, officials said.

RELATED: UD, Entrepreneurs Center join forces for Arcade project

“The proposed project will return the block to its rightful place as a vibrant hub in downtown Dayton, reimagined to serve a new audience for the 21st century, delivering substantial economic and community benefits in the process,” according to the application.

The arcade complex will be home to about 336 permanent jobs and the project would stimulate substantial new investment in that part of downtown, developers say.

The arcade’s tenants could include the second location of Warped Wing Brewery, a Boston Stoker Coffee Co. shop and the Dayton Visual Arts Center.

Other tenants could include a deli and grocer called Feelohs and a collection of pop-up restaurants and a kitchen incubator.

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