It was revealed in June that a movie theater developer is planning to build a 12-screen cinema east of the highway interchange in the area that includes the Atrium Medical Center hospital.
Since then, a 276-acre business park has been proposed for the area also known as the Renaissance District. The land proposed for the I-75 Mad River Business Park, a temporary name, is located on Union Road north of the hospital campus.
Most recently, this newspaper has learned that The Schueler Group of Companies, a Lebanon real estate company, is buying 43 acres of ready-to-develop land along Union Road, north of Ohio 122, with highway frontage.
“The whole development world is waking up from a deep sleep we’ve been in for the past two or three years,” said Lamar Fields, a spokesman for Anthony Properties, the movie theater developer. “What you’re seeing happening there is just an example of what you’re seeing happening across the country.”
Plans for the movie theater are progressing, although it’s still not a done deal.
In July, city government signed a contract to sell 18 acres of city-owned land east of I-75, east of Union Road and south of Ohio 122, to a real estate developer for a movie theater.
If finalized, the land would be sold for approximately $1.53 million to Texas-based Anthony Properties, which specializes in building and leasing movie theater properties across the country.
Written into the contract are contingencies such as due diligence for Anthony Properties to conduct soil testing on the land to vet if it’s buildable and do traffic studies. The project still has to go before the city’s planning commission to meet building standards and for zoning changes.
After a time period to allow for due diligence, both parties have the option to cancel the contract.
Proposals have been made to several theater operators “and we have ongoing conversations with most of them,” Fields said.
Before the movie theater project can go to the city’s planning commission, any proposed development plan must first be approved by the city, said Law Director Les Landen.
Meanwhile, the Mad River Business Park is in early stages.
A meeting held earlier this month by government and business leaders and other stakeholders evaluated the property. Three property owners are holding the land for investment. Economic development consultants said the site has potential to attract businesses in the aerospace, medical or light industrial fields, or corporate administrative offices.
The property owners — Don Hawkins and Bill Schaefer, New Covenant Church, and Brent Finkelman — approached the city to assist them in selling the land.
Hawkins and Schaefer and officials with New Covenant Church could not be reached.
Finkelman, who owns the northern most 29.5 acres of the whole 276-acre property, said he had “no desire to build or lease or develop the land.”
He said the three property ownership groups “just happened to be thinking simultaneously the same thing” about selling. “We just watched it and held on to it as a long-term investment,” said Finkelman, whose family has owned the land since 1978.
A group of about 15 investors under the name North Pointe Farms LLC expects to close within the week on the purchase of 43 acres from Cincinnati developer Al. Neyer Inc., said Joe Kramer, executive vice president of Henkle Schueler & Associates, the commercial real estate division of The Schueler Group. Kramer and other investors in the group are related to Henkle Schueler.
There are no immediate plans to start digging dirt right away, but Kramer said the investors are looking to attract “job generators” to the property, and not build offices or retail.
“There’s only so much land available along 75,” Kramer said, adding that “A high tech industrial user would be welcomed on that site.”
“Everything in real estate from 2008 through last year was put in a deep freeze. We’re definitely seeing signs of revival,” Kramer said.
Officials with Al. Neyer confirmed the sale is pending, but declined to comment more.
The city’s plans for the Renaissance District area have long included a high-tech health campus at the hospital, an office park, housing and retail.
“As new projects are built they create momentum and interest and that leads to more interest, such as bioscience, advanced manufacturing and aerospace, and all offer potential for growth in this area,” Middletown Economic Development Director Denise Hamet said
Atrium Medical Center opened in December 2007 on a 200-acre campus. The hospital, formerly known as Middletown Regional Hospital, relocated from McKnight Drive to the highway.
Assisted living facility The Inn at Renaissance Village opened in 2009 on Union Road north of the hospital campus.
Greentree Health Science Academy opened on the new hospital campus in 2011.
The new Middletown Veteran Veteran Affairs Community Based Outpatient Clinic also opened in 2011 on Union Road.
However, the 2007 to 2009 recession and recovery thereafter has affected further development in the East Pointe office park along Ohio 122 and stalled construction of new houses in recent years. One office building in East Pointe has been built, when original plans called for three.
Some of the most recent investment in the area around the interchange includes Hampton Inn, which opened this year.
Investment group SA Mary Ohio bought in 2012 the Towne Mall west of the interchange, and promises to make an announcement on a major tenant by year's end. But merchants at the mall recently told this newspaper they're growing inpatient.
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