The facility was built partially from a $2.6 million federal grant and a $100,000 grant from the city of Kettering.
Franklin Foundation also has developed three other properties in Kettering; Kettering Park Manor, Mary Irene Gardens and Birchwood Place.
“It’s so exciting. This is something that’s been in the works for five years. We’ve had a great relationship with the city of Kettering and hope to continue with it,” Dalton said.
Preliminary grading also has been done for a 13-acre park between Acorn Drive and West Avenue. A new road connecting Acorn Drive with Wiles Drive is being built.
The public-private effort will include more than two dozen attached and detached single-family homes, the first in the city since Madison’s Grant west of I-675. The last of that project of more than 100 single homes was completed in late 2012.
Acorn Walk is south of the Kettering Business Park and was part of the U.S. Air Force’s 165-acre Defense Electronic Supply Center complex, which closed in 1996.
“We’ve wanted to do this project for several years,” city planning and development director Tom Robillard said.
Officials said the city will explore tying the park into the bikeway system and connecting it with the heritage of the Air Force facility, which was known both as DESC and as Gentile Station, for Maj. Dominic Gentile (pronounced “Jen-Tilly”), a Miami Valley native and World War II fighter pilot ace who downed more enemy planes than Eddie Rickenbacker.
Terry Morris contributed to this story.
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