Company wants to build 300-unit housing complex at research park in Kettering

The proposal is in its early stages, but Miller said he expects plans to be submitted to the city by the end of this year.

The Miami Valley Research Park, founded in 1980, has been a jobs hub for decades. It’s home to dozens of businesses, including some of the Dayton area’s largest employers, Reynolds & Reynolds Co., Kodak and Woolpert among them.

Housing is not currently permitted at the research park, said Kettering Economic Development Manager Gregg Gorsuch.

ICP is “in engineering, design and financial investigation of determining the feasibility of the project” and is communicating “with several potential partner candidates for the residential development piece,” Miller said.

The size of the units has yet to be decided, he said.

Once plans go forward, any approval would involve a lengthy process including both the city and the association overseeing the Miami Valley Research Park, Kettering City Manager Mark Schwieterman.

The process would likely take months, involving zoning changes and possibly other amendments, he added.

If the association and the city were to eventually approve those changes, “I think (housing) would add to the value of research park in total. (But) we’re a long way from there at this point,” Schwieterman added.

ICP last year bought several properties at the 1,250-acre research park. It owns about 50 acres there, Miller said.

The company’s acquisitions include land it agreed to buy from the city, which bought more than 300 acres there for $1.5 million in 2018.

One of those properties — at 1900 Founders Drive — is the subject of an economic development incentive grant Kettering City Council is scheduled to consider Tuesday night.

If the grant is approved, the city would provide up to $600,000 in economic incentives for infrastructure upgrades to a building that has been “virtually vacant” the past several years, Gorsuch said.

The land at Research Boulevard and County Line – where the residential site is being planned - is vacant with “a fairly meaningful amount of it that’s got some ponds,” Miller said.

“The best-case development is sort of a water-oriented, mixed-use area with residential on one side and these office buildings that we’ve acquired on the other side,” he added.

Any proposal for housing would likely be addressed by the research park association and the city on a parallel track, Schwieterman said.