Trotwood approves rezoning for old Kmart store

City council approved that request Monday night and the application for a planned unit development preliminary development plan to have the 117,000 square foot facility as a light manufacturing warehouse and distribution facility.

“It means jobs for the city of Trotwood and it really speaks to the light manufacturing that is taking over this part of the corridor in our small community,” said Joyce Sutton Cameron, Trotwood’s mayor. “This is definitely a plus for the city of Trotwood.”

Kasperski’s plans for the Kmart building could mean up to 25 new jobs within the next three years.

The vacant Kmart building shut its doors at the Salem Avenue location in January of last year. This is a 10-acre site that sits alongside Shiloh Springs Road, across from the vacant Target store, which closed in May.

Despite city approval, Kasperski still needs to tie up some loose ends before his company can expand to the Salem Avenue location.

“The next step for us is going to be to try to get the other property owners within the complex to pass judgment on some deed restrictions that could potentially put a damper on what it is that we’re doing,” he said. “We’re working on that right now.”

The owners of the retail properties located near the old Kmart building have some convenants within the deed for that 40-acre complex that includes all their businesses. “The legal language of the deed that gives everyone in that complex protection from the wrong type of business moving in,” Kasperski said. “I hope we’re not considered the wrong type of business.”

Kasperski said if everything works out with the deed restriction process then his company could start taking possession of the building within 60 days of the deed restriction outcome.

Phoenix Tube Company makes steel tubing for a variety of uses, including furniture, satellites, support poles, and fencing.

The corporate headquarters is at the 100,000-square feet facility on Wolf Creek, but the company also has a satellite manufacturing plant in Aurora, IL, according to Kasperski, a Chicago native.