Investors see ‘fairgrounds of future’

Montgomery fair will remain in current spot at least one more year.

Potential investors saw the “Fairgrounds of the Future” as part of a naming rights campaign event this week to raise the remaining $3 million needed to relocate the Montgomery County Fair to Brookville by 2017.

The Montgomery County Agricultural Society and Miller Valentine put on the event.

The 163rd Montgomery County Fair kicked off earlier this week, but John Friedline, president of the Montgomery County Agricultural Society, said he is optimistic that this year will be one of the fair’s last at that location.

“The one thing we do know is that we will be here in 2016,” Friedline said.

In total, moving the fairgrounds from Main Street in Dayton to a nearly 70-acre site on West Campus Boulevard in Brookville will cost $18.5 million. Only the historic Roundhouse building would be moved. Other buildings on the fairgrounds would stay and likely be demolished.

The state recently allocated $2.5 million in funding for the project, which was included in the state budget.

The naming rights campaign will allow financial donors the opportunity to name one of the facilities that will be built at the fairgrounds in Brookville. Companies and families donating between $250,000 and $1 million will be eligible for naming rights.

If the move does happen, plans call for the 38-acre site in Dayton to be used for a mix of residential, commercial and office properties similar to The Greene Town Center in Beavercreek.

Eric Joo, partner and vice president of real estate development with Miller-Valentine, told this newspaper in June that the redeveloped fairgrounds could include a variety of new businesses — excluding industrial.

“The whole process is going to bring more jobs to downtown Dayton,” Friedline said. “It’s going to generate a lot more revenue for the city.”

The Montgomery County Fair runs through Monday.

Those interested in making a donation toward the “Fairgrounds of the Future” can visit www.fairgroundsofthefuture.com.

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