New Dayton office has giant chess, industrial slide

Dayton city commissioners recently approved a development agreement that gives $170,000 to JJR Solutions to relocate from Beavercreek to downtown.

The company has renovated about 14,000 square feet of space for its new offices, which staff moved into this month.

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The company’s offices, which are spread across two floors, have original wood floors, exposed brick walls, strings of hanging lights and an industrial metal slide that makes it easy and entertaining to quickly get downstairs.

The office has a gym facility and shower and a break room with an outdoor-like vibe with tables, chairs, yard games like giant chess, a shuffle board court, hanging swings and Adirondack seating.

“Having a workspace that is unique and exciting is important for recruiting talent, and the city offers wonderful facilities that allows us rethink the work environment,” said Carly Cox, JJR’s chief operating officer.

JJR Solutions seeks to improve the health, well-being and security of communities and the nation, and the company chose downtown because it wanted to be closer to people and neighborhoods it wants to engage in improving and supporting, Cox said.

The company also wanted people who get an education in Dayton to stay and contribute to the city after graduating, she said.

The workspace has been designed to tell the company’s story, and it is 100 percent wireless, so employees can work wherever they are most comfortable, Cox said.

The city this week agreed to give JJR Solutions $50,000 in grant money as well as $120,000 in Montgomery County Economic Development/Government Equity Program funds.

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The funds are intended to help defray a portion of the roughly $1.6 million the company committed to investing to pay for tenant improvements, furniture, machinery, equipment, relocation costs and training, according to the development agreement.

JJR Solutions decided to move to East Third Street to be part of downtown’s growing energy and development as a hub of entrepreneurship, said Ford Weber, Dayton’s director of economic development.

“I think this really reflects the growth of the innovation ecosystem here in the city of Dayton,” Weber said.

The 607 E. Third St. building, renamed the Avant-Garde, is being transformed by Woodard Development, one of the developers of the thriving Water Street District.

The roughly 35,000-square-foot building was formerly the Lotz Paper Co. facility. It is five stories and sits next to the recently rehabbed Dayton Steam Plant.