Several residents in the West Schantz Avenue and Hatcher Hills neighborhoods spoke against the apartment concept at the May 7 Oakwood City Council meeting, even though it wasn’t on the agenda.
Gary Shoup of Maysfield Road said neighbors had been told“luxury residences” were planned in that section of the development, “when in fact it’s an apartment building.”
Also, Bill Rudy of Schantz Avenue said he has lived across from Sugar Camp since 2001 and does not want to face a 135-unit apartment complex.
“Unfortunately, I live across from Sugar Camp,” said Gary Brown. “We wouldn’t have moved there if we had known an apartment building would be built there.”
To gauge overall sentiments, Schear later sent a letter and survey to more than 225 addresses in the vicinity and said 63 people responded — 10 in favor of apartments in the development, 13 against them and 10 “tolerant of them,” although they wanted the number of units reduced.
Other components of the rolling 36-acre Sugar Camp and Pointe Oakwood development remain on track, although four condominium buildings at Far Hills and Schantz avenues still await approval by Oakwood City Council on July 16.
There are no alternative plans for the high ground between the existing Sugar Camp commercial buildings off of Schantz and the condominium sites.
Market studies have shown “there’s a huge demand for rental opportunities among people with money who don’t want to buy,” Schear said. “But we want to see what would be acceptable to the neighborhoods. If a scaled-down luxury concept seems appropriate and is embraced the neighbors, we could look at that down the road.”
Construction is expected to begin this summer on the 20 condo units, once approved, and in the fall on a three-story, 88-unit assisted living center at Old River Trail and Far Hills near Oakwood’s northern border with the city of Dayton. That has been approved by council.
The overall development’s master plan has been amended several times since 2007. It has been a year since Schear became the sole owner and developer of the former NCR Corp. property, which is the last sizable open piece of land in Oakwood.
Six single-family homes will be completed by the time of Homearama, a real estate showcase in September. Four more will be under construction.
Schear, who lives in Oakwood, runs three other companies: NCP Finance, a lending wholesaler for 1,500 stores including Cash America, Check ‘n Go and Ace Cash; a grocery distribution company and a sports marketing group.
After 30 years in downtown Dayton, he relocated his offices this year to one of the four buildings in the Sugar Camp office complex off of Schantz, which OIG purchased in 2006 for $5 million. One of the buildings was renovated and converted into the new home of Beth Abraham Synagogue, which moved there from Salem Avenue in 2008.
Originally NCR’s training hub, the center also had Teradata Corp. as a tenant for several years, but has been mostly vacant since until recently.
Schear predicted that the office complex “will be fully occupied by this time next year.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or terry.morris@coxinc.com.
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