You can reach me at tom.gnau@coxinc.com. If you’re bouncing around social media you can also find me at LinkedIn, X and Facebook.
Is Chris Riegel, chief executive and founder of Dayton-based Stratacache, an expert business technologist or a steward of downtown Dayton office properties?
The answer, if you’ve been paying attention, is: “Yes.”
His latest acquisition puts Riegel’s real estate companies in control of three of the four corners at Second and Main streets downtown. A colleague suggested Riegel build a “sky-bridge” between Stratacache Tower, KeyBank Tower and 110 N. Main St.
Riegel’s reply: That wouldn’t stimulate first-floor retail activity.
Premier sells downtown buildings — to a familiar owner
Premier Health’s downtown Dayton headquarters has been sold for just over $5.5 million to a limited liability company owned by Riegel, who is as comfortable making deals in Dayton as he is in Singapore and Bangkok.
Downtown owner: Please read our first and follow-up stories on the purchase.
Riegel assures me he will have something to say later about his latest moves. If you know him, you won’t be surprised to learn that he was traveling internationally when I tried to reach him this week.
Fairborn to Wawa expansion: No thanks.
Fairborn has rejected a proposal for Wawa to build in the city as part of its Ohio expansion, Nick Blizzard reported.
The 5-2 vote this week by Fairborn City Council rejected what a representative of the Pennsylvania-based business said was a $10 million proposal. The vote came after a two-hour public hearing.
Opponents prevail: The hearing involved more than 20 speakers, with opponents of the plan outnumbering supporters by nearly a four to one margin.
Council’s decision followed a July recommendation by the city’s planning commission to deny the proposal.
Huber approval: Wawa received approval in September to build a site in Huber Heights. The business has said it plans to open 60 stores in Ohio in the next 10 years.
City approves (nearly) $1 million for Simms’ West Dayton townhouse project
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Dayton has approved giving developer Charles Simms nearly $1 million of federal COVID relief aid to help bring new housing to the former Gem City Ice Cream Co. site in West Dayton.
The $980,000 in city funding will pay for site preparation, like engineering work, land planning and the installation of utilities.
New housing: “The preparation of this site will help leverage new market-rate housing that hasn’t been seen in West Dayton in over 20 years,” said Veronica Morris, Dayton’s economic development manager.
Please read the story from Cory Frolik.
Xenia, Franklin and Waynesville join other SW Ohio cities enacting marijuana sales moratoriums
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Three more Southwest Ohio municipalities have passed marijuana sales moratoriums, reporters London Bishop and Ed Richter have told us.
Recreational marijuana use is now legal in Ohio, but until rules and regulations are put in place, and licenses are issued, locals can’t yet buy it.
The law allows adults 21 and over to legally possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana (among other provisions). It also imposes a 10% sales tax.
However: Some cities are enacting moratoriums on the distribution, cultivation and/or processing of recreational cannabis.
A growing list: Moratoriums (moratoria?) have passed in Beavercreek, Kettering, Vandalia, Miamisburg, Centerville, Springboro, Carlisle, Monroe, Hamilton, Fairfield and other cities across Ohio.
Recently, Franklin and Waynesville joined that list.
Closure of GM-Moraine plant 15 years ago ended an era
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Do you remember Dec. 23, 2008?
I do. And so do more than a few other people.
The closing of the General Motors (GM)-Moraine assembly plant near Stroop and Dryden roads was a financially and emotionally wrenching event, upending the lives of workers and marking the end of auto assembly in the immediate Dayton area.
Hard times: The closure came six months before NCR announced it was leaving Dayton for the Atlanta area.
“Those were hard times in Dayton,” said Steve Bognar, the Yellow Springs filmmaker who made the Academy Award-nominated HBO documentary “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant,” with his partner and wife Julia Reichert.
Promise kept: “Ultimately we ended up with the property,” said Stu Lichter, the developer who helped bring Fuyao Glass America to the plant six years later. “We kept our word to bring jobs and create a good thing there.”
Henny Penny celebrates new Wellspring and Owners Hall
Food preparation equipment producer Henny Penny recently celebrated the completion of its new Wellspring and Owners Hall facility in Eaton.
The building offers 26,165 square feet across two wings, offering room to gather and space to focus on well-being. A fitness center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at no cost to employees, the company said. Construction began in October last year and was completed last month, with 22 Ohio-based contractors working on the project.
“This project isn’t our largest in square feet, but we consider it the most meaningful,” said Rob Connelly, Henny Penny chief executive. “It has the potential to impact and transform our employee-owners’ lives in so many ways, now and for generations to come.”
Henny Penny, which also has downtown Dayton offices, is an employee-owned business.
You should read these,too
Drone soccer? In Springfield? Well, where else?
Dual Dayton-area coffee openings: Biggby Coffee and Dunkin’ are celebrating the openings of their newest coffee shops today in the Dayton region.
Closing for the holiday break: Appropriately perhaps, ice cream shops. And a few other businesses.
Flyers win six straight: And notch a three-pointer records along the way.
If you’re wondering about the Kettering Health holiday lights display: Here’s what we’ve been told.
Do you participate in dry January? Tell us about it.
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