According to state officials, the money will help address “multiple environmental concerns” on the 12.94-acre site, which has been at times a quarry, a popular scuba diving training environment, and later a site for aerospace manufacturing.
Andrea Lisby, whose family are third- and fourth-generation Fairborn entrepreneurs, said that their local connection was part of the reason they purchased the property. Silver Cup Properties is family-owned and operated between Lisby, her father Dan Degenhart, and sisters Alisha Cvitkovich and Kalynn Elwood.
Purchasing the site without knowing if their grant would be approved was a gamble that paid off, Lisby said.
“We are over-the-moon excited. I can’t even express the excitement,” she said. “I think it comes down to really believing in what we’re gonna create here. ... We’re just trying to bring a piece of Ohio history back.”
Originally a limestone quarry, Sportsman Lake was later taken over by natural spring water, and became a popular Ohio scuba diving destination in the 1960s and 70s. During this time it became home to the so-called Skin Divers Club at Sportsman’s Lake, but recreational use of the lake declined in the 90s, before the site became a manufacturing hub.
“This lake, back in the 60s, 70s and 80s, was actually known to my parents as the place to come picnic and swim. So it all felt like just a full-circle moment. Some history behind it, some sentimental value behind it,” she said.
The two manufacturing companies that formerly operated on the site were Aqua Locators and Applied Sciences. Both those buildings have since been vacated. Remediation includes the removal of an underground storage tank, installing vapor mitigation systems in two buildings, and ecological treatment of the lake, according to the state.
The vast majority of the necessary work is expected to be on the surrounding manufacturing buildings, rather than the lake itself, Lisby said.
“Knowing that history of both those buildings, we knew there were some sort of chemicals,” Lisby said. “Before we closed, we wanted to do our due diligence on figuring out what it was, how we can transition everything into a new use ... so we had to kind of start digging on environmental testing and environmental-type research on how we could buy this property and turn it over into something new without putting ourselves back millions of dollars.”
Once full remediation is complete, the site will be redeveloped into a mixed-use destination. While the family isn’t ready to reveal their exact plans just yet, Lisby said, the planned amenities will make good use of the lake and the surrounding natural environment, including nearby access to the Erie bike trail.
Silver Cup has already opened the lake back up to certified divers for recreation, though at this time only licensed divers are permitted on the site.
“We’re taking it one step at a time. It’s a huge property. We have a ton of ideas. And we do want to focus on the cleanup,” she said. “But hopefully, (we’ll be) getting people from all kinds of surrounding areas in Ohio to come and visit our place one day.”
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