City of Dayton officials have approved preliminary plans by development companies Cross Street Partners and Miller-Valentine to turn part of Dayton Arcade into affordable housing units geared towards Dayton’s creative community. Future phases of the project would open the site up for mixed use and commercial development.
The seven-building complex was closed to the public in 1990, but in 2014, Mayor Nan Whaleycreated a task force to explore redevelopment options.
The city then spent more than a half-million dollars on making sure the buildings were sound. Task force co-chair David Bohardt says that investment made this next step possible.
“That provided us the first glimmer of hope that perhaps a deal for redeveloping the complex could be put together, and it didn’t happen overnight but it happened very quickly.”
The plan hinges on receiving housing tax credits from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, and additional funding from federal and state historic incentive programs.
If the credits are awarded, development could begin as early as 2017 on 60 apartments on the 4th Street side of the complex. That would still leave the most well-known part of the Arcade, the former shopping center area, in need of redevelopment.
It has been reported that developer Miller-Valentine will step away from an option to redevelop the site where the Montgomery County Fairgrounds currently stands. The future site of the fairgrounds is also now in question.
