In late September, the City of Dayton announced a new program to help activate vacant and underutilized commercial spaces impacted by the pandemic.
The First Floor Fund, administered by CityWide Development, aims to provide low-interest and forgivable loans to small retail businesses. The program will utilize $7 million out of the $138 million that Dayton received in federal rescue funds.
Properties both in the downtown area as well as key Dayton neighborhoods will be eligible. The program also will have a focus on Black and minority-owned businesses and “strategic corridors” in the city.
From the criteria shared, there are several areas of town with significant historic building stock that could be candidates for funding.
On a neighborhood level, it’s clear that West Third Street in Wright Dunbar is a strategic corridor for Dayton, and there has already been interest in the new program.
The area is currently seeing a surge of reinvestment and success stories include the new food hall now open at the corner of West Third and Williams Streets. The deteriorating Gem City Ice Cream building was recently razed, but new Charles Simms townhomes will be built on the site soon.
In early October, permits were issued for structural work at 1153 and 1171 West Third Street. It was later confirmed that a new restaurant and bar by Anthony Thomas, owner of Taco Street Co., is slated for 1171 West Third and that Thomas had applied for the First Floor Fund.
Another restaurant down the street, Morgan’s Fine Cuisine, has also applied for the fund to cover remodeling and equipment costs in the space that formerly housed Texas Beef and Cattle Co.
There are plenty of other potential targets on the same historic two-block commercial district, including the Marietta Flats at 1148 W. Third which could become apartments with first-floor commercial use.
There are also several other key corridors around Dayton with underutilized or vacant commercial buildings that would seem to fit the bill of the fund.
Although it may not be possible for the fund to fully bankroll a gut rehabilitation or major redevelopment of a deteriorating structure, it could be combined with other funding sources or tax credits to finance larger projects. Moreover, in many parts of town there are underutilized commercial buildings that haven’t been vacant long so getting them fixed up and occupied now will do wonders for those neighborhoods long-term.
Salem Ave, currently under construction with a project that will improve safety and walkability, could certainly be a target, as well as Xenia Ave which is getting bike lanes and new investment from East End Community Services.
To the north, Troy Street is an important thoroughfare in Old North Dayton, and North Main Street near Santa Clara is another well-preserved commercial district in sore need of new tenants.
“We know first-floor space is so important to activating sidewalks and creating vibrancy, whether it’s in our neighborhood business districts or whether it’s in downtown,” city manager Shelly Dickstein said in reference to the new program.
“Those are places that people want to be and it’s a great element of place-making.”
Dickstein added that the program aims to help businesses as well as “boost walkability and vibrancy in the city.”
Hopefully the new fund will achieve those goals while also contributing to the saving and re-use of historic properties all around Dayton.
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