A Cleveland-based developer is set to buy nearly 50 acres of land near a prominent Dayton-region suburban office center. The deal with create jobs and spur economic activity, according to officials.
Cleveland-based Industrial Commercial Properties wants to buy roughly 50 acres of land along the south side of Research Boulevard in the Miami Valley Research Park. Kettering City Council approved the sale Tuesday. According to the deal, the property will be sold for $1.7 million.
The adaptive reuse development company, according to the contract, plans to construct a facility of at least 150,000 square feet. The site would go to an end user that commits to bringing at least 100 jobs and a payroll of $9 million to the property.
Kettering and ICP recently closed on almost 30 acres at the intersection of Research Boulevard and County Line Road, according to a news release, to bring a future residential project that includes high-end apartments and live-work-play amenities.
“We see the potential of the area especially not that a future residential component will be coming on board,” said Dean Miller, ICP’s senior vice president of leasing and acquisitions, in a statement. “With our acquisition of this land, we can now offer build-to-suit options in the park–something that we couldn’t provide with our current Miami Valley Research Park portfolio.”
Kettering City Manager Matt Greeson said the city has had “tremendous success with our relationship with ICP.”
“We believe this land sale will result in new businesses locating in the Park and help the City attract major employers,” he said in a statement.
The deal comes as the region’s industrial market saw a surge in new supply in Q1 2023. Colliers International, a professional services and investment management company, reported the early months of this year delivered approximately 2.4 million square feet of space.
“Overall, despite economic reservations, activity in the Dayton industrial market remains strong,” the report said.
The activity has been so abundant that “available supply has been low.” Colliers said in its report. New construction has provided “some relief,” according to Colliers, but it expects “investors to put their pens down and wait out interest rate hikes.”
“There are very few freestanding buildings available for purchase in the market,” the report added. “As uncertainty grows regarding the economy, we anticipate companies opting to downsize their operations. This may lead to more sales, which could help alleviate the pent-up demand for freestanding buildings.”
On Monday, the DBJ reported that Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development will begin development of a 264,000-square-foot speculative industrial building in Miami Township near the Wright Brothers Airport. The project, an over $22-million investment, is part of a proposed business park, the First Flight Commerce Center, expected to create 1.7 million square feet of class A industrial space and bring over 600 jobs to the region.
The Miami Valley Research Park is the region’s seventh largest suburban office center, according to DBJ research, at over 220,000 square feet.