The 21-story empty office tower at 40 N. Main St. is being targeted for redevelopment by the Model Group and Cross Street Partners, who are the developers of the Dayton Arcade, which is located across the street.
The developers have said they expect to spend more than $90 million renovating and reusing the Centre City building. Their plans also include spending millions of dollars to renovate the Air City parking garage next door.
The city proposes to give the land bank $4 million to pay for “critical” remediation activities, such as asbestos surveys and inspection work, says a memo from Steve Gondol, Dayton’s director of planning, neighborhoods and development.
“Given the building’s challenges, stemming from years of vacancy and its considerable scale, this funding is essential to moving the project forward,” he said.
The other $2 million contribution to the land bank would help cover some of the “soft costs” of the rehab project, like architectural and engineering work and the purchase of materials and furnishings. The city authorized spending $2.5 million several years ago to repair and secure the exterior of the office tower, which was crumbling and falling down onto the street and sidewalk.
Gondol said that this project will revitalize a historic landmark while also helping address housing and commercial needs downtown.
City documents state that the Centre City building will offer 80 affordable housing units for seniors and the rest of the units will mainly be a mix of efficiencies and apartments with one and two bedrooms.
The project also would create 11,000 square feet of new ground floor commercial space.
There have been a variety of proposals to renovate the Centre City building over the years. But so far, they’ve all failed to move ahead, even after they won state historic tax credits.
But this time, the Centre City developers have secured millions of dollars of tax credits from both the state’s historic building preservation program and its transformational mixed-use development program.
Model Group and Cross Street Partners helped redevelop the Dayton Arcade — which was a feat that many thought was impossible. The city hopes they can work their magic to bring back the Centre City Building.
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