Jerad Barnett, president and chief executive of Beavercreek developer Synergy and Mills Development, said the plan involves two parcels touching on parts of Beavercreek and Fairborn, with Beavercreek and Bath Townships, in Greene County, in a 50-year lease from the federal government.
Some 19 years in the making, the plan is to build 600,000 square feet of new space where industry and academia can work with Wright-Patterson and Air Force decision-makers.
It will be called the “Convergence Research Center,” located minutes from much of Synergy’s previous work on Pentagon Boulevard.
It is expected to be home to 2,500 jobs.
“Undoubtedly, this is the most exciting day in our 42-year history,” Barnett said.
These long-term leases, sometimes called “EULs,” allow property developers or investors to pay fair market rent or in-kind considerations to use what could become prime commercial sites.
EULs are “rare” and “infrequent,” Barnett said.
“This has been a very difficult project,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton.
Monday’s announcement brought local officials as well as current and retired Air Force officers to Synergy’s home off Pentagon Boulevard. Turner made the announcement with Jeff Hoagland, president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, J.P. Nauseef, president and CEO of JobsOhio, Col. Dustin Richards, commander of the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson, Joe Zeis, senior advisor to Gov. Mike DeWine, as well as Barnett.
Zeis predicted the development “will impact the nation’s security for decades to come.”
Hoagland and others said the idea was inspired by the growth of the base and the growth of the defense contracting community around it.
“It got to the point where we had to look for land in creative ways,” Hoagland said.
“When we were dreaming big, I think in our wildest dreams we saw something like this happening,” Nauseef said.
“We are really excited to use this as an entry point and a stepping stone,” Richards said.
The Wright Patterson Regional Council of Governments has been due to receive $3 million in federal funding to continue its work of supporting the base.
The money in this case has been earmarked for “land acquisition,” according to a government spending line item shared by Turner’s office with the Dayton Daily News recently.
Appropriations for that land acquisition aren’t expected until about mid-March. Any disbursements will be made after that, Turner’s office has said.
The funding originated with the the House Appropriations Committee’s passage of the Fiscal Year 2025 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The measure was approved by the committee 31 to 26 last July.
The base has made such leases available in the past. In 2020, Gerlaugh Farm, as Wright-Patterson leaders call it, was to be one of two parcels open to EULs.
In another apparent sign of preparation for this moment, in 2023, the council was told of the need for an environmental study of a parcel of land west of National Road, south of Wright-Patterson’s gate 19B.
Fairborn, Dayton, Huber Heights, Bath Twp.-Greene County, Riverside and Beavercreek and other communities are represented on the regional council, which seeks to support Wright-Patt, home to nearly 40,000 military and civilian employees, and the Springfield Air National Guard Base. Turner called the council a “government of governments.”
The council is considered a municipal government like any in Ohio. It can pass laws and spend money much like other municipal governance bodies.
About the Author
