Economic Development

A City

Middletown is in the midst of a series of projects that are meant to update and reinvigorate the city.

REINVENTION

Middletown setting itself up for success with new developments across the city

BY BILL FERGUSON JR.

If the Destination Middletown Comprehensive Plan is any indication, the city is seeking to transform itself economically in the near future.

The plan, as of press time, was still in the draft-and-review process before City Council and is an update to the 2005 Master Plan. With community input and much work by city officials and stakeholders in the past few years, the plan is expected to be the guiding document for the community’s vision and goals for development in the next 10 years.

The city identified five key areas, all of which are key to attracting companies, jobs and residents to fill those jobs: Resilient Neighborhoods, Thriving Economy, Strong Infrastructure, Healthy and Safe Living and Pride in Community.

“There are so many unmatched opportunities here,” Economic Development Director Chris Xeil Lyons says. “Middletown is vast and there are so many things happening here. It has a lot of history. It’s a very diverse community.”

Over the last several years, the economic development department has updated its website—choosemiddletownoh.org—and social-media channels to better communicate with the area’s business owners and beyond.

In 2021, the department also created the city’s Small Business Alliance, which provides resources, training and networking opportunities for businesses of 35 or fewer employees. That includes sending text messages to businesses to keep them in the loop on city dealings, road closures, events, loan/ grant opportunities and so on.

Membership in the alliance also provides a complimentary personalized Google Business Profile setup; one annual social-media post promoting the business; one professional head shot for business use; and shared marketing with the Middletown Visitors Bureau. Membership is free, and registration is required. About 75 businesses have joined as of press time, Lyons says.

Middletown, with over 50,000 residents, sits along Interstate 75 in an ideal crossroads location: Two-thirds of the city is in Butler County, with the remaining third in Warren County. From downtown to downtown, it is close to midway between Dayton (24 miles) and Cincinnati (38 miles). According to the city’s website in2022, about 500 acres of professional/commercial development space is available, and about 200 residential acres remain developable, with sites for expansion located in the downtown, industrial parks and prime interstate areas.

In 2021, the city received $18.9 million through the federal American Rescue Plan Act, all of which “has been directed toward large, strategic economic-development projects because it’s one-time money,” Lyons says. “We’re using it for the re-development of large, transformative projects.”

Such large projects include: - Towne Mall redevelopment. The mostly vacant mall, built in 1977, is being repurposed into a retail/entertainment/recreational/ sports/lifestyle center that will feature a K1 Speed indoor electric go-kart racetrack; a destination sports and entertainment venue featuring three indoor ice sheets and changeable, multi-purpose floor-pads; several hundred luxury apartments with secured, indoor parking and amenities; multiple dining and entertainment venues; and an outdoor plaza and pedestrian gathering spaces. While some aspects remain under feasibility studies, reports estimate the price tag of developing the mall—now Towne Mall Galleria—at $100 million. The city, in partnership with Warren County and the mall’s owners, hired Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based RINKA, an architecture/design firm, to develop a comprehensive redevelopment plan for the property. The mall sits just off Interstate 75. - Route 4/Oakland neighborhood community center. The city, in partnership with Middletown City Schools, is planning to rebuild a community center in the historic Oakland

Middletown has several large developments in the works that will make the city more attractive to businesses, such as the MADE Industrial Park and the Towne Mall redevelopment.

neighborhood. The center is expected to include job-training resources and possibly a kitchen/culinary incubator to help small businesses launch catering or food-or beverage focused businesses or to develop edible consumer products for retail shelves. - Residential housing. In what is being described as an affordable-housing builder’s showcase the city is partnering with builders to construct modest, single-family homes on city-owned lots to make home ownership more accessible. - Brownfield redevelopment. The city is completing acquisition of three brownfield sites, about 50 acres in total, in order to remediate them environmentally and make them available for job creation. - Downtown redevelopment. Seeking to bring market-rate residential housing downtown, the city is partnering with a number of developers to reimagine and reinvest in a number of high-profile sites where live-workand play opportunities might be realized.

But there is still more that Middletown has been up to. The Middletown Port Authority was founded in January 2021 to replace the Community Improvement Corp.

Since then, the Port Authority has been hard at work, partnering with the City to add another 42 acres to the MADE Industrial Park near the corner of Yankee and Todhunter roads. Of those new acres, 12 have already been claimed by Phoenix Metals, which will be building a 156,000-square-foot facility that will enable the company to grow its workforce. Lyons says that many companies are looking for properties to be “shovel ready” as they expand and grow.

The Port Authority, which is a separate governmental authority with a board of directors, can create sales-tax exemptions, issue bonds, facilitate some land transfers and eliminate some red tape involved in other governmental operations.

The city also is in the midst of a major reinvestment in its roadways. With the passage of a $30 million street levy last year, combined with other committed local, state and federal funding, the city will make $51 million in road improvements between 2021 and 2023 — more than 200 lane-miles in total

“The city is reinvesting in itself,” she says. As the city makes such improvements, “several companies are meeting with us and talking about reinvesting in their own properties—making building improvements. We’re already seeing a positive outcome of the public infrastructure that’s going in.” n