Master sample Callout, to use as a template. Master sample Callout, to use Master sample Callout, to use Master sample as a template.4 JULY 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO N Spread out!” Pick your favorite team sport, and you’ll likely hear some variation of this concept yelled from the sideline, whether it’s a gaggle of six-year-olds packed in around a soccer ball or an elite squad of basketball players who seem too big for the court — like those who play every year in Dayton at the NCAA men’s basketball championship First Four play-in games. Th e idea is simple: Th e more space you put between yourselves, the easier it is to move without the ball, distribute the puck or run a pass pattern to that precise point where the quarterback has just thrown a pass. Ohio has prospered in economic development over many years in large part because of its well- spaced team of metro areas — just far enough apart to have their own ecosystems, and just close enough together to feel part of a larger network. Th e Dayton-Kettering metro (Site Selection’s No. 2 Tier 2 Top Metro for 2018) has its own family of unique towns and projects, and is also part of a triad mega-region with Cincinnati and Columbus. Th e Dayton Development Coalition’s cross- sector collaboration model plays a big part in the southwestern Ohio corridor. Dayton is intimately connected to the state’s largest single-site employer, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. And it’s more connected to venture capitalists, thanks in part to assets such as the Air Force Research Laboratory and University of Dayton Research Institute. DDC President and CEO Jeff Hoagland says the state’s universities all have fi gured out the value of better economic development engagement. Th e best part? Dayton not only has the University of Dayton, Wright State, Miami University and Sinclair Community College, but all those other great schools are only an hour away — just far enough away to not get in each other’s way, just close enough to collaborate. Lately, Dayton’s had a string of bad luck: 27 tornadoes on Memorial Day; a national opioid crisis that has concentrated in the region; derelict properties. But there are other stories (told in the following pages) turning the tide, as Greater Dayton demonstrates its resilience and fi nds itself in a renaissance concurrent with a nation in the mood to rediscover life and work in small cities and towns. Startups are afoot, and the DDC’s own in-house venture capital fund Accelerant has invested in more than a dozen. Moreover, the Brookings Institution found Dayton to be one of only 11 of the top 100 metro areas in the nation achieving inclusive growth. Not just conversation, but action, is occurring to bridge socio-economic and racial divides, as well as generational ones. “Th ough there are lots of diff erent moving parts,” says Julie Sullivan, executive vice president of regional development at the DDC, “at the root of it, our region is very good at moving major initiatives forward collaboratively. Foundationally, that is in our heritage. Now we’re getting to a point where our universities are more engaged in these conversations as well, with more targeted industry engagement. A lot of these conversations are happening around the region.” Sounds like eff ective teamwork. Dayton has a way of turning talk to action, and playbook into performance. e Dayton Conversation “ Adam Bruns, Managing Editor D A YT ON | INTELLIGENCE REPORT Introduction8 JULY 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO N D A YT ON | INTELLIGENCE REPORTD A YT ON | INTELLIGENCE REPORTD A YT ON | INTELLIGENCE REPORTD A YT ON | INTELLIGENCE REPORTD A YT ON | INTELLIGENCE REPORT The old GM plant (now Fuyao). Th e Fairgrounds. Th e old International Harvester plant in Springfi eld (now Topre). Th e Arcade. Th e litany of redevelopment projects in Greater Dayton can sound like an exercise in nostalgia. But it’s really more about case studies in renewal. By now you may have heard the story of the closed GM plant in Moraine that came to be inhabited by a Chinese auto glass supplier now employing thousands. Fuyao Glass America held the grand opening in fall 201 for its 11-acre, $450-million facility, which it billed as the largest glass fabrication plant in the world with the capacity to produce 4 million automotive car sets and 4 million automotive replacement glass windshields each year. Shane Imwalle is chief strategy offi cer for Woolpert, the global architecture, engineering and geospatial fi rm based in Dayton. He recently spoke on the phone from Switzerland about his own experience of the Fuyao story. “Th ey wanted to feed both Detroit and their other customer Safelite,” the auto glass replacement and repair company headquartered in Columbus,” he says. Fuyao wanted to go greenfi eld, but JobsOhio’s Christy Tanner went to a Fuyao grand opening in Russia and convinced their leadership to have a look at the former GM truck and bus factory, then owned by industrial property turnaround specialists IRG. “Th e model with IRG is demo-to-suit instead of build-to- suit,” says Imwalle, right-sizing what was a mega- factory by essentially forming manufacturing versions of condos. After some encouragement from Mike Davis, then the economic director for Moraine, IRG had literally saved the site from the scrap heap, as the highest bidders for the site (then controlled by RACER Trust, in charge of liquidating a number of GM sites) were going to be scrap metal companies, based on prices at the time. “Mike Davis reached out to the IRG team and said, “Could you come down and look at this?” Th e auto bailout was intended for job creation, not killing jobs,” Imwalle says. “If that factory went, the employment base would go with it. When John Kasich came through Dayton on a gubernatorial campaign stop with Newt Gingrich in tow, Imwalle asked a question about Old Places, New Faces Renaissance Woolpert has worked with Fuyao Glass America since 2014 to help redevelop the abandoned GM plant into the largest auto glass producing plant in the world. Shown here is the company’s showroom. Photo courtesy of Woolpert S I T E S E L E C T I O N JULY 2018 9 D A YT ON | INTELLIGENCE REPORT the GM plant situation at a small forum at Sinclair Community College. In a conversation afterward, Gingrich told Imwalle the case simply needed to be made for what was in the best interests of the taxpayers: If someone could come in and create around 2,500 jobs and help dent unemployment, Gingrich recommended, that would carry the day vs. the scrap heap. Th rough the Dayton Development Coalition (DDC), Imwalle met and worked with IRG, the city of Moraine and the Ohio congressional delegation to convince the Obama administration that instead of the scrap conveyor belt, the building should be conveyed to what was in the best interest of the community. “Senator Sherrod Brown appealed to the Obama administration to change the process for liquidating the property, and he pulled it off ,” says Imwalle. Th e city chose IRG as the developer. When JobsOhio’s Tanner successfully convinced the Fuyao chairman to come look in Moraine, Woolpert, based in Dayton since 1911, was there with Chinese-speaking staff . Fuyao was so new to the U.S. they asked which architect the government would choose for them. “We had Moraine, Woolpert, IRG, the DDC, the University of Dayton and JobsOhio all working together to close this one,” Imwalle says. Between 10 and 15 tenants are on the property today, with about 350,000 sq. ft. still left. “It’s all 70-ton-crane capable, with 50-foot-high ceilings, in a market with heavy demand for manufacturing, unlimited water and Interstate access,” Imwalle says. “Almost a decade later, the master plan Woolpert did for IRG has nearly come to fruition. A Giant Awakens In the heart of Dayton’s central business district, Cross Street Partners (CSP), Model Group, and McCormack Baron Salazar will redevelop the historic Dayton Arcade, a collection of nine buildings totaling over 330,000 sq. ft., into a mixed-use district, directly across the street from the Levitt Pavilion outdoor live music venue. Th e fi rst phase is an innovation hub and residential development partnership with the University of Dayton. It’s all at the center of a nine-block redevelopment strategy led by the city that builds on existing underutilized assets to build a premier downtown urban neighborhood centered around a central park. “From an urban core standpoint, I have not seen a community come together on a project like this in my 25 years here,” says Dayton Development Coalition President and CEO Jeff Hoagland of a project that some say has been simmering since the 1980s, as the property sat vacant and derelict. “If it weren’t for the University of Dayton being the major anchor and signing the lease, this project would not have happened. It’s great to have a partner that Next >