“The feeling is that it might have some benefit, long term, for the Cross Pointe Center and help create some additional synergies there for development purposes,” Centerville City Manager Greg Horn said.
“Putting residential in that area is a new concept so it will be interesting to see how it’s reacted to.”
The theater closed in 2006 and remained unoccupied until 2014 when it was demolished. Now, after years of being just a large, empty lot, the property could be transformed.
Mills Development, which purchased the 14.5-acre property near Interstate 675 in 2014 for $1.7 million, must get approval from the city to rezone the land. The site sits in an area that is not approved for residential construction. A Dec. 19 hearing by Centerville city council could decide the project’s fate.
A rezoning application for map amendment to allow the property to be built — the property currently is zoned as commercial, not residential — was submitted to council.
“Normally you can’t build residential product in a business-plan development area, but we do allow it if you have a community center overlay,” Centerville city manager Greg Horn said.
The development plans show the complex, named The Allure, would include 108 one-bedroom and 206 two-bedroom units, spread across seven separate, four-story buildings. Parking garages on the first floor of several of the buildings, according to Horn, would allow for more space for complex amenities.
Those amenities could include a clubhouse, pool, workout facilities, dog park and various gathering spaces.
The developer is working with the owner of Cross Pointe to improve a 24-foot corridor to create a “pedestrian-friendly” connection to the shopping center. The corridor originally was reserved for an underground sanitary sewer easement.
“It would be expected that, if the project goes forward, Cross Pointe would benefit from several hundred new consumers and residents living right on their door step,” said Nathan Cahall, Centerville’s director of economic development.
Adding a residential property to the Cross Pointe area has the potential to produce more than just an increase in sales for current retailers. It also could attract other retailers.
“Theoretically, you would hope so,” Cahall said. “If retailers and restaurateurs see an uptick in business, we would expect that other folks considering entering that market would see Cross Pointe as a potentially successful location.”
The Allure complex would be just one among several proposed complexes in the Centerville area. Sugarcreek Twp. has several apartment complexes in the early stages of construction, all near the Cornerstone of Centerville.
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