Kettering Business Park is just south of the Dayton-Kettering border. Since the city took over the site in 1996, it has tried to offset the loss of more than 2,500 jobs from Air Force consolidation.
Kettering Economic Development Manager Gregg Gorsuch said recent growth in the park — involving companies like Amazon, Synchrony Financial and Alternate Solutions Health Network — has helped bring those job numbers back.
A planned Amazon “last-mile” distribution center is projected to bring several hundred jobs to the business park. Gorsuch said the project should push the number of jobs in the park past 2,500 jobs.
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A land sale agreement between the city of Kettering and TW Development, the developer for the Amazon project, says the developer agrees to bring a minimum of 300 “full-time equivalent jobs” to the company’s property by the end of 2021. That can include a calculation where, for example, 100 part-time jobs could be counted as 30, 50 or 70 “full-time equivalents” based on the number of hours worked.
Gorsuch said the project is different from the logistics companies centered near the Dayton airport and the I-70/I-75 interchange. He said he believes Amazon chose this site for its size and ability to reach the largest number of local households with deliveries the most quickly.
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Jim McCarthy of TW Development Group said he’s currently negotiating a lease with Amazon.
“It is 80 percent there, and we will hopefully start construction in March, and they should be occupying by the middle of July,” he said.
Zoning Administrator Ron Hundt said the project is just the beginning of a successful relationship with the developer and Amazon.
“We are very fortunate to have Jim working with us not only with this project but with future things that may be occurring in the Kettering Business Park,” he said. “The Amazon project is very respectful of what the city wanted for this property.”
Amazon is not the only good news for the park.
Kettering Health Network celebrated the opening of its new $10 million operations command center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in January.
The first of its kind in the Dayton area, the nearly 17,000-square-foot NASA-like command center is designed to more efficiently care for patients and get them to the most appropriate level of care in the least amount of time. Command center staff will be able to view the status of every patient bed in real time in every Kettering Health Network hospital and medical facility.
When fully functional, the command center could potentially house 300 employees.
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Synchrony oversees “private label” credit cards for some 300,000 merchant and retail businesses in some 400,000 locations, companies like Walmart, Amazon, Morris Furniture and Tire Discounters dealers, among others.
The company employs more than 1,500 people at its 950 Forrer location and is one of the city’s largest employers.
Alternate Solutions Health Network, founded in 1999 by Kettering residents David and Tessie Ganzsarto, is a leader in post-acute strategic partnerships. In 2017, the Kettering based business purchased a 200,000 square foot facility at 1050 Forrer Boulevard in order to grow its operations.
The expansion will allow a projected growth in employment of more than 340 jobs in the next five years, according to city officials.
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