Late last year, the city of Dayton approved rezoning the former Dayton Electroplate property at the corner of Stanley Avenue and Valley Street to make way for the new center, to be built by Beavercreek-based Synergy & Mills Development.
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In the interim, the hospital asked the Port Authority to take title on the property, hold it and then deed the site back to the hospital at the appropriate time, said Jerry Brunswick, executive director of the Port Authority.
Brunswick believes the hospital may be ready to proceed with the center’s construction, he said.
A message seeking comment was left with a spokeswoman for Dayton Children’s. Another hospital representative declined to immediately comment at length, but said early work at the site has already started.
“We’ve owned it (the property) for purposes of facilitating that process,” Brunswick said. “And now we’re ready to pass title back to” the hospital.
“We’re doing that,” he added.
No action was needed by the Port Authority’s board of trustees to enact the transfer.
The Port Authority was “dragged” into litigation on the site with a former owner, Lexington Ky. developer Garrett Day LLC, but Brad Evers, the authority’s general counsel, said the authority has had very little to do with that lawsuit.
The hospital sued Garrett Day LLC, alleging last year that the developer defrauded the hospital when it didn't properly clear the site.
Garrett Day principal Michael Heitz had placed a lien on the property for $40,000, claiming he did the site work he agreed to do before turning over the property to the Port Authority.
“They are paying all of our expenses for the litigation,” Evers said of the hospital. “And I think we’ll get out of the litigation now.”
“They’re going to build on it,” he added.
Brunswick said there have been additional environmental reviews at the site. “That now has come to the point where the site is now ready for development.”
Jared Barnett, president and chief executive of Synergy, told the Dayton Plan Board last year that the developers were well aware of the site’s history, which is “something that’s been taken into consideration.”
The land was once home to Dayton Electroplate, but sat vacant for years as an eyesore next to Dayton Children’s Hospital.
“It has been remediated currently to the satisfaction of all parties involved,” Brunswick said.
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