“Economic development doesn’t happen without places to house the workers,” said Tony Kroeger, Dayton’s planning division manager. “If you don’t have quality, attainable housing for workers, you’re going to be constrained.”
HōM Flats
Michigan-based real estate development firm Magnus Capital Partners plans to redevelop a 13-acre vacant site in northwest Dayton at 325 Homewood Ave. and 707 Forest Ave.
The firm plans to build 260 new housing units that will be spread across 11 buildings at the site, located in the city’s Five Oaks neighborhood.
The site was once home to Julienne School and the Hampton Square apartments, but those buildings were demolished years ago, leaving behind vacant land.
Magnus Capital expects to invest about $70 million into the project, which is called the HōM Flats at Forest, says a memo from Steve Gondol, Dayton’s director of planning, neighborhoods and development.
The city recently agreed to provide about $2 million to the project from the northwest Dayton development fund. That money will help cover acquisition, materials and some other soft costs.
Tony Wilmot, a development associate with Magnus Capital Partners, said the financial closing for the project is tentatively set for April of next year and construction should begin in June at the latest.
Wilmot said it will like take about two years to construct all 11 buildings.
“This has been quite the journey, but we are making progress,” Wilmot said. “We’re ready to hit the ground running.”
HōM Flats at Forest is expected to have amenities like a child care center, walking paths, outdoor seating, playgrounds and a pickleball court.
Magnus Capital Partners have six HōM Flats housing developments that are open or under development in Michigan. Those projects have offerings like game rooms, art studios, fitness studios, walking paths, cafés, rooftop terraces, indoor and outdoor children’s play spaces and dog washing stations and dog parks.
This will be the first HōM Flats project in Ohio.
HōM Flats at Forest will offer high-quality housing that should appeal to young professionals, entry-level employees, firefighters, teachers, engineers, manufacturing workers, employees at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and people in a variety of other kinds of professions, said Vishal Arora, CEO and founder of Magnus Capital Partners.
“HōM Flats’ goal is to be a best-in-class workforce housing brand,” he said. “Our goal is to offer class-leading amenities, indoor and outdoor, and our is to build communities that are part of the broader community.”
Arora said the amenities at HōM Flats developments on par with basically any Class A apartment communities.
Arora said workforce housing has a couple of definitions, but HōM Flats housing in general is affordable to households earning 60% to 120% of the area median income.
Sixty-percent of the area median income is about $39,050 for a single-person household, and $55,750 for a four-person household, says data from County Corp.
The middle class needs an affordable housing product that is a “joy to live in” and that is near where they work, Arora said.
He said the top reason that HōM Flats residents do not renew their leases is that they have purchased their first homes.
The Dayton region is expected to see thousands of new jobs in coming years because of investments like Joby Aviation Inc.’s plan to open a manufacturing plant near the Dayton International Airport.
The local economy and southwest Ohio are expected to benefit from the large number of new jobs coming from Intel’s $20 billion semiconductor plants near Columbus (3,000 employees) and a $4.4 billion Honda/LG Solution electric vehicle battery plant in Fayette County (2,200 new jobs).
HōM Flats can and will be an economic development tool and it should play a role in the Dayton region’s renewal and growth, Arora said.
“We are part of the economic development story,” he said. “Having a high-quality housing stock in your city, in a commutable distance — well, that’s super important, to fill (open) positions.”
Kroeger, the city’s planning manager, said the Five Oaks neighborhood supports the project and planning staff were very impressed by Magnus Capital’s HōM Flats projects in other communities and states.
“There was a lot of discussion between the neighborhood and the developer over what the ultimate appearance of the structures ought to look like,” he said. “In the end, everyone was able to reach agreement and determine what is best for the neighborhood and the development itself.”
In a letter he sent to the city last year, Five Oaks Neighborhood Improvement Association President Joe Craig wrote, “We believe this project presents an opportunity to strengthen our neighborhood, and the degree to which Magnus Capital has been responsive to neighborhood feedback has convinced us that they have a shared interest in our Five Oaks neighborhood.”
Dayton City Commission members said this project will be very impactful for Five Oaks and the entire city.
“This is a little bit of a experiment — we’re trying to buck the trend of people saying they can’t afford to build housing that people can afford,” he said. “This is an interesting test, and I’m glad we’re playing a role in this, because if we solve this, I think other places will try to do the same thing.”
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