The structure was built in the early 1900s by Hobart Brothers Co. as its corporate headquarters and has been in the county’s hands since 2000. The building’s biggest neighbor for decades was the Hobart Brothers manufacturing plant, a building demolished in 2014. That property now is home to Kettering Health’s Troy Hospital.
Once the county took over the office building, its occupants included the county Children’s Services and Adult Protective Services offices. Those later were moved to the Job and Family Services building on North County Road 25A, Troy. That building also is county owned.
Other county operations in the Hobart Center today include the Emergency Management Agency and its backup 911 Center, county Coroner, Veterans Services and the Ohio State University Extension offices.
Space also is leased to the independent county Health Department and portions of the building are used for storage. Second floor space will be remodeled to accommodate the county Human Resources department, which now is in the historic Courthouse.
The Children’s Services move opened a door for the county to generate income to help offset operational costs and to work with nonprofit organizations also offering services to the community, said Commission President Ted Mercer.
Among new tenants in recent years was the Troy-Miami County Public Library.
“The library wanted to enhance and expand their Entrepreneur Center and Maker Lab. The commissioners felt the Hobart building was a perfect fit for this operation since the Hobart building was adjacent to the current main library,” Mercer said. “Having an organization that provides services to the general public, we felt, was a good fit.”
All building improvements needed were paid for by the library. The library recently added operations of the Local History Library to its Hobart Center space. The Local History Library had been in a former bank building at Cherry and Main streets downtown since the early 2000s.
The library operations in the Hobart Center has worked well so far, said Rachelle Via, library director. “Having all of our services in Troy in close proximity is going to allow us to increase collaboration among library departments and provide a more unified structure as a library while also being convenient for our patrons. We would have people come in to the Troy library who would not want to drive down to Local History, even though it was only a few blocks away, after hearing our historical resources were not located at the library. Hopefully those people will be willing to go next door,” Via said.
The most recent outside tenant to move to the Hobart Center was the Chamber of Commerce, which occupies space on the main floor previously home to the county Development Department. That department moved to the new county One Stop Shop on Troy’s west side last year.
“This is a prime location for businesses. The addition of Kettering Health years ago further solidified this area that had long been used by local businesses as a prominent area for business growth. The recent improvements made by the new owners of Dunaway’s have also enhanced this well-travelled area of our community,” Executive director Kathi Roetter said of the Hobart Center space.
The chamber board of directors and staff felt very strongly that the chamber needed a more visible location to better serve our members and the community, said Joseph Graves, chamber president and CEO of the Troy Development Council.
The offices previously were located on the third floor of a Public Square building for more than 20 years. “The Troy chamber is always evolving and growing, thus this new location will serve our members and community well for many years in the future,” Graves said.
The new space is a modern, open and user-oriented, he said. “To complete the entire space was a true partnership of the chamber and Miami County government,” he said. “The county commissioners were instrumental in re-opening the door facing West Main Street allowing access to the entire building and all occupants, providing the Troy Area Chamber of Commerce with two entrances.”
The remainder of the cost to prepare space for the chamber was paid for by the chamber.
The leasing of space to those beyond government related operations is more than a lease relationship, said Michael Clarey, the county chief administrative officer. “There is a lot of synergy between the chamber and the county, so this is as much about the partnership as it is the lease revenue,” he said.
The county also is paying for landscaping outside the Hobart Center as well as enhanced exterior and interior enhanced wayfinding.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
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