Phase 1 of the larger onMain project, which could cost about $133 million, is expected to create a new facility focused on research and innovation and about 170 new housing units.
“We are excited for our community to see work begin on this project,” said Brian Heitkamp, CEO of onMain, which is a partnership between the University of Dayton and Premier Health to transform the 38-acre site. “The Roundhouse holds a special place in the hearts of many, and we are committed to its preservation.”
onMain says work started this week to repair and paint the Roundhouse building’s exterior wood facade, including its sheathing, battens and trim.
The exposition building — which first opened in 1874 but was reconstructed in 1953 — will get new custom windows and doors that match the originals.
This renovation and repairs, which is expected to be completed by late summer, will cost about $1.2 million.
About $900,000 of that funding will be federal dollars that U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, helped obtain through a previous appropriations bill. onMain has said the Roundhouse hopefully will become the “community’s living room,” with gathering and event spaces.
The fairgrounds site has sat empty since the Montgomery County Fair relocated to Jefferson Twp. in 2018. UD and Premier Health purchased the property in 2017 and demolished the site’s agricultural buildings, grandstands and other structures.
onMain says the renovation of the Roundhouse will be the first visible work to occur on the site, but there will be a lot more activity in coming months when roadways, utilities, sidewalks and parks are installed.
Infrastructure work is expected to begin in late spring or early summer and could take 18 to 24 months to complete.
The city of Dayton approved spending about $5.8 million to help build new roads, sidewalks, utilities and park spaces. The city expects to invest another $2 million into infrastructure at the property in 2026.
onMain’s vision for the old fairgrounds property is a mixed-use site that offers commercial, residential, retail and green spaces that hopefully will attract lots of new investment and jobs related to research, technology, aviation, national defense and advanced manufacturing.
The first phase of the project could represent $133 million in new investment and could take about five years to complete. This stage of the project focuses on about 13.5 acres, or about a third of the entire site.
A key part of phase 1 is a new 120,000-square-foot Digital Transformation Center at the corner of South Main and West Stewart streets. This will be Ohio’s second innovation hub, and the state expects to chip in $35 million to help construct the five-story facility.
Officials hope the hub could create more than 2,000 new jobs in roughly the next six years. Construction on the $70 million facility is expected to start this year.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Phase 1 also is supposed to create about 170 new rental housing units, plus community spaces like a plaza, a trail and green space around a retention pond. The proposed residential building could cost about $40 million.
onMain officials say they want to create a new walkable and connected neighborhood that eventually could be home to about 3,000 jobs.
Phases 2 and 3 could run from 2031 to 2045.
When the entire onMain project is finished, the site could have 15 to 20 buildings; 1,600 housing units; 900,000 square feet of commercial space; 85,000 square feet of retail and “active” spaces; 35,000-square feet of community spaces; 2,500 parking spaces and eight acres of open space.
The redevelopment of the fairgrounds property is more than 100 years in the making, said Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein.
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