Main Street Dayton building gets $4M in state help

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The only Dayton project to apply for state historic tax credits in the fall round has received more than $4 million in credits, potentially bringing new investment to the area around downtown’s new music pavilion.

The Ohio Development Services Agency this morning announced it has awarded the Fidelity medical building project $4.13 million in tax credits.

The incentives are to assist with a proposed $20.5 million rehab of the long vacant 11-story building, which is located at 211 S. Main St..

The developer proposes constructing 94 apartments on the upper floors and office and retail on the ground level.

The reuse of the building, which sits at the corner of West Fifth and South Main streets, would help revitalize a section of the city that is on the upswing because of the opening of the Levitt Pavilion Dayton, a state-of-the-art music amphitheater.

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Up until the early 1980s, Fidelity medical building was occupied mostly by doctors and medical practitioners.

The building later was home to local radio station WROU-FM, which still has its signage on the side of the structure.

But the roughly 100-year-old building has been vacant since 2009.

A Powell resident named Karim Haber owned the building between 2007 and 2016. Today, a company called Fidelity Development Group owns the property.

Fidelity Development Group was incorporated by Sam Almaz, who is listed along with Haber as the applicant for the state historic tax credits.

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There were 26 projects statewide that won awards in today’s funding announcement.

The Fidelity building was the only Dayton-area project to seek historic tax incentives in the fall round. The Fidelity building project leaders had requested credits in past rounds but were unsuccessful.

The rehab of the Fidelity building would be another be addition for what until recently was a sleepy section of downtown.

The area around South Main and Fifth Street has perked up because the $5 million Levitt Pavilion Dayton opened in August.

The music venue hosts free concerts — at least 50 annually, moving forward — that seek to bring big crowds downtown.

Around 26,000 people attended free shows at Levitt during its inaugural but abbreviated concert season.

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