Iconic Dayton bicycle company plans new local headquarters

Huffy Corp. is planning to move to a new, larger headquarters in Miami Twp.

Huffy Corp. is planning to move to a new, larger headquarters in Miami Twp.

Huffy Corp. is planning to move to a new, larger headquarters in Miami Twp.

The 125-year-old company, which produced its first bicycle in Dayton in 1892, said it should be moved into its new headquarters by the end of the year, which will give it 40 percent more space than its current Centerville location.

“For the past decade, the Centerville location handled our growth; we’ve simply outgrown our current building,” said Bill Smith, Huffy Corp. president and chief executive officer.

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The new 50,000 square foot building is at 8877 Gander Creek, near the Interstate 75 and 675 interchange.

About 100 people work out of the headquarters, which is where all Huffy bikes are designed and the prototypes are showcased. The expanded headquarters will give the company more space to show bike samples and also make room for more design space and customer meetings.

“The Miami Twp. building is ideal for our home operations which allows us more room and better facilities for our new business initiatives and planned growth,” Smith said in a statement. “We can expand and stretch the footprint of marketing, sales and operations to meet our growing needs. All of our product innovations and creative designs happen right here in Dayton, Ohio, and the new space gives us more flexibility for our customer meetings.”

Aaron Savino, of Miller-Valentine Group, represented Huffy in the lease. The building is owned by F9 Properties LLC, represented by Dave Dickinson and Russell Maas of NAI Bergman.

The company, which works with mass market retailers and licensors, stated the new space is being designed to better facilitate product and strategy sessions with companies such as Walmart, Target, Toys “R” Us and Disney.

The facility will also have amenities for employees like a new fitness center.

The big brand in the bicycle business started out as the Davis Sewing Machine Company, forerunner to the Huffman Manufacturing Company. The private company’s brand is sold at more than 10,000 retail locations shipping 5 million bicycles annually throughout the U.S. and as well as more than 50 countries.

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