Get an inside look at downtown Dayton housing boom

A photo of the windows at the Delco Lofts, which are part of the Water Street district. TOM GILLIAM / STAFF

A photo of the windows at the Delco Lofts, which are part of the Water Street district. TOM GILLIAM / STAFF

There have always been places to live in downtown Dayton, but increasingly, downtown is becoming the place to live.

The center city is seeing explosive growth in the amount of new housing available to rent and buy. In 2016 and 2017, downtown is adding about as many residential units as the previous 15 years combined.

The annual downtown housing tour is on Saturday, which is expected to draw hundreds of visitors who will get a special, inside look at the growing pool of urban living options.

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“We have new for-sale and rental units in downtown Dayton,” Erin Jeffries, with Dayton’s department of planning and community development, said earlier this year on the city’s Birthplace of Next podcast. “You cant’ drive through downtown without seeing them. They are great.”

Downtown living, according to many, has never been hotter.

The center city has the region’s highest apartment occupancy rate (97.5 percent).

Two dozen townhomes were completed and sold in downtown in 2016, and 31 more are under construction, according to the Downtown Dayton Partnership.

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In all, 204 apartment and for-sale units are being built in downtown and more than twice that number are in the pipeline, according to the partnership.

Last year, 239 new market-rate housing units opened in downtown, and 258 more units will come online by the end of this year.

Those two years fall just 15 units short of matching the total new units added between 2001 and 2015.

The intensifying growth in residential housing will be highlighted on Saturday during the Downtown Housing Tour, which will be held from 1 to 5 p.m.

Visitors who take part in the free tour invites will get to see inside some of the hottest apartments, condos and townhomes in Dayton and get a sneak peek at some projects that are still in development. Visitors will be able to hop on and off a complimentary shuttle.

Housing on the tour includes the Water Street Flats, St. Clair Lofts, the Water Street Delco Lofts, the Dayton Tower Apartments, Monument Walk, the Wheelhouse, the Landing, the First Place Luxury Apartments, the Brownstones at 2nd and City View.

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