YEAR VALUE PERMITS
2015 $91.03M 197
2014 $17M* 196
2013 $19M 169
2012 $32M 188
2011 $47M 183
2010 $11M 178
*Includes only commercial construction
Source: Miami Twp.
Top five construction project values for 2015
1-Flats at Austin Landing, $29.85M
2-Austin Park apartment - $20.3M
3-Staybridge Suites - $9M
4-Cinépolis USA 6.5M
5-Meijer 6.2M
Source: Miami Twp.
Two upscale Miami Twp. apartment projects this year have fueled more than $90 million in construction, dwarfing previous highs with a figure not seen in the community in decades.
The Flats at Austin Landing and apartments at Austin Park topped this year's construction list, combining for about $50 million in development, township records show.
The Flats at Austin Landing is a $29.85 million, 274-unit complex being built at the 142-acre mixed use RG Properties development that employs more than 2,000 people. Both it and Austin Park’s housing are expected to be completed next year.
The 226-unit Austin Park apartments on Miami Village Drive account for about $20 million of the $91.03 million of work in the township based on construction values submitted by developers obtaining building permits through Dec. 15, said township Community Development Director Chris Snyder.
“Overall, $91 million is pretty good for any community. We’re pretty pleased with that,” he said.
The mark was hit with 197 permits – one more issued than last year – and nearly doubles the township's construction total of $47 million in 2011, its previous high for a single year this decade. It's a level the township probably has not seen since development of the Dayton Mall area in the early 1970s, Montgomery County Community and Economic Director Erik Collins has said.
The township's growth — and development this year at the $350 million Liberty Center, which is about 20 miles south in Butler County — helped keep the region's construction industry busy, according to one executive.
“It’s relatively unprecedented in times that the amount of work — that combined with the retail and office and hospitality work, entertainment stuff that is going into Austin Landing and Miami Twp. in general — puts a real strain because it’s all concentrated in the same sector,” said John Morris, president of the Ohio Valley Associated Builders and Contractors, told this newspaper earlier this year.
Three of Miami Twp.'s top five projects are at Austin Landing. The two others are the 108-room extended stay hotel Staybridge Inn & Suites ($9 million) and Cinépolis USA's 12-screen theater ($6.5 million).
“Certainly,” Snyder said, “a lot of it was Austin Landing – the build out of Austin Landing. And we’ve had a number of big projects down there. Then again, we’ve seen quite a bit of reinvestment.”
Meijer’s $6.2 million renovation of its Ohio 741 store near the Moraine corporation line is the fifth largest construction project in the township this year, records show.
“That’s a huge investment for a community to get normally,” Snyder said. “It’s been a bit overshadowed by the other projects that we have had. But if you think about most communities getting a $6 million investment, that’s pretty good.”
Other projects of note include the JEA Senior Living, an Alzheimer's disease care facility at the Exchange of Spring Valley ($5.2 million); Point Blank Range & Gun Shop at the Dayton Mall ($1.3 million); and the Universal 1 Credit Union on Miami Village Drive ($900,000) that is part of the Austin Park development.
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