Downtown's Latest Housing Project

It looks like the housing development at the corner of First & Patterson is steps away from becoming reality, and it will be different than anything done in the region so far...

The plan is to build 36 townhomes on what is now a big parking lot on the southwest corner of Patterson and First.  These will apparently be modular construction and will also be LEED certified (between Silver and Gold level).  LiteHouse Development Group (Rogero Buckman are the architects) are a couple weeks away from getting all of their ducks in a row with the city, financing, etc. and they plan to build a single townhome as a model on the corner of Ice Ave and Patterson - possibly in time for Urban Nights in May. 

They will be three-story townhomes similar in scale to the Cooper Place Townhomes.  One of the things I found interesting was that the streets that go through the development will be private property and they are planning to do them with brick paver-type surfaces as opposed to asphalt in order to give it a village feel.  All materials will be long-lasting, environmentally friendly and come from manufacturers that have strong recycling/environmental processes in place (like Shaw that recycle all used carpet into new).  Windows will be placed in a way to maximize light and roofs will include rain-capturing devices that will recycle rain water to irrigate all landscaping.  There was also talk of solar panels.

They must pre-sell at least 40% of a "row" (6-8 or so) in order to complete the whole row of townhomes - there were like 5 or 6 rows on the plan.  So as long as the market is there for these things, they're talking anywhere from 3-6 years for total completion.  Price points will be from $170k for the smallest units (1000sqft) to $230k for the biggest (1800sqft) - depending on how many options the buyer gets.  The buyer will also have the opportunity to upgrade the environmental aspects of the unit.

The other two parcels of land that were originally part of the overall development (adjacent to WorkflowOne garage and adjacent to Lincoln Storage on the other corners of First & Patterson) are not included in this plan but are not off the table - depending on how these sell those other parcels will be revisited.

See pics below (click each to enlarge) and let us know what you think...

What Kind of Retail for Ballpark Village?

Well, it appears planning for Ballpark Village continues. See this morning's DDN article. Another study is in the works, and the question now is what kind of retail should go into the two waterfront development sites: Ballpark Village and the former Parkside home sites?

What Is Going On with Ballpark Village?

The Dayton Business Journal today has two articles dealing with economic development in this region. One on the front page discusses ongoing questions about the feasibility of Ballpark Village. Another article on the third page talks about a firm headed by Dave Lightle interested in developing an aviation and space indoor theme park in the Dayton region. One prospect is Riverside, home of the Air Force Museum; another is downtown Dayton. There is no mention of Ballpark Village in this article. Nor is there mention of an anchor attraction in the article for Ballpark Village. What is wrong with this picture?