BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MONROE -- A Butler County company is expected to bring as many as 75 jobs to the new Corridor 75 Park on Ohio 63 after receiving a tax abatement package this week.
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Business, rather than crops, will be sprouting next year in the 798-acre Corridor 75 park near Interstate 75 in Monroe.
(Dick Swaim photo)
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If West Chester Marketing Inc. proceeds with its $13.5 million project, it will represent the park's first industrial development. But it won't likely be the last. The 798-acre industrial park -- just 42 acres smaller than New York's Central Park -- already has several restaurants. Other commercial and industrial development deals are being negotiated for the site, which is still mostly farmland. City council this week approved a 100 percent tax abatement for 10 years for the company, which sells gloves. The deal is worth about $850,000 for 10 years.
Leonard "Lenny" Robinson of Robinson Lawton Kent Realtors, the park's managing agent, said early this week that tentative plans call for construction of a 300,000-square-foot building on a 22.7-acre site to house a distribution company.
He declined to name the company because contracts were not final, but Monroe officials confirmed it is West Chester Marketing. "We'd
like to be pushing dirt there next month," Mr. Robinson said.
Officials of West Chester Marketing could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The new jobs will be added to the several dozen that have been created by fast-food businesses moving in since December, Mr. Robinson said.
"And we have several exciting possibilities on our plate right now" for the park, one of Greater Cincinnati's largest, he said. There will be an upscale restaurant, and "a prestigious company is looking at 60-100 acres," said Dave Noonan of Colliers International. That downtown Cincinnati firm is marketing the park's 770-acre industrial section. Snowden Armstrong of West Shell Realtors is marketing the commercial space.
The park, one minute from Interstate 75, has sewers, rail service and can accommodate a wide variety of businesses, Mr. Robinson said.
Tenants already in the park include a Wendy's restaurant - Tim Hortons coffee and donut shop, a Waffle House and Burger King.
A new Chevron station with a convenience store and a White Castle restaurant, being built to replace a much smaller station, should be open in about two months. A Gold Star Chili should open this month, replacing one down the street.
New businesses mean more traffic on the busy artery. The 12-mile stretch of Ohio 63 between Monroe and Lebanon sees about 23,000 vehicles daily.
A widening project is being considered, Monroe Mayor Elbert Tannreuthersaid.
An engineering study by Kleingers & Associates Inc. of West Chester on the proposed widening of Ohio 63 from the city's eastern boundary to the eastern end of the I-75 overpass should be done by late October, project manager Robert Painter said.
City officials then will decide whether to pursue the widening project.
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