Saturday, July 03, 1999
Commercial building booms in Middletown
Builders foresee healthy economy
BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN — Two drugstores are going up on busy corners in Middletown, replacing empty buildings that have long been eyesores.
Major projects under way or nearly ready to go represent about $17 million in commercial investments in the city, part of a healthy development pattern started about five years ago.
They include a bank/office building downtown, an assisted living facility and office buildings in the east end, and a grocery/carry-out in the north section, said Neal Barille, development director.
Nonresidential development has averaged about $22.2 million annually over the past five years. The low was in 1997, with $14.5 million, and the peak was last year, with $32 million.
All the developments are important to the city, Mr. Barille said.
With the two drugstores, “We're removing the blight of the empty commercial facilities that were in both locations, which is an improvement aesthetically,” Mr. Barille said. “But it also shows a continuing commitment from both firms to the Middletown market.”
The 10,300-square-foot CVS pharmacy is going up at Breiel Boulevard and Lewis Street, the former site of Friendly's Restaurant, which has been closed and boarded up for about four years.
The free-standing store, one of 415 in Ohio, is to open in November. It will replace one in a strip center on Breiel. Three other Middletown stores will remain open.
Rite Aid has laid out a footprint for a $2.8 million, 11,180-square-foot building at the gateway to downtown — at the intersection of Central Avenue and University Boulevard — the former site of a strip center and Erb Lumber.
The new store, one of 310 in Ohio, will open in October, and will replace one now on North University. Two others will remain open, said Sarah Datz, manager of public relations for Rite Aid Corp.
The new 10,000-square-foot Davey's Super Carry-Out on Germantown Road, a $1.5 million investment, will replace the 5,000-square-foot, 42-year-old store next door, said owner Robert Davidson.
“I've done well in Middletown, and I have confidence in the community or I wouldn't be doing this,” Mr. Davidson said.
Signal Point office development on Breiel will likely be built out with eight structures by late next year, an estimated $10 million investment, said developer Greg Pratt with Signal Point Ltd.
A $2 million, 16,000-square-foot building at Main Street and Reinartz Boulevard should get under way in three months and be finished next spring, said Steve Posey, with Midd-West Development LTD., the project development company and a subsidiary of Posey Property Company Inc. It will house the Middletown branch of Cincinnati-based Frost & Jacobs law firm; and First National Bank of Southwestern Ohio will move its Main Street offices there.
Summerville at Middletown, a 41,000-square-foot, $4.1 million, 60-bed assisted living facility under way at Towne Boulevard and Cincinnati-Dayton Road, will be finished in 12 months. Phase II, an independent living facility, is to be finished in three years.
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