FAIRFIELD — Commercial development here is at an all-time high as this aging city updates itself to compete with booming nearby suburbs.

Art Pizzano (left), Fairfield city manager, and Kimm Coyner, economic development manager, stand in front of Lane Public Library near the new downtown. (Michael Snyder photos) | ZOOM |

        Village Green, the new downtown, is filling out with a new restaurant, Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar, which opened Tuesday. A 77,000-square-foot Kroger store is expected to be complete by fall. Also under construction is a 29,600-square-foot strip center and two mixed-used buildings with a combined 23,000 square feet of retail space and 11,000 square feet of office space.

        City Council members recently decided, after years of debate, that a $9.6 million community center will emerge in Village Green. The new downtown is at Pleasant Avenue and Wessel Drive, and the community center will bookend the Lane Public Library and Village Green Park and Amphitheater.

        “Now it's just bricks and mortar, but when it's done, people will see it's different not only for Greater Cincinnati, but also as a new model for older suburbs,” Fairfield City Manager Art Pizzano said. “It's keeping us as a community of choice rather than merely one of convenience. We could almost be a prototype of where suburban America is and where it can be with a little bit of hard work.”

A 77,000-square-foot Kroger store, part of the Village Green area, should be complete by fall. | ZOOM |

        Fairfield has about 42,000 residents, about 90 percent of whom are white. It has a growing minority population, especially Hispanics. The 45-year-old city is bordered by Springdale, Forest Park, Ross Township, Hamilton, Fairfield Township and West Chester Township.

        Beyond Village Green, efforts are under way to revitalize Ohio 4, an older, highly traveled commercial strip that has a hodgepodge of businesses — many vacant — as the road creeps closer to Hamilton.

        The city's most famous store, Jungle Jim's International Farmers Market, is undergoing an expansion expected to draw even more customers.

        Restaurants, retail stores and a hotel are in the works.

        Signs have emerged this month along Interstate 75 at the Union Centre interchange, promoting Fairfield's new link to the highway. At least four other signs are planned inside the city limits advertising Village Green.
       
       

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