Two community surveys were conducted on the redevelopment approach. The first survey was live from February 7th to March 7th, and yielded 288 responses detailing with community interests and aspirations for new amenities within the downtown. A second survey, specific to the Manchester Inn and Sonshine or Snider Ford building sites, was conducted from July 29th to September 2nd, and yielded 572 responses. The aggregated responses can be found in the linked spreadsheet files.
The City held the Town Hall on March 11th. This meeting was designed as an open-house-style event to present the information collected from the community survey and allow staff to gather additional thoughts and feedback.
On May 6th, a presentation was provided under City Manager Reports during the City Council meeting by the Chief Building Official and Fire Marshal. Their findings and discussion can be found at the link below, with the discussion occurring between the 1:01:45 – 1:39:30 mark of the video.
Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9QSdZjJbZc.
Over the summer, the City contracted with Burgess and Niple to conduct an independent site assessment of the properties and provide a generalized estimate for remodeling costs, remediation, and demolition. That report and an executive summary can be found at in the linked files.
These sites were subject to a Request for Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process, in addition to direct marketing efforts in collaboration with the Butler County Finance Authority in order to find interested development entities willing to redevelop the sites. The RFQ document was drafted through several collaborative workshops with community stakeholders, and posted for 30 days. The City of Middletown received one RFQ response, CMC Properties, which can be found in the linked files.
Based on this response, the City of Middletown will be hosting a town hall session before the next regular business meeting of City Council on December 2nd from 4:00pm-5:30pm in the City Council Chambers of the Middletown City Building, located at 1 Donham Plaza. This town hall will be a chance to receive community feedback on the development proposal, before council votes upon providing authorization for staff to proceed with finalizing negotiations on a development agreement that would go back to council for formal adoption and approval at a later date.
Please continue to visit this page for project updates!
FOR QUESTIONS OR ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK:
Please contact Jacob Schulte, Acting Community and Economic Development Director at
513-705-1603 or jacob.schulte@cityofmiddletown.org.