Working in a market such as Dayton, OH requires business savvy and
complete understanding of demographics. For instants the difference
between Ohio on the whole and the Greater Dayton Area MSA, which
includes such county areas as: Butler, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami,
Montgomery, Preble and Warren. The demographics of Montgomery and Miami
are excellent for an expanding company to put in a service type outlet.
The
population backdrop is somewhat similar to the entire state of OH.
Ethnically speaking it is mostly white with Asian populations and Black
Americans at about 10% to 11%. In Montgomery County it is 19% Black
American and only 10% in Clark County, but the middle class Black
Americans are moving in and fixing the diversity issues. There are quite
a few people who commute to work in Marysville at the Honda Plant and
Proving Grounds. Also a huge distribution center there with many large
carriers located and Rail Service by CSX and also huge numbers of Auto
Haulers. About 13,000 at Honda work there. One of the reasons that the
Japanese wanted to have competing rail service with their plant in San
Antonio as part of the negotiations. So they could squeeze the price
point out of the rail companies similar to Rockefeller’s exploits. One
thing that is unbelievably nice about the area is the many colleges and
Universities in the area, 29 in all the biggest being University of
Dayton with 10,000 enrolled, Wright University with 14,000 and Sinclair
Community College with 22,000. This makes for a very good young and
energetic group of people. The clientele is equally as inviting with
202,000 inhabitants between the ages of 25-34 not including the
part-time college students. 35-44 representing nearly 250K pop and 45-54
at 215K.
The population South of Town is expanding and we see
Scarsborogh to Centerville with great markets and everything in between
is golden. The USAF also has Wright Patterson AFB with excellent inflow
to the economy even though much of that is deployed presently, still it
impacts the city in an extremely positive way. About 25,000 people work
there and that is after the lay offs and discharges previously. They
expect with BRAC that they will be on the receiving end of additional
attachments and squadrons serving in Dayton as well as R and D since the
colleges offer that level of researching. Also with the huge museum of
flight and being the history of the inventing flight makes it good also
for tourism and positive PR for the Military. Other large employers
included Delphi but they have had significant labor lay offs and GM is a
biggy there. In health Care about 9000 workers. Airborne Express and
Emery Air freight also claim fame to the area. 7500 people work there
and you may recall the merger with DHL? The good weather of the region
provides Airborne a much better chance at this hub facility than in
other parts of Michigan, IN, IL, NY, KY. The Seattle based company has
brought many jobs to the region. Emery has laid off people but at one
time employed over 3000 in the area. Emery has really worked hard to
work with the Manufacturing industry and helped OH The just in time
world of manufacturing has to take into account rush situations for
total capacity scheduling, leading that charge was it’s bay area parent
company and they manufacturing sector did rely on Emery for that;
Also
of significant value is it’s ability to deploy new wave technologies at
it’s hub and custom clearing houses. Much of this technology was in
response to FedEx’s market advances and UPS shear size making it
difficult to compete. The University of Dayton employs 4500 folks all
fairly high wage earners like their blue collar UAW counter parts at the
GM SUV and Delphi centers. Here is some recent news as of today’s
watch: Dayton Recent News contains some Blues; For instance we all know
the state of the Union when it relates to the steel industries.
At
one time employing 4200 people. But Dayton is not primarily a steel
town, it is a manufacturing town and the birth place of aviation. Today
the market sectors which are up in the greater Dayton area include:
Construction in residential, Retail is up, Real estate, Healthcare and
services is big. Commercial construction is being primarily boosted with
school projects recently. Square foot costs on the robust side of town
south side is anywhere from $2.30 to $12.00 per square foot. Retail
space is $2.30 to 3.00; Office is $7-12.00; Industrial runs the the
entire spectrum. Office Parks include; Franklin, Heritage and South Tech
Center all good for professional service businesses and small
businesses. Industrial Parks are also plentiful with Emery Logistics
Park 265 acres in all. Lebanon Commerce Center for 200 acres, Moraine
Industrial Center and Park center Industrial. Although Manufacturing has
declined drastically over the last decade the Industrial Parks have
life. Downtown Office buildings include Kettering, Mead, First national,
Reibold, 5/3 Bank and the Key Bank Buildings. Over 3 million square
feet with a convention center right in the middle. There is significant
space underutilized and unoccupied. Close by Cincinnati has done what
academics think is unthinkable;
