Morning Briefing | The long path of the former Montgomery County Fairgrounds site

New plans call for the former Montgomery County Fairgrounds site on South Main Street to be redeveloped into Ohio’s next Innovation Hub.

In today’s Morning Briefing, we take an in-depth look at the past and future of the site, which has been vacant for several years.

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The newsletter should take about 3 minutes, 36 seconds to read.

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How did we get here?

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Changes to the former Montgomery County Fair site happened in the past decade.

• The history: The site on Main Street had been the host of the Montgomery County Fair since 1856.

• The site: In 2016, the Montgomery County Agricultural Society settled on Judge Arthur O. Fisher Park in Jefferson Twp. as its new site for the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, moving away from the old 38-acre downtown South Main Street property.

• onMain: In 2019, UD and Premier Health — the two entities located closest to the former fairgrounds — created a nonprofit corporation to guide redevelopment.

• Delays: The property remains fenced off and undeveloped. Dayton leaders considered declaring the site a blighted area. Funding and tax issues were left unresolved.

• Tax abatement agreement: In early 2024, Dayton Public Schools approved a property tax abatement plan which limited the school district’s property tax share so funds could be redirected towards the fairgrounds redevelopment.

‘Innovation Hub’ planned for former Montgomery County Fairgrounds site

With nearly $100 million in funding, Ohio’s latest Innovation Hub creates a new vision for the former Montgomery County Fairgrounds site.

• Source of Funds: Ohio will direct $35 million from its Innovation Hubs program, as well as $23 million from local governments to go along with a hoped-for private-sector investment of up to $37 million.

• New building: Plans call for a five-story, 120,000-square-foot building. A couple of those floors would have secret SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) capability spaces.

• Purpose: Operations at the Hub will focus on assisting the Air Force with its ongoing digital transformation work — digital management of materials and equipment. The site will be focused on national defense, providing a home for Air Force efforts to harness digital technology in equipping the force and preparing for competition with China.

• Partnerships: The Hub will bring together the region’s best academic institutions, industry leaders, government partners and the military.

• Jobs: The new building and the activity drawn there will create an estimated 2,000 jobs

• What they are saying:

- “I’ve said this before, and I truly believe Dayton is the epicenter for digital transformation for the Air Force.” — Robert Fookes, chief engineer for Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

- “Dayton is hot,” the governor said. “Dayton is moving, the Miami Valley is moving forward.”

Interesting facts about the site’s history

Credit: HANDOUT

Looking back at the history of the fairgrounds site.

• Montgomery County Fair: The first fair was held in 1839, but 1856 was the first year the fair was held at the Main Street location.

• Horse racing: A crowd estimated at 75,000 crammed into the fairgrounds in 1874 to witness famed racehorse “Goldsmith Maid,” known as the “Queen of the Trotters,” take the track. “Goldsmith Maid” broke the world record for the mile at 2:18, the fastest time recorded for a trotting horse at the time.

• Basketball: The Coliseum at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds was the first home of the University of Dayton men’s basketball team.

• Presidential visit: In the midst of the Vietnam War in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird attended the Montgomery County Fair, and Johnson made a Labor Day speech in front of the grandstands.