Moraine pursuing economic development growth around Fuyao, other areas
May 9—Moraine is focusing its economic development efforts around a variety of industrial, commercial and residential projects and has hired someone new to help with those efforts.
The city is seeing two significant projects come to completion in 2022 with the new West Carrollton elementary school and the completion of Winsupply's Richard W. Schwartz Center for Innovation in Moraine, equaling well over $10 million in investment, according to City Manager Michael Davis.
On a residential front, the Wright Landing subdivision will likely be finished late summer, Davis said.
Fuyao Glass America, Moraine's largest employer, is now up to more than 1,600 workers and there is need for 300 to 400 more, he said. There's plenty of square footage available for economic development in the former General Motors plant.
"At one time there was roughly 4 million square feet, but this included second and third floor space," he said. "Roughly 600,000 (square feet) of the footprint was removed to accommodate the Fuyao acquisition. Fuyao, through acquisition, expansion and leasing, likely has about 2 million square feet under control."
Davis said the city consistently works with Industrial Realty Group/Industrial Commercial Properties (IRG/ICP) to market the remaining former paint shop and available property along Springboro Pike and Dryden Road. The Dryden Road effort already has seen investment by RJ Trucking, the Ohio Department of Transportation and Wright Mulch, to name a few, he said.
"The space has seen some minor recent activity as we continue to pursue any prospect options that come through local and state site seekers," he said.
Moraine continues to see other investment throughout the community including recent efforts by One10 Marketing, Secure Cyber Defense, Tesla and Jubie's Creamery, Davis said.
To help with economic development efforts, Moraine recently hired Matt Eisenbraun as community development director.
The new position helps lead both community and economic development by representing the city both locally and regionally, and by providing a gateway to resources for retention and expansion of existing businesses and the attraction of new investment, Davis said.
Eisenbraun served as director of the Small Business Development Center for Butler County from 2008 to 2012, as economic development program manager for the city of Middletown from 2012 to 2014 and as the city's assistant economic development director from 2014 until last month.
He started in the newly created Moraine role April 18.
Eisenbraun told the Dayton Daily News that after getting to know the various neighborhoods, the business/industry clusters that are located in Moraine and the feel of the community overall, his first priority will be to perform an informal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis to understand the current status of the city's economic development opportunities.
"As the city prepares for this year's planned update to the comprehensive plan, I would like to be able to effectively support the various initiatives that will most impact the areas of focus prioritized by city leadership," he said.
