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Legacy Place Project Gets Green Light

9/18/2020

 
Work Begins to Transform the Douglas Hotel and Former Elementary Schools into Senior Apartments
Work crews will soon begin transforming the long vacant Douglas Hotel in downtown Urbana and the former Urbana North and South Elementary Schools into 51 affordable apartments for senior citizens.
 
With release this week of about $13 million in previously approved financing, the long-anticipated Legacy Place project got the green light to begin renovation of the historic buildings, says Duane Miller, F&C Legacy Place president. Transfer of the funds to Legacy Place was delayed by pandemic-related office closures.

Dorcey's Flowers Opens Urbana Location

2/13/2020

 
Dorcey's Flowers Urbana
The Champaign County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting Feb. 6 for Dorcey's Flowers, 121 Scioto St. For shop info visit www.dorceysflowers.com or call 937-404-9377. From left are Jennifer Coey, Caty Shoemaker, Vicki Deere-Bunnell, Tina Knotts, Lee Ann Steed, Kristie Herlong, Gina Mokry, Shana Loveless, Natalie Frueh and Jamon Sellman.

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Ribbon Cutting for Dorcey's Flowers Set for Feb. 6

1/13/2020

 
Dorcey's Flowers Urbana
The Champaign County Chamber of Commerce will host a ribbon cutting for Dorcey’s Flowers on Thursday, Feb. 6, from 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the new shop located near Let’s Eat Cake at 121 Scioto St. in Urbana.

New Restaurant Hoping to Mirror Urbana’s Growth

1/13/2020

 

Downtown spot opening this month to feature health food

Downtown Nutrition Urbana
Downtown Nutrition, a new health food restaurant, is opening in Urbana later this month.
By Brooke Spurlock, Springfield News-Sun Staff Writer
A health food restaurant is coming to Urbana.

Downtown Nutrition, at 221 N. Main St., is scheduled to open later this month.

Owners Mike and Sammie Ropp said it was time to move back home to be with family.

The city is a big part of the couple’s story, Sammie Ropp said.

“I grew up in a tiny town outside of Springfield called South Charleston and he grew up in a tiny town outside Urbana called West Liberty, so this was kind of the middle ground,” she said.
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New Cobblestone Hotel on Schedule, on Budget

1/1/2020

 
Cobblestone Hotel Urbana construction
The three-story, 54-room Cobblestone Hotel under construction at 170 state Route 55 is on budget and on schedule to be completed by mid-May 2020, according to Urbana Hotel LLC managing member Terry Howell.
By Christopher Selmek, Urbana Daily Citizen
​The three-story, 54-room Cobblestone Hotel under construction at 170 state Route 55, Urbana, is on budget and on schedule to be completed by mid-May 2020, according to Urbana Hotel LLC managing member Terry Howell. The framing crew lost 12 days of work due to weather, allowed under the construction schedule. Roofers were expected to begin placing tile on Monday.

“The schedule had allowances for weather, and they’ve used up all those allowances to date,” Howell said Friday, Dec. 27. “I would personally like to have seen it a week ahead of schedule, but we’ve had rain come at inopportune times. On Monday the shingle people will come in and they’ll start putting the soffit on and the shingles on.”

Howell said that the framing crew was contracted from Florida by BriMark Builders, that the crew is the number one framing crew for BriMark and that this is the 15th hotel they have built.

“Any construction project usually has a little impediment here or a miscommunication there. That’s kind of normal, but there’s not been very much of that,” he said. “There’s always some of that on any project, but there hadn’t been very much of that on this one. It’s going very smoothly.”

Plumbers and HVAC contractors are at work inside the structure. The concrete pool is built and just needs a liner. Howell said there are as many as 10-15 people working on site during any given day depending on what they are trying to accomplish that day.

“There’s a schedule where you have different trades that have to come together to fit,” Howell said. “The rooms are all laid out and numbered already on the inside. They’re laid out in a rough frame, and there’s an electrical map on each room so electricians know where to run wires and so on. It has been sequenced appropriately and is right on schedule and on budget. Everything is going fairly smooth.”

Howell added that the people working on the entrance will install awning, and then signage will go on the cupola. The “mountain of mud” currently surrounding the building will be transformed into a parking lot big enough to park buses beside the building within the coming months.

“I would have no problem staying here,” he said. “I live just three miles from here so I doubt if I ever will spend the night here, but all the rooms have character. We’ve got like six different styles of rooms … and they have varying amenities that they offer, so they’re not all the same. We are really excited.”

Christopher Selmek can be reached at 937-508-2304

Revitalization Efforts in Downtown Urbana Focus on Housing, More Shops

12/9/2019

 
By Hasan Karim, Springfield News-Sun Staff Writer
With the last piece of needed funding recently locked down, the ‘Legacy Place’ senior housing project in downtown Urbana is one step closer in bringing more than a dozen apartments in the area.

It is something city officials say will have a trickle down effect in downtown. The hope is with more people living there, it will boost business for shops and restaurants that are within walking distance.
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In the past five years, the number of living opportunities in the area have about doubled.
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New Urbana Barber Shop Now Open for Business

10/21/2019

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Matt Ropp waits for customers inside his recently opened barber shop, North Locust Barber Shop, at 109 N. Locust St. in Urbana. Christopher Selmek | Urbana Daily Citizen
By Christopher Selmek,  cselmek@aimmediamidwest.com, Urbana Daily Citizen
Urbana native Matt Ropp has come home again and just opened a barber shop on Tuesday, North Locust Barber Shop, at 109 N. Locust St. According to some on his social media feed, people have been getting their hair cut at that location for at least 50 years, although it had been closed almost two years before Ropp set about restoring the property.

“I’m from here, and I got my first haircut in this shop,” he said. “It was available for rent and I guess I just always had an interest in cutting hair in my hometown. I had a successful shop in Troy and I just handed it over to a guy I worked with and moved home.”
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– Urbana native Matt Ropp

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CEP Enters 5th Year Advancing Local Economic Development

4/26/2019

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Marcia Bailey
Marcia Bailey
By Marcia Bailey, Director Champaign Economic Partnership
There’s power in working together for a shared purpose of business expansion and job creation. The Champaign Economic Partnership (CEP) has proven that, since becoming Champaign County’s economic development agency, nearly five years ago.
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The CEP couldn’t do this without the financial support, talent and leadership of our partners, the City of Urbana, the Champaign County Commissioners, Mechanicsburg, North Lewisburg and St. Paris, more than 20 local businesses and our 19-member board.
Key development projects
Thanks to economic development investments by private businesses working with the CEP, Urbana – for the first time ever – ranked 41st in the Site Selection magazine’s 2017 list of top U.S. micropolitan communities.
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Recent successes include the new Navistar distribution center, Memorial Health’s medical building, expansion of Weidmann Electrical Technology, opening of Nutrien Ag Solutions, Sutphen Corporation’s new Service, Parts and Refurbishment Center, expansion of Old Souls Farms hydroponic operations, expansion of Advanced Technology Products and purchase of the former Robert Rothschild Farm property.

Champaign County manufacturing jobs have grown from under 3,000 jobs in 2013 to nearly 4,000 in 2018.

Major projects for 2019 include:
  • Construction of a 54-room Cobblestone Hotel in Urbana, owned by local investors
  • Completion of cleanup of the former Q3/Johnson Manufacturing site 
  • Development of the proposed Legacy Place project to transform the former Urbana North and South Elementary schools and the Douglas Hotel into 51 affordable senior living apartments.
Preparing the workforce
The CEP is partnering with schools and businesses in numerous ways to help make sure Champaign County has the skilled workforce required by new and expanding businesses.

Results of these partnerships include:
  • The CEP's new business liaison, Ashley Cook, who helps coordinate workforce development initiatives with schools and businesses 
  • Internships and job shadowing opportunities
  • Job fairs and in-school presentations by businesses 
  • The online Community Job Connect job board, where local employers post job openings 
  • 11 TV monitors placed around Champaign County broadcasting news about local training programs, job openings, and economic development 
  • Ohio Hi-Point Career Center’s Advanced Manufacturing program at Triad Local Schools
  • YouTube videos of our local manufacturers
  • The Champaign County Business Advisory Council, partnering with schools and businesses preparing students for the local workforce.

Future development
  • Also in the works for economic development:
  • The City of Urbana will be reviewing results on development ideas for the South Main Street Corridor as well as the South High Street Corridor for potential improvement of pedestrian and bicycle traffic, drainage and parking
  • The Sowles Hotel building will be redeveloped for office and retail space.
  • The CEP will help St. Paris market its enterprise zone.
  • The CEP will be establishing a Community Reinvestment Area in Mechanicsburg 
  • The CEP will continue promoting Urbana’s Certified Opportunity Zone (COZ) which offers incentives for development in economically distressed areas.
  • Downtown property owners are moving ahead with redevelopment projects, following the Moving Downtown Forward initiative launched by the CEP in 2018.

For more information, call the CEP at 937-653-7200 or browse CEPOhio.com.
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Legacy Place Planned for Unused Structures

4/26/2019

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Urbana Douglas Inn
The Douglas Inn | Photos by Christopher Selmek | Urbana Daily Citizen
By Christopher Selmek, Urbana Daily Citizen
cselmek@aimmediamidwest.com
Representatives of Flaherty & Collins Properties have been working with the city of Urbana and the Champaign Economic Partnership to develop Legacy Place, a proposed 51 units of senior housing that would occupy the former North and South elementary schools as well as the Douglas Inn on Monument Square. Local officials have been working with architect McCall Sharp Architecture, Springfield, and hope to close on the property sale this summer after they have secured all of their funding sources.


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Local Unemployment Continues to Decline

4/24/2019

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Employers in Clark & Champaign counties have jobs to fill now

Now Hiring Champaign County
The unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 percent in Clark County in March, down from 4.6 percent in February. In Champaign County, the unemployment rate was 3.4 percent in March, down from 3.8 percent in February. BILL LACKEY / SPRINGFIELD NEWS-SUN STAFF
By Riley Newton, Springfield News-Sun Staff Writer
DIGGING DEEPER
Unemployment rates have fallen for the third straight month in Clark and Champaign counties, according to data released by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Service.

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 percent in Clark County in March, down from 4.6 percent in February.

Amy Donahoe, director of Workforce Development with the Chamber of Greater Springfield, said the falling unemployment rate is an example of Clark County continuing to see businesses hire and grow.

“We are seeing individuals becoming employed right away when businesses are hiring,”

Donahoe said. “There is no reason for people not be working right now.”

Donahoe said the Chamber is focusing to tap into the workforce within Clark County to keep residents working close to home.

“We have a lot of people living here but working outside of the area,” Donahoe said. “We are working on keeping people here and helping people find work closer to home.”

Bill LaFayette, an economist and owner of Regionomics, a Columbus-based economics and workforce consulting firm, said the unemployment rate for Clark County is good.

LaFayette said that Ohio DJFS does not seasonally adjust, or account for seasonal patterns that include summer hiring, major holiday hiring and school schedules.

State and national figures are adjusted for those factors.

Statewide, Ohio’s unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4.4 percent, down 0.2 percent from February, according to the OJFS. The nationwide unemployment rate remained steady at 3.8 percent, continuing its downward trend.

“If we are looking at seasonally adjusted numbers, unemployment still went down from 4.2 in February, to 4 in March,” LaFayette said about Clark County’s unemployment numbers.

In Champaign County, the unemployment rate was 3.4 percent in March, down from 3.8 percent in February.

Marcia Bailey, director of the Champaign Economic Partnership, said the county’s unemployment numbers are, “great news.”

“These numbers are great, but there is a flip side to this story,” Bailey said. “The other side is that there are still jobs that need to be filled and companies that are hiring right now.”

Companies across Champaign County are looking to fill positions right now, Bailey said.

“We want people to understand that there are jobs available and we encourage them to come and see us,” Bailey said. “We want to help everyone find their career.”

Contact this reporter at 937- 328-0329 or email Riley. Newton@coxinc.com.

MORE DETAILS 
CLARK COUNTY
March: 4.1 percent
February: 4.6 percent
January: 5.4 percent 

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
March: 3.4 percent
February: 3.8 percent
January: 4.5 percent

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CEP Office Location:
40 Monument Square, Suite 306
Urbana, Ohio 43078
937-653-7200
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