Community Profiles

The Dayton Arcade was the beating heart of a once vibrant downtown. This architecturally elegant nine-building, 500,000 SF complex operated as a city-within-a-city in the first half of the 20^th Century, with office, event, and retail spaces and residential units.

As the white population moved to the suburbs, shopping habits changed, and new interstate highways cut-off downtown, the Arcade’s allure faded. Serious but unsuccessful attempts to reanimate it have been made through the years.

Starting in 2018, an innovative and daring effort began to bring it back. Cross Street Partners, Model Group, and McCormack Baron Salazar are redeveloping the Dayton Arcade with offices, retail and event space, a hotel, and housing.

The first phase, the South Arcade, includes an innovation center led by the University of Dayton and The Innovation Center, and the residential Arts Lofts, offering 103 affordable and seven market-rate units targeting local artists and creative entrepreneurs. The Arts Lofts will be sustainability-certified and provide remediated, energy-efficient, healthy places to live and work and play.

The financing of the $90 million South Arcade is one of the most creative and complicated financial stacks undertaken in history. With 26 layers of financing, including LIHTC, Clean Energy Funding, State and historic tax credits, New Market Tax Credits, private debt and equity, the deal was profoundly complex.

The second phase, the North Arcade, will include a marketplace retail and restaurant environment and a hotel.

The vision is not just about reviving the Arcade but is the center of a larger plan by the City of Dayton to bring residents, jobs, and visitors back to the downtown core. Leading urbanist Bruce Katz has called the restoration of the Arcade, ‘The most transformative project in America.’

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

Quick Facts 

Square Footage: 183,275 SF

Total Project Cost: $38,272,968

Developer/Owner: Cross Street Partners and Model Group

Allocatees: MBS Urban Initiatives CDE, RBC Community Development, Dayton Region New Market Fund, and Consortium

NMTC Equity Investor: PNC New Markets Investment Partners

Architect: Sandvick Architects, Inc.

Direct lender and leverage lender: Citywide Development Corporation

Projected Construction Jobs: 436 FTEs

Projected Permanent Jobs: 489 FTEs

Community Partners: University of Dayton, The Entrepreneuers Center, Greater Dayton Minority Business Assistance Center, Small Business Development Center