The City of Dayton, Orleans Development, and The Catalytic Fund will celebrate the completion of the 10 residential units and first-floor commercial space at the Historic Burton Building renovation project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 p.m. on March 25.
The Historic Burton Building — before — at the corner of Sixth Ave. in Dayton’s central business district. (Photo provided)
The Burton Building sits on a prominent street corner on Sixth Avenue (Ky. 8) in Dayton, Kentucky’s central business district. The year-long project transformed the long-vacant building into a high-quality mixed-use building that incorporates 10 residential loft-style apartments on the upper floors and ground-level commercial uses on the first floor.
“The rehabilitation of the Burton Building, the most historic building in the City of Dayton, is a transformative economic development project for our city, which will spur additional investment and interest in our downtown business district,” said Dayton Mayor Ben Baker. “The City has envisioned this important redevelopment project for many years and we are more than ecstatic with the finished product.”
The building was constructed in 1884 by Burton Hazen, a Cincinnati steamboat builder and one of the original founders of the City of Brooklyn, which merged with the City of Jamestown in 1867 to create the City of Dayton. The three-story building is located in the center of the city, four blocks south of Dayton’s Manhattan Harbour marina and residential district and amidst the city’s central business district and its historic residential neighborhoods.
The Burton Building — after the renovation (Photo provided)
The building previously was used as a post office, barbershop, an early Kroger grocery store, and public and private offices. The second floor served as Dayton’s first City Hall while the top floors were used as an Odd Fellows meeting hall. Uses rotated dramatically over the years and included a Pythian Temple, print shop, and movie theater. In recent years, after tenants had vacated the building, windows were boarded and the building’s condition deteriorated.
This challenging project was made possible by a public-private partnership between the City of Dayton, the Catalytic Fund, and Orleans Development. Dayton supported the project by providing ARPA funding to create four income- aligned housing units in the building. The Catalytic Fund provided funding through its Flexible Capital Pool for Orleans to acquire the property and provided primary construction funding to cover the costs of the redevelopment project. Because of this project’s extraordinary community impact, Duke Energy also provided a grant through its Urban Revitalization Initiative to fund critical predevelopment work.
“The Burton Building is a perfect fit for the Catalytic Fund’s investment products and development services, and we were pleased to make this investment in Dayton, which is such a wonderful part of Northern Kentucky’s urban core and its history,” said Jeanne Schroer, Catalytic Fund President and CEO.
“Orleans Development was uniquely qualified to undertake this complex project given its track record of completing similar successful projects, such as the Kent Lofts in Bellevue, Tailor Lofts in Newport, and the Bradford Building and Boone Block Lofts in Covington,” Schroer continued. “This excellent partnership with the City of Dayton, Orleans Development, and Duke Energy created a truly catalytic project for both Dayton and the entire Northern Kentucky region.”
A peek inside — at an upper loft. (Photo provided)
Orleans Development created design plans for 10 loft-style apartments on the upper floors of the building to maximize the high ceilings and large window openings of the historic building. The street level space has been redeveloped as 3,262 square feet of commercial space. The redesign of the first-floor façade creates new storefronts that will reactivate street activity and foster small business growth and job creation in Dayton.
“The history of this building is so incredibly rich — home to Dayton’s first City Hall, various fraternal lodges, the City’s first Kroger store, barber shop, post office – you name it, it was likely at the Burton Building at one point or another,” said Tony Kreutzjans, the owner of Orleans Development.
“The age-old saying, ‘if walls could talk’ is quite literal in this building because signatures and notes from by-gone eras can still be seen on the entrance wall, which really tells a story of the past that we wanted to honor. We kept that wall just as it was, in addition to restoring the magnificent wood windows and reusing and restoring the original hardwood floors and trim. Going into the project, we knew the restoration and renovation was imperative to Dayton’s Main Street development. We’re proud of this work and are excited to reintroduce the Burton Building to the community.”
The historic loft-style apartments in the building are similar to two other projects recently completed by Orleans — the Kent Lofts in Bellevue and the Tailor Lofts in Newport — both which achieved 100 percent occupancy shortly after completion. Total project development cost for the Burton Building is estimated to be $1,800,000.
City of Dayton
