5 ways Springboro plans to transform former grocery lot into $3.5M project

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A $3.5 million performing arts center will likely be part of redevelopment at the former Springboro IGA Plaza.

And city officials have even bigger plans for the area. As it revealed plans to anchor the plaza redevelopment with the performing arts center there, officials acknowledged a larger vision stretching from the intersection into the historic downtown and all four directions.

» UNMATCHED COVERAGE: Springboro’s crossroads development vision grows beyond original area

Here are five things city officials had to say about the new project:

1. EXPANSION

The city hopes the development will stretch farther west, to include the remaining shopping center next to the redevelopment site, east and west along Ohio 73 from the intersection and south into the historic downtown.

2. LINKING TO HISTORIC DISTRICT

where a Speedway previously operated, the city is considering building a curved building coaxing visitors at this “gateway” to turn south on Main Street into the historic district.

3. TALKING TO SCHOOLS

the redevelopment is to include land east on Ohio 73, where businesses previously stood, and could also stretch to the former school site southwest of the former Speedway corner. “We’re going to be talking to the schools. That’s in the future,” Springboro City Manager Chris Pozzuto said.

4. THEATRE TO RISE 

The first building to rise, the arts center, will house the Playhouse South Community Theatre currently located in Kettering. The community theatre group, which has performed for the past decade in Springboro’s Shakespeare in the Park summer theater program, is to move into the Springboro Center for the Performing Arts, a 2.5-story, 150,000-square-foot building expected to anchor the six-acre redevelopment.

5. CATALYST FOR REDEVELOPMENT 

“We want this to be a catalyst to potentially start redeveloping the entire corner,” Springboro City Manager Chris Pozzuto said during a meeting at city hall.

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