Downtown Dayton merchants hope Premier Health building sells soon, real soon

DAYTON — Business owners and merchants near the Premier Health building on North Main Street said they are hoping the building sells soon because they are continuing to see fewer and fewer foot traffic and are blaming it on the mostly empty building.

>> RELATED: Premier to explore sale of downtown high-rise building

WHIO-TV first reported in January that Premier listed the location and said the decision stemmed from a change in the workforce. More and more employees are working from home since the Covid pandemic and Premier doesn’t need all of the space it once occupied. Its downtown workforce of 1,000 or so is now down to about 200.

“When they left, it hurt,” Tony Gracie, owner of Flying Pizza, located just down the street from the Premier building.

“We deliver there, too,” he told News Center 7′s Kayla McDermott. “We aren’t a delivery service but we made it happen for them.”

Premier, in a statement, said the company has “seen considerable interest from prospective buyers.” The statement offered no estimate as to how close Premier is to selling, but when the sale does go through Premier will still rent a portion of the building.

Grace said that’s great, but, “we need some more business down here. The more the merrier. Come down and replace that. That would be huge for us.”

Gracie said a grocery store would be a perfect replacement. The closest supermarket is a 40-minute walk.

“That’s not close. For years we used to have a grocery store down here,” he said.

The owner of UNO’s pizza also said he is hoping Premier finds a buyer soon.

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