Four years after a city and township land-use plan was made for the East Main Street corridor, interest in leasing properties is up and businesses are looking to spend money in upgrading their facilities.

And some residents hope for more shopping and dining options on the east side.

Once, there was concern the area — defined by the Eastern Edge plan from downtown to the area around Bird Road — would develop as quickly as the sprawl on North Bechtle Avenue. The recession prevented rapid development from occurring, but now there are signs of improvement.

“What we’ve seen is a lot of reinvestment in the corridor,” said Bryan Heck, Springfield planning and zoning administrator. He cited McDonald’s, which started reconstruction at 2328 E. Main St. as a recent example.

A major area of development has been around the Walmart on Tuttle Road. Officials from the Gilbert Group commercial real estate firm have had more calls from businesses interested locating in their shopping strip: Tuttle Place Health and Wellness.

“Actually, last year we were able to sign a lease with DaVita Dialysis, which will help us lease the rest of the spaces,” said Mike Nolan, vice president of the Gilbert Group. “We’re seeing increased activity from national tenants and mom-and-pop stores.”

Nolan said the group’s challenge is to get a large user in their back building, which will hopefully attract more tenants. The group also is focusing on leasing to medical businesses to complement DaVita Dialysis.

“We were slower over the holidays,” Nolan said. “But there’s a little bit of renewed optimism in the economy.”

Residents living around the East Main corridor are hopeful for more businesses.

“We would like some more business out this way and more shopping areas,” said Bruce Wagle, president of the Roseland Neighborhood Association. “The city has put everything on that God-awful complex on Bechtle Avenue that no one likes to go to but we have to.”

Wagle cited slow but good development in the area, noting the renovation of Kroger and development around Walmart.

“So it’s not going to grow by leaps and bounds in this economy,” Wagle said. “We’re beginning to see some life out there. It’s not rapid ... slow and steady and sure development is good.”

The gradual increase in activity was one of the goals of the Eastern Edge plan created by a partnership that included city and Harmony and Springfield township officials.

The plan, adopted in 2008, started out as a transportation plan for busing and traffic, but later became a land-use plan in anticipation of an explosion of development like what happened on North Bechtle, said Jeff Briner, Springfield Twp. zoning administrator.

Briner said maps were actually given to people to mark where they thought businesses, green space and neighborhoods should be, while businesses tried to ensure there were no restrictions on businesses coming in.

While addressing residential and business concerns, the plan also takes into account aesthetics and older historical areas that need preserving, Heck added.

The plan is meant to be a living document to follow as businesses express interest to locate in the area, as well as a way to improve on area development.

“The knock we’ve had on our community in the past, off and on, is the ability to not plan wisely and have plans in place as development occurs,” said Tom Franzen, Springfield administrator of economic development.

Since then, many businesses have come and gone from the East Main corridor, something Franzen attributes to normal retail activities “no different than Upper Valley Mall or areas where you have some succeed and fail,” he said.

Over a period of months, East Main Street has lost a Payless Shoe Source, Rockaby Resale children’s consignment shop and Tuffy Auto Service Center.

“The lease on the property expired, and we just didn’t renew it,” said Scott Adams, Tuffy’s district manager. “We have another location a couple of miles down the street.”

And months before that, Italian restaurant Sapori Grill came and went.

Sapori owner Dennis Merchant said the store closed last January because of issues with the landlord, and that if not for that, the store would have thrived on East Main.

“I was a teen here, and I remember East Main Street hopping,” Merchant said. “We wanted to approach the other businesses around us and revitalize and get people back on Main Street.”

One business that has been able to do that is Los Mariachis at 1815 E. Main St. City and township officials all used the restaurant as an example of one that reinvested in their business to improve aesthetics and that is doing well on the corridor.

East Main Street is “an ideal spot because it’s on (U.S. 40) and we’re one of the few (sit-down) restaurants on the east side of town,” said William Alvarez, owner of Los Mariachis. “Everyone’s been holding for the last couple of years, but (2011) has increased between 5 percent and 10 percent compared to the year before.”

As for the Eastern Edge plan, local officials are proud of the outcome and anticipate it being key in future economic development.

“It was a good collaboration between the city, county and townships,” Briner said. “And if not for the economy, it would be much more in play, and it will be in the future.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0371 or emason@coxohio.com.