By the Numbers
$125,000 - Ohio National Guard armory purchase price
$300,000 - Estimated demolition costs
5 acres - approximate size of Ohio National Guard armory property
Source: Clark County government records.
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The state has agreed to sell the Ohio National Guard Armory site next to the Clark County Fairgrounds for $125,000, and the deal could eventually lead to a hotel and restaurant in a prime development area.
Clark County Administrator Nathan Kennedy said the Ohio Department of Administrative Services has verbally approved the deal and will soon send the county a purchase contract.
Clark County Commissioner Rick Lohnes said the one option is to develop the roughly 5 acres next to Interstate 70 east of Springfield into a hotel with a restaurant and meeting space.
Clark County could spend an estimated $300,000 to demolish buildings on site.
Lohnes has suggested selling the land to a developer and using that to pay for fairground improvements.
Lohnes called the site prime for development and worth thousands of dollars.
“We could pay ourselves back, have some profit. I have suggested loosely — nothing has been guaranteed — I have said my idea is lets hold that money back, (the profit), for reinvestment into the fairgrounds,” Lohnes said.
County commissioners and local leaders want to upgrade the grounds to stave off competition in case Montgomery County moves its fairgrounds from Dayton to Brookville.
“It’s time that everybody work together, and we don’t neglect what we could do out there,” Lohnes said.
About half of Clark County’s total tourism revenue of $368 million a year can be linked to the fairgrounds and Champions Center, based on the most recent data available, Chris Schutte of the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has said.
Lohnes said the county sold about 4.8 acres of the property in question to the state for $1 in 1950.
He said the county negotiatied to pay $125,000 to buy the property back because the state built buildings on the county portion of the land.
Clark County Commissioner John Detrick said he supports plans to sell the property and establish a hotel and restaurant at the site.
Detrick said the county must make improvements to the Clark County Fairgrounds to compete with fairground facilities in Dayton and Columbus.
He said the Clark County Fairgrounds “is our major tourist attraction.”
Detrick and Lohnes added that lodging space on the fairgrounds’ campgrounds is limited, and many families have passed down camp lodging space to relatives over the years because of that.
Detrick said visitors who do not stay at the fairgrounds camping sites must travel about five miles to get to the next hotel.
He said the development of a hotel there could help both the fairgrounds and the Champions Center.
Detrick said officials have discussed purchasing the property and developing it for nearly 20 years.
The property became available when the Ohio National Guard broke ground on two new buildings in May 2009 at the Springfield Air National Guard base. The $15 million project moved two Guard units and an Army Reserve unit to the base as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process. The move was seen then as a way to help protect the base from future BRAC rounds.
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