On the ground floor of 252 Xenia Ave. is the former Yellow Springs Toy Company, which closed at the end of 2025 after eight years of business. Above are two apartments. On the ground floor at 254 Xenia Ave. is the former hardware store space, and above are four more apartments. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
YS Development Corp. mulls over future of downtown buildings
- Published: March 24, 2026
It’s been two months since the Yellow Springs Development Corporation officially purchased the two downtown buildings at 252 and 254 Xenia Ave., and assumed the role of acting landlord for six residential tenants.
Though ownership changed hands from the local Baldwin family to the village’s designated quasi-governmental nonprofit and community improvement corporation, few significant developments have occurred since Jan. 9, when YSDC bought the buildings for $630,000 — money loaned from the Yellow Springs Community Foundation.
Rents from the tenants have been collected, some electrical and fire safety improvements have been made, but the future of the two buildings — particularly the first-floor commercial spaces that most recently housed the village’s only hardware and toy stores — remains uncertain.
“What do we want to do?” “Are we thinking we want to sell these buildings soon?” “Do we want to restore them and then put them up for sale?” “Let’s say we find commercial tenants — then what?” “Who would they be?”
These and other questions were at the center of YSDC’s last meeting, Tuesday, March 3, when the group — composed of eight voting members, two staffers and five ex-officio members — mulled over the potential that lies ahead for 252 and 254 Xenia Ave.
From the majority of those who spoke at the meeting, the prevailing goal of the group is to preserve the two buildings.
Though not on the federal National Registry of Historic Places, the buildings have local significance, several members of the group asserted.
“Preserving the building … is exactly why we’re shepherding this project,” new YSDC member Christine Monroe-Beard said. “We’re rapidly losing older buildings in town. That means we’re losing one of the big reasons why Yellow Springs is so cool. It should behoove us as a community to save as many historic buildings as possible.”
According to county records, the three-story brick building at 252 Xenia Ave. was built around 1853, and is one of the oldest buildings in Yellow Springs. The adjoining structure at 254 was built sometime in the following decades; a Yellow Springs insurance map from July 1895 depicts both buildings in their current locations.
In Monroe-Beard’s view — as the co-owner of several old downtown buildings, including Ye Olde Trail Tavern — as well as YSDC member Kevin McGruder’s — who is an associate professor of history at Antioch College — listing the buildings on the historic registry could open up channels for federal funds for renovations and improvement, and ultimately, preservation.
According to YSDC staffer Lisa Abel — who was voted in at the meeting as the group’s new executive director — she has been working with the YS Community Foundation, Village and other area stakeholders in seeking other financial assistance to rehab the buildings.
“We’ve been searching for grants, state funding, tax credits — looking into everything,” Abel told the group.
Beyond collecting rents from the tenants on the second floor above the former hardware store and exploring external financing, Abel noted that an expeditious way to generate income to fund building improvements could come from leasing the former toy store commercial space.
“It’s in pretty good shape,” she said. “It could be leaseable by April or maybe May. It doesn’t need nearly as much work as the hardware store building.”
She added: “But we want to set it up as a month-to-month lease. We don’t know when we may need to start major construction.”
But what kind of business will occupy that and, eventually, the former hardware store spaces?
Abel said they intend to pull the community in on that decision-making process. She said YSDC will soon set up a survey or “comment section” on their website — http://www.ysdc.org — for villagers to weigh in, and to say “what you’d like to see there, and what you definitely do not want to see there.”
To that end, Abel said that when YSDC begins formally accepting proposals for commercial occupancy on the first floors of 254 and 252 Xenia Ave., each applicant will need to address several questions. For instance:
• What do you want to use the space for, and who is your primary audience?
• What’s your business plan, and what kind of hours do you plan to keep?
• How does it fit with the rest of Yellow Springs — what businesses will it complement, and which ones will it compete with?
• Is there anything unusual about utility requirements?
Additionally, Abel said that tenant applicants will be measured against local values of diversity, environmental sustainability, artistic expression, community-mindedness and others.
“And we will let the proposers know about this criteria,” Abel said.
The last time YSDC brokered a commercial sale was in 2020, when the group handled the sale of the former Miami Township Fire-Rescue fire station. That space on Corry Street was sold to comedian and local resident Dave Chappelle, who had — and has since carried out — plans to build a comedy club.
According to past News reporting, of the three leading proposals the YSDC considered for the fire station, Chappelle’s plans ranked the highest in five of seven categories: profits/wages/taxes, environmental impact, local impact, diversity and COVID-19 considerations. The other categories were people/culture and job creation.
As Abel noted at this month’s meeting, none of the applicants for the fire station were made aware of that criteria. This time around, she said, they will be — for both the former hardware and toy store commercial spaces.
Abel also said that “five or six” potential commercial tenants have inquired about the soon-to-be-available downstairs commercial spaces, but declined to specify the names of those making queries.
“And we’ve gotten them without any solicitation or advertising,” she said.
Though no plan has been formally outlined, nor did the majority of YSDC members offer any visions for the future usage of the downtown buildings, some ideas still emerged from the last meeting.
“This is a wild idea, but what if we were to rehab the crow’s nest [the third story of the former hardware store building]? It would be a pretty cool Airbnb that we could generate a lot of money out of — like $5,000 a month,” Monroe-Beard suggested, noting that such a revenue stream could offset the relatively cheap rents on the second floor, as well as ongoing building improvements.
She also proffered the idea of splitting the ground-level commercial space into two — “Doubling the income,” Monroe-Beard said. She explained that there could be a Xenia Avenue-facing space, and a second, Short Street-facing space that includes both the former hardware store’s loft and downstairs areas.
“But this is just me spitballing,” Monroe-Beard said.
Drawing from lessons learned in the ongoing YS Schools’ facilities improvement projects, district Superintendent Terri Holden — who serves in an ex-officio capacity for YSDC — encouraged YSDC staff and those on the board to work with an eventual architect before committing to any one idea.
“Present them with several options, tell them what you want, then go with what you believe you can afford and what you believe you can feasibly do,” Holden said. “Get your options and the price points for each one. Then, go in with eyes wide open. Maybe you have the capacity to do those things, maybe you don’t. But you won’t know until an architect gives you their reports.”
Presently, YSDC has been working with architect Earl Reeder — the community foundation’s Executive Director Jeannamarie Cox’s spouse — to make inspections and recommendations for immediate structural improvements to the two downtown buildings. Several YSDC members alluded to the necessity of hiring a more permanent architect.
“That will be the key person,” McGruder said. “Whatever vision we have, that will be the person to actually come up with the plans, then put out bids to contractors. Yes, this has risks, but if you think about the future of this organization [YSDC], I think this can be an opportunity to learn and then use that learning in the future.”
YSDC member Joanne Lakomski also advocated for the value in learning along the way, despite the immediate unknowns.
“I’m viewing this whole thing as a learning, experimental experience — not just for this group, but for the community as a whole,” Lakomski said.
“There are many aging buildings all over town, and many of them are living spaces,” she said. “The upkeep of them has been very challenging, but considering how those buildings might continue to exist and thinking about what their future uses can be — [YSDC] can be a repository for learning how to understand potentials for funding … how to feed the community, as well as our own efforts.”
Membership round-up
Voting members of the development corporation include Carmen Brown (a Village Council member), Joanne Lakomski, Kevin McGruder, Marilan Moir (a Miami Township trustee), Christine Monroe-Beard, Rebecca Potter (a school board member), Senay Semere (another Village Council member) and Michael Slaughter.
Staffers of YSDC include the Village Economic Development Coordinator Aaron Arellano and the newly appointed Executive Director Lisa Abel, whose position is funded through a $2,500/month Miller Fellow grant via the Community Foundation.
Ex-officios include Village Manager Johnnie Burns, YSCF Director Jeannamarie Cox, Antioch College President Jane Fernandes, YS Schools Superintendent Terri Holden and YS Chamber of Commerce Director Phillip O’Rourke.
The next Yellow Springs Development Corporation meeting will be held Tuesday, April 7, at 4:30 p.m., in the Miami Township Fire-Rescue’s community meeting room, at 101 E. Herman St.
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