Update: 252-254 Xenia Avenue
- Published: May 21, 2026
—Public Notice—
YELLOW SPRINGS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Update: 252-254 Xenia Avenue
WITH AN EYE ON THE VIBRANCY OF YELLOW SPRINGS, the Yellow Springs Development Corporation (YSDC) embarked on a project of ownership to preserve this specific corner — this prime piece of real estate in our downtown business district. With this acquisition we find ourselves working through a 3-phase project: Safety/Compliance; Ensuring Active Storefronts; and Planning and Funding. Each phase has a specific objective and each are being addressed in a linear way.
1. Safety/Compliance — The objective is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the residential and future retail tenants and to receive a passing inspection by the Fire Marshal. YSDC’s contracted work has been focused on correcting the large number of citations and stabilizing the living conditions for the tenants. The timing for this phase was immediate and is now 100% complete. The money spent is essentially the cost of having residential tenants remain in the buildings, also adding value to the buildings. YSDC authorized this spending to pass inspection requirements, to retain occupancy, and to improve the health and safety of the residents.
2. Ensuring Active Storefronts — The objective is to fill the two first floor retail spaces with viable businesses which add to the Vibrancy of our Downtown. As the YSDC’s mission is to support, incentivize and attract economic development, we can hardly leave these two very important retail locations empty while we address Phase 3. The spend here is the amount required to legitimately rent the two storefronts — stabilizing the former hardware store floor, painting its walls, and ensuring all essential fixtures work in both retail locations. A key constraint on tenant selection is keeping the spaces retail so there is no change of the building’s approved use, which would trigger building code upgrade requirements. This is not a minor detail but a deliberate and important boundary. The timing for this phase is now. We must think about the Vibrancy of our downtown business district as priority.
3. Planning and Funding — The objective is to determine the best use of the two buildings: a) keep, find funding, and develop, or b) sell. By design, this phase carries the most open questions; that is intentional and YSDC must take the time to make the necessary strategic steps. If we determine to keep the buildings, how to use them and where to find funding becomes the focus. We need to think beyond the obvious, get creative, and consider short- and long-term possibilities. Questions to be answered: How will the buildings be used, all aspects, not just how we have seen them or how they are currently used? Do we treat the two buildings separately, each having different renovation requirements? How does our work interplay with Dave’s concepts and other anticipated transitions in the downtown business district? Are we prepared to make renovations which preserve the buildings for the next 100+ years? We need to be intentional in our approach and creative in our funding. By its August 2026 meeting, the YSDC board will deliberate these questions, and will set periodic milestone dates to revisit the questions as additional information is available.
YSDC | 100 Dayton Street, Yellow Springs, OH 45387 | YSDC@YSDC.org
Comments are closed for this article.