Businesses see gold on I-75

By Cliff Peale

2 metro areas separated by a few, very hot, exits

When LaRosa’s Inc. went looking for a new market in which to test its new-concept restaurants in 2002, the company naturally turned to Dayton.

It’s only about 50 miles away from the pizzeria chain’s hometown, but there was little built-in loyalty for the traditional LaRosa’s.

“We wanted to try it out in a market that didn’t have the intimate 50-year association with our brand, but where people weren’t completely clueless about what we are,” said Pete Buscani, executive vice president of marketing at LaRosa’s. “It’s worked. We’ve figured that concept out up there.”

As Greater Cincinnati and Greater Dayton grow closer together, the days of referring to Dayton as “up there” could be coming to an end. Growth in northern Cincinnati suburbs such as West Chester and Mason, along with southern Dayton outposts such as Miamisburg and Springboro, has narrowed the stretch between the Dayton and Cincinnati metropolitan statistical areas to only a few exits on Interstate 75.

In fact, companies from restaurants and stores to office developers and media buyers covet that narrowing middle ground, with some media buyers dubbing it the “$10 million corridor.” They figure it presents business opportunities from both sides, particularly as the region develops as a workplace, not just a bedroom community.

The merger of the two regions has not come yet, and most companies regard them as separate markets. But planners say that as the middle ground narrows, Greater Cincinnati and Greater Dayton inevitably will start to act more as a common economic center, although it could take more than a decade.

Mark Policinski, executive director of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, the metropolitan planning agency for Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, said the availability of property along Interstate 75 will drive the narrowing between the two regions.

“It’s going to continue to happen,” he said. “There’s no real reason for it to stop.”

Policinski said the transportation and the movement of industrial goods are the forces that will continue to draw the two regions together. Any united region has to feature a seamless movement of people, goods and services throughout the area, and Cincinnati and Dayton have not yet reached that point, he said.

“The economic question is, how do we become integrated with the natural movement of goods?” Policinski said. “If you want to know how the region will be united, it will never be united without transportation.”

There are some areas where there are common business interests, prominently in the media sector. Cincinnati’s former Jacor Communications, which since has been bought by national giant Clear Channel Communications, pursued a cluster strategy that appended smaller markets such as Dayton next to bigger markets such as Cincinnati, local media buyer Rob Riggsbee said.

That works with Cincinnati’s 50,000-watt WLW-AM (700), which is a media force in both markets. Aside from that very powerful example, Clear Channel has recognized the unique characteristics of Dayton and Cincinnati and has separated most of its sales operations.

“Lots of Cincinnati companies use WLW to reach people in Dayton, and to a smaller degree some businesses in Dayton use WLW to reach consumers in Cincinnati,” said Riggsbee, president of Newtown agency Inside Media. “But the reality is that Dayton and Cincinnati are much better suited to being valued separately from one another.”

Instead of trying to conquer both regions, many of the hottest store and restaurant chains appear to be concentrating on that middle corridor, figuring they can draw customers from both directions. Ikea, the trendy Swedish retailer, is building a store in West Chester to open next year. Dewey’s Pizza, which has carved out a niche in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, is building its newest restaurant on Cox Lane in West Chester along with Cincinnati icon Graeter’s Ice Cream.

In its Cincinnati region, McSwain Carpets & Floors operates stores from Florence to West Chester, plus two Dayton-area stores, one in Beavercreek and one in Centerville.

President Jason McSwain said more and more customers are commuting to or from the Dayton area, and his company is providing the services that customer needs.

“We kind of cater our services to accomodate that because we know people’s time is tight,” McSwain said.

Cincinnati Bell Inc. has separated its Cincinnati and Dayton operations, with the Dayton territory covering communities such as Mason and Lebanon and north. West Chester and Hamilton are counted as part of the traditional territory, said Ron Sweeney, general manager of Greater Dayton markets.

Bell has to sign interconnection agreements with other carriers in specific markets, Sweeney said. But he said the merging of the two regions is a noticeable trend among both business and residential customers.

“I see many businesses that started in Cincinnati or started in Dayton, and they migrated down or up,” he said. “And there are lots of consumers who are tweeners.”

“We just want to follow where our customers go.”