Invention & Creativity
Community
Location
Education
Science & Technology
Medical
Corporate
Amenities
Wright Dunbar, Inc. owns approximately 162,000 square feet of commercial space available in twelve separate buildings for redevelopment. All properties front a major thoroughfare, West Third Street with approximately 20,000 vehicles passing by daily. Additionally, we own four central parking lots with 250 spaces in locations behind/adjacent to our commercial structures.
Invention & Creativity
The Wright brothers lived in what is now referred to as the Wright-Dunbar Village at 7 Hawthorne Street (moved to Greenfield Village, Michigan in 1936). Orville Wright (1871–1948) set up the brothers’ first printing shop at home, but in 1889 moved the business to 1210 West Third Street (demolished) and in 1890 to the Hoover Block, which is now the home of the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center for the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.
Wilbur Wright (1867–1912) became interested in bicycles, and together with his brother Orville (1871–1948) in 1892 opened the Wright Cycle Exchange at 1005 West Third Street. In 1895, the printing and bicycle businesses were combined at 22 South Williams Street, where the brothers began to experiment with aviation.
In 1897, the Wrights moved to 1127 West Third Street where the first powered airplane was invented in 1903. The business was sold in 1899, and the Wright Cycle Company closed in 1908 as the Wrights turned their full attention to aviation. However, the brothers retained an office at 1127 West Third Street until 1918. Henry Ford moved this building to Greenfield Village, Michigan in 1936.
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) was the first African-American to gain international acclaim as a poet. He was born in Dayton and grew up in and around the historic district. Although both of Dunbar’s parents were illiterate, the author was encouraged to get an education. He became the president of the literacy society at Dayton Central High School and the editor of the school paper.
After graduation, Dunbar collaborated with his schoolmate Orville Wright on the Dayton Tattler, an African-American neighborhood newspaper. The Wright brothers printed some of Dunbar’s early poetry on their presses in the Hoover Block. Over his tragically short lifetime, Dunbar produced a body of work that included novels, plays, short stories, newspaper articles, essays, and over 600 poems. He incorporated dialects in his work as well as standard English and won praise from literary critics and readers alike.
His work often dealt with the hardships encountered by members of his race and the struggle for equality in America. Dunbar’s work contributed to a growing social consciousness and cultural identity for African-Americans of the period. He is associated with the early civil rights leaders W. E. B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass and Booker t. Washington. Dunbar spent the last years of his life at 219 North Paul Laurence Dunbar Street, before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 33.
The rich cultural heritage combined with the historic significance of the West Third Street commercial corridor have led to the creation of the West Third Street Historic District and the Wright-Dunbar Business District. The District includes the properties fronting on West Third Street from Shannon to Broadway Streets. This area is contiguous to the Wright Brothers Bicycle Shop venue of the National Park Service.
West of this corridor and north of West Third Street on Paul Laurence Dunbar Street is the second of two National Park venues in the area and an Ohio State Historical site, the Paul Laurence Dunbar House.
Community
History and innovation have always been key components of the Wright-Dunbar Business District. The District is the site where the Wright brothers designed the world’s first powered airplane, where Paul Laurence Dunbar penned his world-renowned poetry, and where Joseph Desch, known as key to breaking the Enigma Code during World War II, and credited with the first patent for the modern digital computer lived and worked. The spirit of innovation continues today and the Wright-Dunbar Business District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is home to the Dayton Aviation National Historical Park.
The Business District is adjacent to 345 upscale urban homes located in the Wright-Dunbar neighborhood, and is adjacent to the Central Business District in downtown Dayton—home to more than 25,000 workers, and where over $630 million has been invested in the last decade, including $135 million for the Schuster Performing Arts Center and $28 million for Fifth Third Field, home of the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team, partially owned by NBA legend Magic Johnson.
The District is located one mile from the center of downtown Dayton at Third & Main Streets. The medium value of owner-occupied homes within one mile of Third & Main Streets is $108,333, and the average family household income is $50,358. The average age of residents within five miles of Third & Main Streets is 37 years old with the population density as an estimated 239, 975, the vast majority holding white-collar jobs.
The residential area of the adjacent Wright-Dunbar neighborhood offers market rate homes and attracts a diverse mix of families, young professionals, and retirees. Though many city neighborhoods throughout the country have suffered in the past 40 years with the movement of people away from the city to the suburbs, this trend is shifting as people have begun to rediscover historic city neighborhoods as desirable places to live, shop, and play and is reflected in the Wright-Dunbar neighborhood.
Location
The Wright-Dunbar Business District is centrally located within the Dayton region and provides convenient access to downtown Dayton, area institutions, and is immediately adjacent to Interstate 75 which separates the District form downtown Dayton and US 35. Traffic counts adjacent to the Business District shows approximating 200,000 vehicles daily when considering traffic counts on West Third Street, Interstate 75, and US 35 and are based on 2003 traffic counts. Within 15 minutes of the District is the intersection of Interstate 75 and Interstate 70—also known as the Crossroads of America.
The District is within walking distance of Sinclair Community College and Central State University – Dayton Campus, within 2 miles of the University of Dayton, 15 minutes form Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the state’s largest single-site employer with 22,000 employees, 15 minutes from Wright State University and offers convenient access to 4 international airports at Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Indianapolis. With the central location of the District, travelers are within 30 minutes of Middletown, 45 minutes from Cincinnati, and 75 minutes from Columbus.
Dayton is within 600 miles of 61% of the U.S. population, 50% of the Canadian population, 63% of all U.S. manufacturers, 70% of all North American manufacturing, and 80% of U.S. corporate headquarters.
Education
The Wright-Dunbar Business District is centrally located to several major educational stakeholders including Sinclair Community College with a total enrollment of over 23,000 students, Central State University, a historically black university providing higher education to the residents of Ohio for 122 years, the University of Dayton with a total enrollment of over 10,000 students and home to the University of Dayton Research Institute operating with $1 billion in sponsored research, and ranked second in the nation for total funded materials research and engineering activities. Nearby Wright State University, within 15 minutes of the District, has a total enrollment of over 16,000 and a medical school sponsoring the oldest civilian aerospace medicine program for physicians in the country. Additionally, Central State University’s Dayton Campus is located within several blocks. Central State offers leading edge programs in Urban Education, Manufacturing and Environmental Engineering. The Dayton region boasts the highest patents-per-capita ranking in the U.S. and one of the highest concentrations of technical experts in the world, with more than 23,000 scientists, engineers, computer specialists and technicians in the workforce at various industries in the region. The Dayton region has 19 area colleges and universities that contribute an estimated $2.95 billion in total economic impact, including spending by non-local students and visitors, and provides companies with access to approximately 240,000 college graduates every year, including over 28,000 PhDs!
Science & Technology
The Wright-Dunbar Business District is conveniently located to key science and manufacturing facilities including the National Center for Manufacturing Education, The Advanced Integrated Manufacturing Center (AIM), the University of Dayton Research Institute, the National Composite Center, Edison Materials Technology Center (EMTEC), the Wright Brothers Institute, Tech Town and VORTEX.
Additionally, within a 10-minute drive of the Wright-Dunbar Business District is Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) with a workforce of 22,000 individuals. The Air Force Material Command headquartered at WPAFB manages 57% of the total Air Force budget. The Air Force Research Laboratory employs 9,500, most with advanced degrees and is home to five of the nine technology directorates for the Air Force. With the recent congressionally authorized Base Realignment and Closure Program mandates, WPAFB will be gaining 3,169 jobs by 2011, including many scientists, doctors, technicians and medical instructors, along with programs such as the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine and the Air Force Research laboratory Warfighter Readiness Research Division. Most major aerospace and defense companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Computer Sciences Corporation have offices located in the Dayton area.
Medical
The Business District is within 15 minutes of nine hospitals or medical facilities providing award-winning health care recognized by such diverse organizations as the U.S. News & World Report magazine’s “Best Hospitals in America” to the health care industry’s own “Healthgrades” awards.
Those major medical facilities include: Grandview Hospital, Miami Valley Hospital, Kettering Medical Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, the Dayton VA Medical Center, the Wright State School Professional Psychology Duke E. Ellis Human Development Institute, and the Atrium Medical Center located in nearby Middletown.
Corporate
The Wright-Dunbar Business District is center to major corporate partners and leaders including Teradata, LexisNexis, Standard Register, and Reynolds & Reynolds.
Amenities
The Wright-Dunbar Business District provides access to the following additional nearby amenities located in downtown Dayton.
Museums and Galleries
America’s Packard Museum
The Cannery Art & Design Centre
Dayton Art Institute
Dayton International Peace Museum
Dayton Visual Arts Center
Galleries at Sinclair Community College
Gallery at One Dayton Centre
K12 Gallery for Young People
Miami Valley Cooperative Gallery at the Dayton Convention Center
Cinemas
The Neon
Libraries
Dayton Metro Library
Sinclair Learning Resource Center
University of Dayton Roesch Library
Performing Arts Groups
Cityfolk
Dayton Ballet
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
Dayton Opera
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra
The Human Race Theatre Company
The Muse Machine
Rhythm in Shoes
Public Markets
National City 2nd Street Public Market
Sports & Recreation
Dayton Chess Club
Fifth Third Field—Dayton Dragons Professional Baseball
RiverScape MetroParks
Theaters
Blair Hall Theater at Sinclair Community College
The Loft Theatre
Schuster Performing Arts Center
Victoria Theatre
Other
Junior Achievement of Dayton
Kids Voting Dayton Region
Montgomery County Medical Society
National Conference for Community & Justice (NCCJ)
Greater Dayton IT Alliance