Hamilton’s progress, Spooky Nook updates of high interest for development on Great Miami River

Dan Foley, director of the Riverway effort and a former Montgomery County commissioner, said a prime reason for the Hamilton visit was to show the $165 million Spooky Nook project to business people and other leaders from upriver what can be done with sites like the former Champion Paper mill in Hamilton, as well as abandoned factories and coal-fueled electric plants.

“Spooky Nook is an example to all our other communities that there are these major properties that have outlived their past life,” Foley said. “They can have new life.”

“We’ve got a ton of these properties, up and down the river,” Foley said.

A developer from Buffalo recently bought a former Dayton Power & Light coal plant in Miamisburg for $866,000 and plans to transform it into a 200-acre riverfront housing and dining complex, Foley said.

Foley said a second smallmouth bass fishing competition will follow last year’s, with more details to follow.

The organization also is working to help fill in gaps of the bicycling/hiking path along the river that can link Sidney with Hamilton and, officials hope, someday all the way to the Ohio River.

Edith Mick, 79, of Seven Mile, attended the summit to hear what was happening along the river.

“It was all interesting, to hear what was going on along the river,” she said.

Participants also toured areas of Hamilton, including the Main Street business corridor.

Among other facts people learned on the tour of Spooky Nook was there will be a patio allowing people to eat and drink while overlooking the river. Municipal Brew Works announced Friday it would open a second location inside Spooky Nook, with other establishments to follow.

The most interesting presentation, Mick thought, was by Spooky Nook Founder Sam Beiler, who explained why his company’s existing indoor sports complex is estimated to have a $90 million impact on the area of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the variety of sports-training, fitness and sports tournaments Spooky Nook offers there that it soon will offer in Hamilton.