“It’s going to be a good year,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to it. I’m very optimistic, but I think there’s a lot of promise for the city of Middletown.”
Palenick, who has been city manager for nearly six months, said his staff is also working on other things to create “transformational change” by engaging stakeholders and “reimagining the community.”
Some of that work has already started. Shortly after his arrival in July, he recommended placing a 10-year, 0.25% income tax increase to raise $31.3 million solely for street and road repairs, which voters approved in November. Starting in mid-2021 through 2022, there will be many orange barrels throughout Middletown as road crews get to work to address streets, whose status is of biggest complaints residents and businesses have about the city.
Palenick is also hoping to see the issues between Start Skydiving and the city get resolved so the master and layout plan updates can get completed at the Middletown Regional Airport.
He hopes a “win-win” situation can be found, but both parties did not abide by terms of the lease, actions were taken as years passed. But the city has to protect its asset the safety of those who use the airport. Once an impasse has been reached, the next step is court action, he said.
Last month, Start Skydiving filed a civil complaint against the city in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. The city is also seeking to contract airport operation services to a company not affiliated with the airport in mid-2021.
Palenick said he expects to have another legal action addressed concerning the Manchester Hotel and the Snider Ford/Sonshine Building. The matter, in which the city is revoking its development agreement for non-performance, is set for trial in February. Palenick said he hopes to see the property developed as residential or mixed use.
Palenick is also eyeing other properties for development such as the former Middletown Paperboard and the former Swallen’s site downtown. And with the upcoming demolition of the Lincoln School property, he said the city will “aggressively market” that site and the former Roosevelt School property, which are both on Central Avenue.
Another project that is already underway is developing new plans for the 31-acre Towne Mall Galleria to develop it as a mixed-use town center. A partnership among the mall owner, the city and the Warren County Port Authority hired a company to develop a new master plan for the 43-year-old mall at the Interstate 75 and Ohio 122 interchange. The two-phased master planning process was expected to take 13 to 18 weeks.
Palenick said the city will be utilizing a new program enacted as part of Senate Bill 39 that was signed into law on Tuesday by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
The new law allows an insurance premium tax credit of up to 10% for capital contributions to transformational mixed use development projects. The intention is to incentivize insurance companies to invest in new construction projects in Ohio’s downtowns.
According to the legislation, the total cost must exceed $50 million and include and include a combination of retail, office or residential space and have either 15 stories in height or 350,000 square feet or more in size.
Palenick said the city is also looking at the reusing the former city landfill on Carmody Boulevard and transforming it into a solar panel farm to generate electricity.
“It’s 80 acres and you can’t really build much there,” he said. “But you can build large solar panels of substance there.”
Palenick said what is more exciting is that the land is included in the Federal Opportunity Zone which stretches from Carmody Boulevard, includes the Middletown Regional Airport, to Central Avenue downtown. He also said the cost to construct the Photo Voltic cell panels is coming down.
The area is underutilized but Palenick said this “would be huge for the city. Anyway you look at it it’s a big plus.”
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