By Allen Howard
The Cincinnati Enquirer

SILVERTON - Silverton Development Inc. (SDI), a group of businessmen and residents, has received a $35,000 grant from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation to continue its study of the city's business district.

David Waltz, municipal manager, said the grant will enable SDI to go into a second phase of the study, which is aimed at bringing more businesses, and stability, to the downtown core.

This northeastern Cincinnati suburb of 5,500 residents is recovering after suffering a fiscal watch imposed by the Ohio Auditor's Office after the city could not pay staff workers and bills in 1997.

The watch ended in 1999 after the city cut its budget by $350,000.

Since Mr. Waltz was hired as municipal manager in 2000, he has started a plan to revive the business district.

Two businesses expanded in 2001 near the heart of the business district at Montgomery and Plainfield roads. They were DRS-Bonded and Italianette Pizza, both on Plainfield Road a block from the intersection.

The Belvedere Corp. developed Silverton Square, a 5,800-square-foot office and retail complex at the intersection last year.

CVS built a superstore on the site of the old Grafton's Restaurant in 2000, a block from the intersection.

"We don't have a lot of empty storefronts, maybe one or two," Mr. Waltz said. "The city has been rebounding since 1999. We just want to continue the trend and take it to the next level."

Mr. Waltz said the SDI study includes developing a market analysis, what types of businesses could survive in the district, the physical condition of housing stock, traffic patterns and some kind of community focal point.

SDI received a seed donation of $10,000 from Fifth Third Bank in 2001 that helped to get the study started. Silverton added $14,000 to the funds.

"We also received $1,500 from Huntington Bank, and local businesses kicked in with $500 and $1,000 donations," Mr. Waltz said.

"The Greater Cincinnati Foundation was impressed that we came up with close to $35,000 and the foundation decided to match that amount."

He said First Avenue, a consulting firm in Columbus that specializes in planning and redevelopment of second-tier suburban communities, was hired to do the study.

"This firm has done studies on suburban communities just outside of urban cities in Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton," Mr. Ellison said.

"We are caught in between the redevelopment in downtown Cincinnati and ... the outer suburban communities," said Jim Ellison, co-owner of DRS-Bonded, a collection system on Plainfield Road and president of SDI. "It is time for our city to get things moving in the positive direction."

He said SDI expects First Avenue to determine the kind of businesses that could thrive in the Silverton business district.

"Once we get this kind of information from experts, we can go to these types of businesses and try to attract them to come to Silverton," Mr. Ellison said.

He also said SDI wants the firm to develop a theme or some kind of focal point for the city, such as a gateway or other visible marker.

"A lot of times people come through Silverton and don't even know they have been here. We are looking for a theme of some sort to let people know when they are here. We are searching for something to attract businesses," he said.

E-mail ahoward@enquirer