First Lady tours Wright-Dunbar
Dayton Business Journal
First Lady Laura Bush visited the Wright-Dunbar neighborhood Wednesday, touring the Wright Cycle Shop and Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center along with congressmen and local officials.Her visit will help draw attention to the area's revitalization and preservation efforts, said U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, who invited the First Lady to visit the site. Turner also helped Wright-Dunbar Inc. land a $70,000 'Preserve America' grant, which will fund a study of the economic impact of connecting cultural heritage sites, such as the national park area in neighborhood and other sites in the region.
"This really is an area that was in great distress, and now today with the housing that's going up, with the commercial area that's being redeveloped and the national park as an anchor, we really do see a neighborhood that's turning around," Turner said.
The area is working hard to attract new businesses and a number of companies are lined up, ready to move into space as it becomes available, said Idotha Bootsie Neal, president of Wright-Dunbar Inc. The challenge is to make those spaces tenant-ready, Neal said.
"This is a national jewel for the entire country," Neal said.
The First Lady visited Dayton while campaigning for Republican candidates in Ohio and Kentucky. While this stop was not a campaign stop, she had delivered remarks at a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis in Lexington, and another for Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, at the NCR Country Club in Kettering, earlier in the day.
DeWine also accompanied her on the tour of the site. Before returning to Washington, D.C., this evening, she had another appearance to make at a reception for Chris Wakim, who is running for Congress in West Virginia.
E-mail dayton@bizjournals.com. Call 222-6900.
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