Dayton is actively pursuing new strategies that focus heavily on inter-agency cooperation to spur successful business retention and expansion efforts. 

The City of Dayton is committed to a renewed focus on retention and expansion efforts; creating a better means of coordinating various community economic development activities; developing new options for obtaining capital and financing; and enlisting regional support.

“We want to identify and remove any obstacles that stand in the way of conducting business in the city of Dayton,” City Manager Rashad Young said.  “We will make that a key priority as we move to enhance our competitive edge in the marketplace.  

Mayor Rhine McLin said, “We understand how important it is that Dayton’s various economic development efforts are connected to and coordinated with each other.  We have renewed insight into how all of our various economic development efforts can complement, rather than conflict with, the greater economic development momentum underway.”

Some of the actions the City of Dayton is engaged into to enhance its economic development efforts include:

• Create a new Business Retention & Expansion Center to develop and direct these services for the City of Dayton. The new R&E Center will be led by a director and staffed by stakeholder organizations, such as the City of Dayton, the Downtown Dayton Partnership, CityWide Development Corporation, the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce and Montgomery County.

• Create a Governance Oversight Committee (GOC).  The mission of the GOC will be to develop and oversee an integrated economic development strategy for the City, prioritize development efforts of various development agencies, and set and monitor performance benchmarks.
   
• Create a private sector Deal Fund. The Governance Oversight Committee will serve as the conduit to solicit private sector support and capital to create the Deal Fund.  The new fund will be used to leverage additional public/private partnerships in stimulating new economic development activity.
  
• Enlist regional buy-in and support. The City of Dayton will strengthen interaction and coordination with the existing Regional Leaders Forum as a way to cross-support mutual goals.