Charter school purchases Dayton building, improvements possible

Dayton Early College Academy this month purchased the building that currently houses the charter school’s middle school campus at 110 N. Patterson Blvd. in Dayton.

DECA Prep Inc. purchased the property for $1.35 million on Dec. 21, according to Montgomery County property records.

DECA had been leasing the former Miami-Jacobs Career College building since moving its roughly 380-student middle school there in 2016.

“We were able to purchase it with the help of the owner at a very good price,” said DECA Superintendent Judy Hennessey. “So now, owning the property, we feel more comfortable making improvements to it.”

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The property was owned by the company Canal, LLC. Company representative Michael Wenzler could not be reached for comment.

Hennessey said there are no immediate plans for renovating the property, but in the long term they intend to convert clinical space previously used as Miami-Jacobs massage school rooms into middle school classrooms. Eventually they hope to build a gym.

“The biggest drawback to that facility is we don’t have a gym,” Hennessey said. “So we do use surrounding areas, the parks… but it would be our long-term plan to develop some type of athletic space.”

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DECA already owns the building that houses DECA Prep on Homewood Avenue in Dayton, and has a long-term lease with the University of Dayton for the space that houses its high school.

“It’s great to be downtown,” Hennessey said.

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