When Toledo city council voted unanimously to approve selling the Marina District to Chinese developers last week, Scott Prephan of Perrysburg-based Prephan enterprises could not have been prouder.
 
His clients, Yuan Xiahong and Wu King Hung of Dashing Pacific Group, are also impressed with the 12-0 vote, Prephan said.
 
“It came about quite nicely. It was a great day. A unanimous vote — that doesn’t happen too often in Toledo, does it?” Prephan said.
 
“The Chinese, they are very sensitive wanting people to be a part of what they are doing here, so I think it really meant a lot to them to see a 12-0 vote. Not to just get it done, but clearly to get it done with that much support was very meaningful to them,” Prephan continued. 

A rendering of the Marina District development by Chinese firm Dashing Pacific Group

“It’s just step one. We’ve got to get a nice site plan out there and build something people are really going to want to be part of. That’s the only way we’re going to make it happen. The whole business community is really on board with this, and that’s kind of nice to see.”
 
Dashing Pacific’s offer is to purchase 69 acres of Toledo’s Marina District for $3.8 million with an option to purchase more. Prephan’s clients are expected to arrive here in July, but Prephan believes the closing will happen sooner.

“We have due diligence to do — a few things still have to be done before a contract can be signed. But we don’t have any other expectations but to move toward closing right now,” Prephan said.
 
Prephan estimates the Chinese developers, which have already purchased the nearby Docks restaurant complex, will invest $200 to $300 million developing the riverfront property.
 
“I think you’re going to see some mixed-use elements in there. There is enough acreage, plus they have more under option,” Prephan said.
 
“You’re going to see some commercial, some multi-family, possibly see some office, but there’s enough land and enough waterfront accessibility off Main Street that multiple applications could work there. They are just starting to do a much more detailed site planning process here in the next month or two, and you’ll see something much more refined in a few months.”
 
Drawings already released show what appears to be Chinese architecture, but Prephan believes the development will be multi-cultural.
 
“I think you’ll see an international flavor more so than just Chinese architecture. There are a lot of great international projects that we’ve seen in the last year or so, so we can bring some really neat ideas to that site,” Prephan said.
 
“The whole idea is to internationalize. You can’t build more of the same that already exists here because you have a relatively stagnant population, so it really has to be more unique, out of the box and cater to an international environment to attract some new blood into the place.”
 
Originally envisioned by Columbus developer Frank Kass nearly two decades ago, the promise of seeing the property developed has resonated with public leaders across East Toledo.
 
Most are crediting Mayor Michael Bell, who has made two trips to China since taking office to help secure the foreign investment.
 
“I give him huge credit because when he came into office the Marina District was dead. It was just totally dead,” said District 3 councilman Mike Craig. “He could have concentrated on other things, but you know, he stepped to the plate on this, and quite frankly, I think he hit a home run.”
 
River East Associates chairman Dan Steingraber, an East Toledo businessman, said, “The mayor attacked that aggressively on this deal. He structured everything about this deal to some extent in an attempt to cut through the crap and really put the heat on the special interests that may typically stand in the way of deals like this.”
 
Daniel Angel, who announced he will run for District 3 council in the next election, stated in an e-mail to The Press, “We are happy with the news that the city has struck a deal with Dashing Pacific to purchase the Marina District.
 
“We are also very happy to hear that Dashing Pacific and (general contractor) Rudolph Libbe has reached an agreement to use local labor in the process of developing the area. As we have stated we feel labor is one of Toledo’s top resources and we are happy to see it used. Hopefully this marks the beginning of a new economic growth for District 3 and Toledo in general.”
 
Steingraber only wishes that he could have seen a site plan before the deal was approved.
 
“I think ultimately it’s a good thing,” Steingraber said. “It would have been nice, at best case scenario, to get their plan approved through the process before transferring title.”
 
The concern of many east side officials is that the Chinese integrate the Marina District into the nearby Garfield community. A coalition of east side organizations formed the East Toledo Union with the purpose of doing just that.
 
The ETU is one of the realizations coming out of a $200,000 T-grant from the Local Initiative Support Coalition’s (LISC) “Connecting the Pieces” project, which concluded its findings over two years ago. The grant was originally established to support the development of a neighborhood transformation plan to connect old and new neighborhoods in light of the pending development of the entire 127-acre Marina District.
 
“I think they are going to pretty much follow the Connecting the Pieces plan,” Craig said. “A lot of that stuff has to do with the city, and now we can start talking to them about what was said in ‘Connecting the Pieces’ and trying to get them to become part of East Toledo.
 
“The architectural review committee and the standards for the Marina District are actually higher than they are for the city in general. There are some more specific things. I know they are aware of this and I don’t think this bothers them at all. I think they are going to do a first class job,” Craig added.
 
Steingraber added, “The good thing, as a result of really mostly (former Marina District developer) Larry Dillin’s involvement, is there is an overlay district in place and there are architectural standards in place. So, really they bought Dillin’s development plan. That is in force on the parcel.
 
“So, if they want to make major changes to that, first it goes to the master developer and the planning commission and if they deem the changes to be major then it goes back to the city council and the planning commission again. So, there’s still some community control.”

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