Toledo is in the national news again, and this time it’s because of a pending $200 to $300 investment by Chinese developers into a 69 acre parcel of land on the east side.
 
Last week, an article in the New York Times announced to the nation that the Chinese firm Dashing Pacific Group will develop the Marina District property along the Maumee River across from downtown Toledo.
 
“My phone is ringing off the hook. People from all over the country are calling,” said Scott Prephan of Perrysburg-based Prephan Enterprises, which represents the Chinese developers.
 
“An article came out in the New York Times — nice article — picture and everything. It’s pretty nice to be a part of it,” added Prephan.
 
Deputy Mayor Dean Monske, the former executive director of the Oregon Economic Development Foundation, said it was no accident.

“(The New York Times story) talked about the things we are doing here in Toledo with international business development,” Monske said. “CNBC wants to interview the mayor, which will probably happen on Monday. Along with (President) Obama coming here Friday and with the stuff we’re doing with China, this goes along with the publicity we received nationally about the solar industry.
 
“The point is, it just doesn’t happen. We have had almost a five-year contract at the RGP (Regional Growth Partnership) with the communications director — he works with Development Consultants International out of New York. We contract with the story pitch of Northwest Ohio, particular the solar industry. That took about a year-and-a-half of work of them pitching to national media before the article hit Newsweek magazine.
 
“There is a lot of work that goes into it. That is exactly what happened here. We were able to talk about the sale of The Docks, and then we started pitching that at RGP to DCI in New York, they went ahead and pitched the story nationally and within two hours the New York Times called them back and said, ‘Hey, we’d love to do a story from that point,’ and they put us in touch with their reporter, the reporter came into town, and we organized a meeting.
 
“It was all because of that one piece that it got to CNBC, and they said we want to do more, and we said, ‘Okay, we’ll probably have more to come down the road.’ Even though good things happen, it is still a lot of work behind the scenes that people do to make sure we’re getting that national attention.”
 
Nonetheless, $200 million being invested to develop commercial and residential real estate in today’s economy is news to any media organization at any level.
 
“Here’s the thing, a $200 million investment in New York City is nothing. In Toledo, it’s huge,” said District 3 councilman Mike Craig. “This is $200 million more into the Toledo bucket. That’s why I didn’t understand when they were talking about, ‘Well, we need local investment.’ We want the money to come from outside. This is new money to the area.
 
River East Associates Dan Steingraber said, “One of the most positive things is we’ve always said for the Marina District to achieve its potential it had to grow the economy of Northwest Ohio. It had to bring money to Northwest Ohio that isn’t already here.
 
“If it moves people from Monclova Township to the riverfront — is it good for East Toledo? Yeah. Is it good for the community? No. You don’t want to just shift dollars around.
 
“These guys are obviously bringing things from not only outside our community but outside our country. I think there is a potential that this could attract more investment.
 
“Toledo has some of the more affordable housing in the country — especially in the (adjacent) Garfield neighborhood. We surveyed the housing and it’s a very, very solid housing stock. I think there is at least some potential that the neighborhood will benefit.”
 
Monske believes Toledo could have been doing business with the Chinese much earlier, if anyone had only listened. He credits Mayor Michael Bell for being the first.
 
“I will tell you point blank, (Scott Prephan) and I got together probably in early March last year because I knew he was doing stuff in China and he certainly had more knowledge than I did. He at the same time said, and we’ve known each other for about 15 years, that he had tried multiple times with past administrations with the City of Toledo to tell them there are these opportunities out there to take advantage of and he couldn’t get the time of day,” Monske alleged.
 
“So, it is a big difference having a relationship. It’s like everything else. Once I got clicked into office with the mayor, (Bell) said, ‘Hey, this is great,’ and at the same time the mayor had local people at the University (of Toledo) from China who said, ‘Hey, you should go there,’ and it really took people like Scott who had the knowledge of what we could do and then the relationship we had.
 
“The mayor basically, because he trusts the people he has working for him, got to meet a couple people and before you know it we were scheduling time to go there. He was fantastic, played just a great role because the mayor carries so much weight in China that we needed a mayor who understood the opportunities. He was fantastic. He plays his role very, very well.”

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