Former Vex/Diner building downtown available for sale or lease

Building at prime downtown Dayton location needs works, agent says

The former Vex Nightclub/Diner building at 101 S. St. Clair St. in downtown Dayton is listed for sale or lease.

The building across from the St. Clair Lofts is listed on LoopNet as offering 5,600 square feet of retail space at a rental rate of $12 a square foot.

Located on the southwest corner of East 4th Street and St. Clair, the site includes a lighted parking lot, with ample street parking and access to parking garages nearby. The location is an easy walk from the Oregon District or the downtown Central Business District.

Owner Hats Off Investment Group LLC also owns the power building next door, said Tracey Herron, senior vice president of sales and leasing for commercial real estate firm Equity.

“The diner is in very rough shape and is basically a shell,” Herron said.

There is no restaurant equipment in the space, she said. Everything needs to be renovated, and new architecture drawings and permits will need to be pulled.

“The building has been closed down for five to six years,” she noted.

There is an interested party who is drawn to the location, but Herron said there have been no offers yet.

The site has undergone several incarnations in recent decades.

Built as an actual O’Mahoney dining car in the late 1980s, it was known first as the Diner on St. Clair, before being taken up by new owners as Roxy’s Diner and transitioning more recently to a dance club.

In the summer of 2016, what had been Club Vex at that location changed to Cloverdale, but barely a year later it was up for lease again, after Hats Off Investment Group spent nearly $400,000 on the property.

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