Dayton University heats up $35m

Dayton University is welcoming Emerson Climate Technologies, a company specialising in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration, onto its campus.

To support the company in its choice to open an innovation centre on campus rather than on a cheaper site abroad – Aachen, Germany, the location of Emerson’s European headquarters and Sidney, Ohio, the location of its US headquarters, were both being considered – Dayton City Commission voted on additional incentives worth $35m last week as well as turning the Emerson Climate Technologies Innovation Centre into an enterprise zone.

Emerson is set to collaborate with Dayton University on both research and commercialisation following the opening of its innovation centre. It follows GE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric, also opening a research centre on campus.

The company will get a 60% discount on property taxes until the end of 2022. The centre is expected to cost between $19m and $21m, with additional investments to be made for lab equipment. It has already attracted investments from Ohio Third Frontier. The building will cover 36,000 square-foot and the centre should create between 30 and 50 jobs.

Emerson will also be setting up $1m in donations to the university and to create engineering scholarships. The company currently employs more than 100 Dayton alumni already, out of 1,650 staff in the state.

A spokesperson said: “Emerson Climate Technologies selected Dayton for this state-of-the-art global innovation centre because of our excellent three decade long relationship with Dayton University and their highly regarded engineering department plus the proximity to our headquarters in Sidney, Ohio. It will be a wonderful addition to the city when it opens in December 2015.”