City leaders are changing the first impression people have as they enter the city from Interstate 75 with the Renaissance East and West development.

The city will try to do that with high-end homes and uses that compliment Atrium Medical Center and Greentree Health Science Academy — and both facilities have room to grow.

Atrium Medical Center has “really turned some heads” about people’s perception of Middletown, said Marty Kohler, Middletown planning director. While the city has the negative connotation of a gritty, blighted community with smoke stacks and rundown neighborhoods, he said “that’s not the reality.”

“Yes we do have some of that, but the vast majority of the city has fantastic, quality neighborhoods and things that the region is just totally unaware of,” Kohler said. “But first impressions are either going to confirm or refute whatever preconceived notions people have of the community.”

About a third of the proposed high-end, 529 single-family lots in Renaissance East have been subdivided, and around 100 homes have been built by Fischer Homes. They have a few dozen more lots it can develop. Cristo Homes recently purchased 22 lots from First Financial Bank and just had its home design approved by the city’s planning commission.

While the requests are a modification from the approved plan, every change from the plan will be thoroughly analyzed and debated, Kohler said. The interchange at I-75 and Ohio 122 is the city’s front door from the highway and “it’s crucially important that these first impressions are different.”

“We only have one chance to get it right,” he said. “Once something develops in an adverse fashion, it’s very difficult to change.”

In addition to the high-end homes, which average around $276,000, Renaissance East will include office, commercial and multi-family uses.

“It’s almost the classic sort of uses you’d see in a downtown area,” said Kohler.

Renaissance East and West, which is split by I-75, has been touted as a “growth engine for the city,” said Denise Hamet, Middletown’s economic development manager.

“Every quadrant of the Renaissance has seen growth last year and will see growth this year,” she said. “The focus is to create a true master planned community, where you can work and play in the same area.”

This year, Hamet said, the development will see more office and commercial businesses commit to coming to the city, which includes expanding the medical niche to compliment Atrium Medical Center and Greentree Health Science Academy just north of Renaissance East.

The types of business being targeted include hotel, offices, research and development, and biomed-type of businesses to feed off the hospital.

“The whole Renaissance District is our opportunity to really grow professional jobs,” Hamet said. “As part of that, there’s a significant component of housing, but it’s really higher end housing; it was designed to be that way.”

And the high-end housing being developed by Fischer and Cristo will help the city recruit new companies, adding to the variety of homes.

Growth is moving south from Dayton and north from Cincinnati along Interstate 75, which splits the Renaissance West and Renaissance East developments, “and we’re right in the middle,” Hamet said.