Springboro adviser wins deals, loyalty.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Personal attention keeps business owners happy

Bernie Eichholz has built a reputation -- and an economy -- on personal service and hard-core incentives.

While his friends were planning their retirements, at age 70, Bernie Eichholz was planning a city. Now at 85, the man some call a "legend" in economic development has taken a string of cornfields along Interstate 75 and turned them into one of the hottest commercial areas south of Dayton. As economic development adviser for the city of Springboro, Eichholz has helped bring 3,000 jobs to his town since 1984.

Sure, the city has the built-in advantages of huge tracts of affordable land and access to …