Kent Redevelopment Recognized as 'Best Project' in Ohio

Kent's business community is thriving at time when many communities are struggling, and for that the city's downtown redevelopment efforts earned the Best Project Award for 2012 from the Ohio Economic Development Association.

Richard F. Rebadow, OEDA Board Member and Greater Akron Chamber Executive Vice President, presented a plaque recognizing the award to members of Kent City Council Wednesday night.

"The project’s indeed a catalyst that will have significant impact on the city of Kent, Kent State University, Portage County, the greater Akron region and all of Northeast Ohio," Rebadow said. "You did it during really challenging economic times. You should be very proud of that because there were a lot of projects on the fence that didn’t happen."

The statewide award recognizes a $106 million public and private investment in redeveloping a large section of downtown Kent. The effort so far has yielded more than 950 construction jobs and 700 new jobs for the city's central business district.

The downtown project is an amalgum of several redevelopment projects, including:

• Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center, which is scheduled to open by June 2013.
• Fairmount Properties downtown redevelopment project, in conjunction with the city of Kent, which includes the new AMETEK and Davey Tree buildings.
• Acorn Alley which is largely finished but now incorporates the Acorn Corner restoration.
• The PARTA Kent Central Gateway transit center, which will rise across from the new hotel on Erie Street.
• The Esplanade extension from the Kent State campus to downtown, which incorporates a new architecture college building for the university.
• The new Portage County Municipal Courthouse.

Partners in the project, both public and private, include: Kent State; The Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority; Fairmount Properties, The Pizzuti Companies and Phoenix Properties.

Kent City Manager Dave Ruller joked during Wednesday's meeting that the city and its partners did not put together the project with the intent of winning an award.

"But I also am not ashamed to accept them," he said. "It's a testament to a lot of work ... for a project that had a lot of twists and turns along the way."

The work so far has proven a boon to city income tax collections.

Kent Economic Development Director Dan Smith said 32 new businesses have opened their doors in the past two years and another 20 are expected to do so in the next year.

"People only saw the big construction start last October and think this was an overnight project," he said. "We all know that’s not the case."

Formal talks on the projects started five years ago and culminated with the signing of leases by Davey Tree and AMETEK as two corporate anchor tenants last year, public groundbreakings that followed and the opening of the new buildings this year.

Kent City Councilman Wayne Wilson, who accepted the award on behalf of council, said city leaders have talked about such a renaissance downtown for nearly 20 years.

"The big stuff happened in the past five," he said.