Politics & Government

Transit Center, New Hotel to Change Downtown's Skyline

This story is the second in a series about Kent's changing landscape

The keystone of the Kent Central Gateway is 's new transit center, which will add close to 400 public parking spaces, 10 bus transfer bays and a few thousand square feet of commercial and retail space to downtown Kent. 

Construction is under way on the transit center on a large stretch of land along Erie Street between South DePeyster Street and Haymaker Parkway.

Right across Erie Street will be the . The hotel will rise to four floors with 95 rooms and a combined 300 seat banquet facility. It will carry the Kent State logo thanks to an . It's being built primarily by Columbus-based Pizzuti Companies, whose head, Ron Pizzuti, grew up in Kent and is a Kent State alumni.

Find out what's happening in Kentwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Both projects are rising on sites that were historically significant for Kent. The hotel will stand on the former site of the Fenn Dairy and Record-Courier offices, and the bulk of the transit center occupies the former Commercial Press building.

Editor's Note: Throughout this week, we take a look at some of the drastic landscape changes taking place in Kent this year and throughout the next several years.

Find out what's happening in Kentwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We'll examine Kent's redevelopment as the projects progress. Click on the links below to see previous stories in this series.


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