Hotel, Conference Center Plans Go to Planning Commission Tuesday

Conceptual plans for the will go to the Kent Planning Commission tonight for review at 7 p.m.

The complex, being planned by the Foundation and Columbus hotelier The Pizzuti Companies, will be located on the triangular-shaped piece of land bordered by Haymaker Parkway, Erie and South DePeyster streets in downtown Kent.

Plans show the combined hotel and conference center facility will have 95 guest rooms on three floors above the main floor. The first floor will have shared amenities including the conference center with a separate conference center entrance on Erie Street. Plans include a vestibule entrance at the corner of Haymaker Parkway and Erie Street.

Early plans called for a separate, 25,000-square-foot conference center on the current site with a six-story, 110-room hotel across from it on South DePeyster Street. But those plans were scrapped after university and Pizzuti officials realized the facilities were too large.

The partners have not publicly identified a brand for the hotel, and a specific name also has not yet been publicly announced.

Kent State University President Lester Lefton said that the name will include "Kent State."

"That's to the advantage of the hotel," Lefton said. "When people go looking for a hotel they're going to type in 'hotel, Kent State.' You want the name in the title."

The Kent State University Board of Trustees has authorized an investment of up to $3 million on the project to be paid either directly by the university or the Kent State University Foundation. The university has already paid $530,000 to acquire the land for the hotel through personal philanthropic donations made by Ron Pizzuti, a Kent State alum and owner of The Pizzuti Companies.