Downtown Development Legal Deals Finished

Three years of legal negotiations ended this week when the city and its redevelopment partner signed and filed the last of the agreements needed for Kent’s $39 million downtown redevelopment.

The city and Cleveland-based developer Fairmount Properties signed the last of the legal documents needed to give the developer permission to build about 185,000 square feet of new retail, commercial and residential square footage on city-owned land downtown.

The city and Fairmount held in August, but Tuesday’s signing of the lease agreement, mortgage financing and other legal documents — about 10 different agreements in all — represents the end of legal negotiations for the project.

“We’re done,” Kent Law Director Jim Silver said. “They should be moving dirt now.”

The agreements finished Tuesday represent the city and Fairmount’s development, which will include three different buildings in the block bordered by Haymaker Parkway, South Water, Erie and South DePeyster streets. The project is largely independent from the other downtown redevelopment projects in terms of financing and legal agreements.

Kent City Manager Dave Ruller said the $39 million price tag represents Fairmount’s roughly $29 million in financing for construction along with the city’s close to $10 million in land costs and Tax Increment Financing money needed to tie the project together.

“The last three months were really the heated financial discussions,” Ruller said. He wrote about the deal closures on his blog.

Fairmount is on a strict deadline to open the first of three new buildings in the downtown development block by the end of 2012 for one of its two big corporate tenants: the Davey Resource Group, a division of The Davey Tree Expert Co.

The 60 to 70 employees of the Davey Resource Group will relocate from Stow to occupy about 13,000 square feet in Fairmount's "Building A," which will rise at the corner of Haymaker Parkway and South Water Street.

The second corporate tenant, AMETEK, will move about 80 employees from its Lake Street facility to downtown. AMETEK will occupy about 40,000 square feet in Fairmount's "Building B," which will stand on Erie Street facing Acorn Alley II.

The third structure, "Building C," will stand at the corner of Erie and South DePeyster streets and will feature a first-floor restaurant with residential space on the upper floors. A potential fourth building will rise just south of the residential complex and will line South DePeyster Street between Haymaker Parkway and the alley running east and west through the block.

"I'm extremely, ecstatically happy about this," Kent Mayor Jerry Fiala said of Tuesday's legal signings. "I commend the city staff and all the partners in this deal. It's a good day for Kent, again."

In the center of the redevelopment block, the city will build a 115-space parking lot to serve the corporate employees for AMETEK and Davey. The development agreement requires Fairmount pay the city $30,000 annually for 15 years to pay for cover maintenance of the surface lot.

Kent City Councilwoman Heidi Shaffer, whose Ward 5 includes most of downtown, said she was thrilled to see all the agreements were finished Tuesday.

"And I hope to see the heavy equipment moving soon," she said.