Politics & Government

Kent Extends Downtown Development Agreement with Fairmount Properties

Extension allows city, development partner to finalize land lease details before current agreement expired Aug. 20

The agreement between the city and its downtown redevelopment partner got a brief extension Wednesday night.

Kent City Council voted to extend its agreement with Fairmount Properties for the downtown redevelopment work that will include 155,000 square feet of new retail, office and residential space to be built in the next year and a half.

Kent City Manager Dave Ruller asked council to slightly modify and extend the existing agreement, which was set to expire Aug. 20.

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"We want to make sure that doesn’t expire, because we are at the goal line," Ruller said. "We received some notice (Wednesday) that the financing has been approved. There’s a few conditions that we need to talk about, but the two lending institutions and their capital stack, their debt stack, is where it needs to be. So it’s imminent, and there’s talk of groundbreaking later this month.”

For months, Fairmount's financial team has been working to secure lenders for the multi-million dollar redevelopment project, which will include three multi-story buildings downtown.

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It's unclear what two companies are financing the deal, but Fairmount Properties was in talks with FirstMerit Bank earlier this year. FirstMerit has helped financed other projects with Fairmount in the past.

Calls for comment from Kent Patch to Fairmount's financial manager for the project have not been returned.

Ruller said the slight modifications to the land development agreement involved splitting up some elements of the agreement that had previously been bundled together.

"We need to unbundle some of them and restructure the bundling on others," Ruller said. “We have been working diligently on this particular issue with their legal staff, our legal staff. The goal for the Fairmount team is to have the finance closing … in a couple weeks. And that’s pretty fast. They can do it, but it’s the fast track."

The need to move quickly on the project centers around the Davey Resource Group — a division of The Davey Tree Expert Co. — needing to be in their new building in downtown Kent by the end of 2012. The Davey Resource Group is one of in the downtown project. The second corporate tenant is AMETEK, which will move about 80 employees from its Lake Street facility downtown.

"The sooner we go through this process, the sooner the buildings are built," Ruller said. "At this point, we’re in a narrow window to … have the building delivered on time."

Kent Economic Development Director Dan Smith said extending the agreement through Sept. 30, as council did Wednesday, gives the city and Fairmount Properties time to rework some of those final details and start construction immediately once all the financial documents are signed.

Kent's project with Fairmount encompasses the downtown block bordered by Haymaker Parkway, South DePeyster Street, Erie and South Water streets. Though it is designed to fit with other ongoing projects, it is largely independent of , the and the .

Aside from AMETEK and the Davey Resource Group, the other 11 tenants announced so far are:

  • Aladdin's, a Lebanese-American restaurant with one location in Hudson
  • Bricco, a pub-style eatery with locations in Cleveland and Akron
  • Dave's Cosmic Subs
  • Panini's bar and grill
  • Palmieri Salon, a branch of Dino Palmieri Salon & Spa
  • Shop 42, a clothing boutique
  • Asian Chao restaurant
  • Nature's Table, a wrap and smoothie shop
  • Einstein Bros. Bagels, a bagel and sandwich shop
  • The Market Path, a locally traded home decor and retail store
  • Rockin' Taco, a Mexican restaurant.

"At this point, our corporate clients are fully apprised of the situation and are encouraging everyone to move forward with godspeed," Ruller said.


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