Kent to Host U.S. Transportation Secretary Friday

Ray LaHood will tour PARTA's Kent Central Gateway, for the second time, Friday

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will visit Kent Friday, for the second time, to tour the construction site of PARTA's Kent Central Gateway Transit Center. LaHood visited Kent in 2010 to sign the grant award for the transit center project, which was awarded the first-ever TIGER grant of $20 million. The grant pays for the bulk of the transit center, which will feature 365 public parking spaces and 10 bus transfer bays when it opens this spring in downtown Kent. In 2010, LaHood toured the area of downtown Kent that since has been vastly redeveloped in large part due to the parking deck and bus transfer center. The nation's transportation secretary wrote about his visit on his blog for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Look for …

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Signs Hung for Kent State Hotel

94-room hotel with 300-seat conference center set to open in June

Another sign of progress, literally, for downtown Kent's redevelopment appeared Friday as workers hung the exterior signs for the new Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center. Lawrence Carter, the asset manager of the Kent State Hotel for the Kent State Foundation, shared these photos of the signs as they were installed Friday afternoon. Carter said there's already been a tremendous amount of interest in booking rooms in the 94-room hotel, but he expects that will increase as the signs are installed. "Once they see the signs go up that's when people really start calling," Carter said. The hotel, which includes a 300-seat conference center, also will feature a 20-seat lounge and bar area and a 50-seat restaurant all on the first …

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Amanda Harnocz

10:33 am on Sunday, March 3, 2013

haha. It's groundbreaking stuff, this bear area! (Thanks for catching this.)   more ›

Mayor: 'Destination Kent, College Town USA'

City, development partner break ground on $6.5 million apartment building downtown

The ceremonial groundbreaking on downtown Kent's newest, and last, building to rise as part of the more than $100 million redevelopment boon marked one milestone while hinting at another. Earth is moving for the foundation of Cleveland developer Fairmount Properties' five-story apartment building that will stand at the corner of South DePeyster and Erie Streets, and the developer joined city officials, state and local government representatives, administrators from Kent State University and PARTA to break ground on the site Friday. The groundbreaking marks the start of construction for the last new building to rise as part of the massive redevelopment that's been under way for several years downtown since the start of Ron Burbcik's Acorn …

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Developer Breaks Ground on Last of New Downtown Buildings

Fairmount Properties' "Building C" under construction in redevelopment block

As backhoes and dump trucks moved behind them the development partners behind downtown Kent's redevelopment ceremonially broke ground on yet another new, multi-million building today. Fairmount Properties' "Building C" will stand at the corner of South DePeyster and Erie streets within the redevelopment block. The five-story building will bring with it the more than 7,000 square feet Bricco white tablecloth restaurant on the first floor and 32 upscale apartments on the upper floors. The new building is the third to rise within the city's redevelopment block and is the seventh within the redevelopment area. "We're just rounding the block," Kent Mayor Jerry Fiala said this morning. Look for full coverage Saturday on Kent Patch.

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Groundbreaking for New Apartment Building Downtown is Friday

City, developer to break ground on 'Building C' to house 32 apartments and new restaurant Bricco

City officials will break ground Friday on the last, new building to be built downtown as part of the more than $100 million redevelopment well under way. Building C, to stand at the southwest corner of the intersection of South DePeyster and Erie streets, will be home to 32 upscale apartments on the upper four floors with the 7,000-square-foot Bricco restaurant on the first floor. The new building is being built via a partnership between the city and Cleveland developer Fairmount Properties, which also built the new AMETEK and Davey Tree buildings in the same downtown block. The building represents an additional 42,000 square feet and $6.5 million investment, according to the city. The groundbreaking will start at 11 a.m. at Bar 145. Here…

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James Thomas

12:50 pm on Monday, March 25, 2013

By the way, NolanJoeHomeownerderpspotterJamesThomasJackKelly, Have you taken down the Psuedo James Thomas Page you Created?   more ›

Review of New Downtown Construction Projects

See the building reviews for the projects as they progressed from bare lots to finished brick

Most Kent residents only see downtown's redevelopment on its face — in essence, construction workers, cranes and changing skylines. What most people don't see is the tedious reviews of building and construction plans, approval of permits and all the other countless, and necessary, paper work. Take a look behind the scenes by perusing through the building review reports above on five of the major projects downtown:

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Property Owner Says Tenants Worried About Paid Parking Downtown

City is planning to install pay stations to manage less than one-third of parking spaces that will be available downtown when redevelopment is finished

Bill Arthur shared the concerns of his retail tenants with the Kent Parking Action Committee recently about the new paid parking program coming to downtown later this year. Arthur, a member of the committee, also owns TransOhio Properties, which owns several buildings downtown and rents to multiple retail and commercial businesses. "I don’t know if it’s different in other parts of the city where we’re going to be implementing these parking (stations), but I have yet to find someone who thinks it’s a good idea," Arthur said. "There’s a lot of concern out there from different tenants that this is going to be a bad thing simply because other cities our size typically don’t do this." Patch reported in January about the new parking pay stations…

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Around Town and Gown

UPDATE: NYTimes Highlights Downtown Kent's Redevelopment

Newspaper interviews city manager, Kent State president about $110 million transformation

The spotlight keeps shining on Kent, as the latest operator of the high beam is the New York Times. The newspaper known for its hard-hitting coverage of national politics dedicated some space Tuesday to the partnership between the city and Kent State University that has spurred $110 million in redevelopment downtown. Click here to read the article, titled A Partnership Seeks to Transform Kent State and Kent. If you've been a regular reader of Kent Patch the past two years, you won't find anything new in the article that you haven't already read here. Interviews with Kent City Manager Dave Ruller and Kent State President Lester Lefton depict a stronger town-gown relationship. And of course each of the major downtown redevelopment projects …

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Parking 'Pay Stations' Coming to Downtown Kent

City will use pay stations instead of common parking meters to manage on-street parking spaces downtown

Starting in the fall, drivers will have to pay to park on certain streets in downtown Kent. Instead of parking meters, the city will use a system of parking pay stations in which a pay station governs multiple parking spaces on a single street. "We're definitely not using parking meters," Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling said. Traditional parking meters typically are placed one meter for every on-street parking space, but Kent is planning for pay stations that will manage multiple spaces per street similar to a system in place in Charlotte, NC. Pay stations allow drivers to pay with credit cards or cash (Kent is considering accepting Kent State University's FLASHCard). Drivers would identify their parking space at the station — spaces will …

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2012 Income Tax Collections Up 13 Percent Over 2011

Kent collected $12,063,299 in total income tax receipts for 2012; boost may erase projected deficit

Income tax revenue for the city of Kent saw a double-digit increase in 2012 over 2011, as the total collected rose 12.6 percent. Kent collected $12,063,299 in total income tax revenue last year compared with $10,711,766 in the year prior. City administrators originally projected $10.9 million in revenue for 2012 . The large increase last year marks the early start of an upward trend in collections for the Tree City after being hit hard by the Great Recession, which saw Kent's income tax revenue start a decline in 2008 that lasted through 2010. Income tax revenue started to rise in 2011, which saw a 2.5 percent increase above 2010 collections. Kent Budget and Finance Director Dave Coffee said the 12.6 percent increase for 2012 is a welcome …

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