Signs for Acorn Corner Approved

Planning commission signs off on plan for signs as part of restoration of old Kent hotel

The renovation of Acorn Corner has cleared its last major city planning hurdle. The Kent Planning Commission approved a comprehensive sign plan for the restoration of the building Tuesday. The Kent Architectural Review Board gave the sign plan the green light earlier this month. Michelle Hartmann, vice president of The Burbick Companies, presented the sign plan to the commission Tuesday. "We did our best to minimize the signage and keep the historical integrity of the building," she said. There are 11 total signs planned for the building. The signs, and their locations, are: The signs were first presented to the Ohio Historic Preservation Office in Columbus, where state historic preservation officials also gave the plan their blessing. …

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Editor's Picks: Top Stories of 2012

Editor's Picks: Old Hotel Transformed into Acorn Corner

Kent Patch gives you the editor's picks for top 10 stories of 2012.

Editor's note: this year Kent residents bore witness to something many people thought impossible — the restoration of the old Kent hotel. The sale of the building to Acorn Alley developer Ron Burbick was a big story in 2011, and in 2012 renovations started. The restored building is expected to open in mid March with anchor tenant Buffalo Wild Wings on the first floor. For 2012, this story is one of my picks for top 10 stories of the year. RECENT COVERAGE:

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Delay at Acorn Corner Due in Part to Historic Windows, Elevator

Developer Ron Burbick says reopening of former hotel may not be until spring of 2013

The reopening of Acorn Corner, after decades of vacancy, may not happen before the end of the year as its developer had hoped. Ron Burbick, the developer restoring what has been known as the old Kent hotel for almost 40 years, said Friday the new businesses and offices coming into the building may not open until some time between January and April of 2013. "We hope to have some things open prior to that," Burbick said. "(The) date is being worked on." In a March interview, Burbick told Kent Patch he hoped to open much of the building as early as possible, and that included possibly having some tenants operating by this fall. But there's been a delay in getting historic windows for the building and in building the new elevator, which will …

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Let The Sun Shine (into Acorn Corner)

Windows going into old hotel this week; interior build-outs begin next week; National Register process continues.

One of the most-noticeable elements of Ron Burbick’s resuscitation of the old Franklin Hotel starts today: the installation of its refurbished historic windows and their modern-day replicas. That noteworthy sign of progress comes on the heels of Burbick and a soon-to-be-announced tenant signing Acorn Corner’s final lease Monday, this one for the basement level of the five-story hotel completed in 1920. And last Friday, the Ohio Historical Society announced that Acorn Corner had taken yet another step forward in the process of getting on the National Register of Historic Places. The Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board voted Friday to forward the nominations of nine Ohio sites – including the old Kent hotel – to a National Parks …

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Sidewalk to Close for Acorn Corner Work

Exterior restoration work of old hotel starts Monday

A portion of the sidewalk on South DePeyster Street will close starting Monday for work on Acorn Corner. Restoration work starts on the old hotel Monday, and as a result the city will close a portion of the sidewalk on the western side of South DePeyster Street between Alley 4 and East Main Street. The exterior work is one of the first steps in restoration of the nearly 100-year-old building, which Acorn Alley developer Ron Burbick bought from the city last year to redevelop the long vacant property. Burbick told Kent Patch in a previous interview that nearly 100 percent of all the brick facade grout will be replaced as part of the exterior renovation. You can follow the restoration of Acorn Corner by bookmarking the Kent Patch Topics Page…

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Group Wants to Move Sherman House to North Water Street

Proposal puts house in hands of non-profit Transportage; could serve as either visitor's center or neighborhood preservation center

A plan is forming to save the historic Kent-Wells Sherman House from the wrecking ball and transform it into a beacon for restoring Kent's nieghborhoods. A group of Kent residents working to save the house, known as the Friends of the Kent-Wells Sherman House, will submit plans to city officials today on a proposal to relocate the house from 250 E. Erie St. to a small plot of land on North Water Street. Kent architect Rick Hawksley, a leading member of the friends group, said their plan is for the non-profit organization TransPortage to take ownership of the house from Kent State University. "We would like to turn it into a neighborhood preservation center that will work on historic preservation, oriented toward sustainability based on the…

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Lisa Regula Meyer

6:47 am on Sunday, June 17, 2012

Because "there's no other option." Some people fail to recognize that failure to find a suitable alternative does not mean settle for an unsuitable alternative, but instead means realize that sometimes you don't get your way. That, and the fact that the people who want to save this house have money and power in this city means they get their way, and no one gets to stop them. Oddly, even though …   more ›

PHOTOS: Children Learn, Play at River Day

The Kent Parks and Recreation Department hosted a Cuyahoga River Day Saturday at Plum Creek Park

Volunteers, sponsors and parents all hope a day of fun and learning about the Cuyahoga River will foster better care of it in the future. The Kent Parks and Recreation Department on Saturday hosted the 22nd annual Cuyahoga River Day at Plum Creek Park. The three-hour event attracted dozens of young visitors who helped celebrate the restoration of Plum Creek — when they weren't petting frogs from the creek, building grass mats or practicing life jacket safety. "Rivers are the arteries and veins of the Earth," Bonnie Tomassetti of the Native American & Veterans Center said during a group discussion. "You can go longer without food than you can water. We've got to keep the river clean." River Day was one of 19 similar events across Northeast …

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Burbick Reveals Tenants for Franklin Hotel Restoration

Old hotel scheduled to be remodeled and open by year's end; developer speaks at Bowman Breakfast Wednesday

Expect to see more orange barrels downtown soon, this time around the old Franklin hotel. The hotel, which will be renamed Acorn Corner, was the focus of developer Ron Burbick’s presentation along with Record-Courier editor Roger Di Paolo at Wednesday’s semi-annual Bowman Breakfast presentation, titled “Downtown Kent — Yesterday, Today and the Vision for Tomorrow.”   “I used to sit in my office, and I could count on one hand the number of people on Main Street,” Burbick said. “Now, we’re bringing people downtown, which is what we wanted. A lot of them are students, a lot of them are people from Kent. I met two couples the other day from Cincinnati who had heard about this place and drove up here to see it. Somebody from Toledo the other …

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Franklin Hotel Restoration Sure Bet for State, Federal Tax Credits

Officials in Columbus reviewing tax credit applications; owner confident project will get financial support

Restoring the Franklin Hotel to its full potential may turn out to be easier than it looks from a financial standpoint. Owner Ron Burbick, who bought the hotel from the city late last year, made one of several planned presentations to the Ohio Historic Preservation Office in Columbus on Wednesday. He left the capital feeling confident about the project's odds of getting state and federal support — so confident that he met with the project architect and builder Thursday about starting some work as early as next week. Burbick said there is still a lot of red tape to cut through, but state officials assured him the restoration project's score of 80 on a 100 point rating scale means it will earn approval on both state and federal levels. "We …

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Matt Fredmonsky

10:37 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012

UPDATE: find out who the tenants are: http://kent.patch.com/articles/buffalo-wild-wings-moving-to-old-franklin-hotel   more ›