Current Development Projects in Downtown
The Carlton Building
The $1.5 million renovation of the Carlton Building, overlooking Lock 3 Park, is scheduled for completion in March, 2008. The Schipper Group purchased the building in 2006 and are in the process of adding an elevator and a new brick, steel and glass facade.
The current floor plan is open, with tenants customizing space to their needs.
Civic Theatre Block
A $15 million development plan that in the first of two phases would rehabilitate six historic properties on South Main Street is in the works by Main Street Partners LLC to bring a mixed-use project that will neighbor the Akron Civic Theatre. The new development will add new retail and entertainment venues to this part of South Main Street.
The properties between the Akron Civic Theatre and the Landmark Building include the venerable Whitelaw’s building, which dates to 1895 and was continuously operated as a saloon for more than 100 years. The developers’ vision for an urban retail and entertainment center utilizes the rejuvenated Civic Theatre as an anchor. It is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The City demolished the parking garage on Bowery Street adjacent to the Landmark building, opening up a portion of the Ohio & Erie Canal for the first time in more than a century. Main Street Partners proposes using the lower levels of the rehabilitated buildings as walk-out areas at the canal level to serve customers at restaurants and clubs.
Under the agreement with Main Street Partners, the developers also have the right to construct a second phase of the project by purchasing the Landmark Building from the City, which would be then converted into 44 additional market-rate apartments.
The City continues to develop a master plan for the remaining areas of the block around Lock 3, bounded by Main, Bowery and State streets. The City completed the $1 million construction of an outdoor park at Lock 3 in 2003, which in the summer includes a concert pavilion and in the winter doubles as an ice rink.
New housing planned for Main/High/Exchange/Cedar block
A prominent block of downtown real estate is about to become the central city's newest address for residential living. The apartment community will be exclusively for students attending the University of Akron and be created in the block bounded by South Main, High, Exchange and Cedar streets.
Once the block is cleared next summer, construction on the $25-30 million
project will begin, with a planned move-in date of August of 2009. The construction will also move Howe House up the street along the Canal on Water and Exchange streets. The multi-use building at 12 W. Exchange will remain.
Metro Transit Center
Metro broke ground in October for its new $17.2 million glass and steel bus transfer center on 8.4 acres of property on South Broadway and East Bartges streets.
The new 14,000-square-foot facility, which will open in January 2009, will shift bus transfers from South Main Street in downtown Akron to the new location. The center will have public restrooms, a small retail area, vending machines, a taxi stand, and a waiting room that can hold 300 people.
The Greyhound bus facility will be moved from Grant Street to the new facility. The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad could also become a tenant.
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