On behalf of the staff and ambassadors of Downtown Akron Partnership (DAP), Happy New Year! 2025 was a year of exciting growth, cross-organizational collaboration, joyful events, new business openings, and the continual work of promoting and building a vibrant, valuable downtown. As we move into 2026, I want to take the opportunity to share some of the key wins we saw in 2025 and look ahead to 2026, as we celebrate 30 years of championing the neighborhood.
Through servant leadership, quality services, responsiveness, and building relationships, DAP has advanced the neighborhood through changes and challenges. DAP led downtown through its first Vision + Redevelopment Plan in 2018 and recently updated said plan, bringing diverse stakeholders together to direct our collective vision for a vibrant district. DAP is at the forefront of sharing the message that downtown is the heart of the community, our great community’s economic driver, where we celebrate our unity and diversity, and all are welcome.
- In 2025, DAP published the Downtown Akron Vision + Redevelopment Plan update, solidifying five main priorities for the Strong Downtown, Strong Region Elevate Greater Akron working group:
- identify and engage new developers and investors
- continue to focus on growing the downtown residential population
- build density in retail, specifically around the Lock 3 block
- continue to drive traffic downtown through arts and culture, programming, recreation, and other unique assets
- foster engagement and connection with The University of Akron.
DAP continues to facilitate meaningful change through leadership of the Strong Downtown working group.
- Much progress has been made toward downtown’s development goals. Since the first plan’s inception in 2018, more than 600 residential units have been added or converted, representing more than $176M in investment. As of today, 600 additional units are in the pipeline, totaling investment of more than $200M. These units will put us on track to achieve our goal of 5,000 residents by 2030.
- In 2025, DAP ambassadors continued to maintain a clean, safe, and welcoming downtown, caring for more than 265 units of beautification, removing more than 6,500 pounds of trash, conducting 10,394 business checks, engaging in 410 hours of power washing, removing 336 instances of graffiti, and much more.
- DAP continues to coordinate safety communications and efforts downtown, to ensure quick response to challenges in the district.
- In 2025, downtown welcomed six new storefront businesses. Our economic development team conducted more than 247 retail visits and 113 commercial outreach visits. As a member of the Elevate Greater Akron BRE team, DAP staff conducted more than 30 visits, as well as more than 30 site selections, and made more than 40 business referrals.
- In 2025, DAP added a weekly text message as another way to connect people to information about what’s happening downtown. By the end of the year, the list had grown 986% over its starting number of subscribers. Weekly Do Downtown e-newsletters saw a nearly 10% increase in subscribers in 2025.
- DAP launched four Win in Akron videos, featuring downtown business owners, with eight planned in 2026. We worked collaboratively with partners to update downtown photography and public use images on AkronStock.
- Through public space activation, DAP welcomed 22,000 people to downtown through six signature events, summer wellness programming, concerts and more. DAP also engaged more than 100 volunteers in refreshing two murals in the district. DAP continues to work closely with Lock 3, which saw more than 100,000 visitors in the first summer season since reopening. DAP continues to support programming partners throughout downtown with a biweekly convening of communications, event-planning, and outreach professionals from organizations across the neighborhood.
- DAP collaborated with The University of Akron on a variety of programs, including an EDM concert, creation of eight RooView videos and coordination of five ZipsInvade events, working with three UA interns to provide marketing support to downtown businesses and events.
In 2026, DAP, through direct services to our stakeholders and strategic leadership of the Elevate Greater Akron Strong Downtown working group, will focus on making progress on retail activation, supporting small businesses in establishing themselves and growing downtown, and finding new ways to share our collective successes through marketing and messaging.
We invite you to join us in these efforts. Become a downtown advocate. Share your positive experiences at downtown businesses and events with your networks and feel free to tag Downtown Akron Partnership on social media when you do. We’d love to share your good experiences, too. Make a commitment to shopping local, attending events, and having experiences downtown. Purchase Downtown Akron Dollars E-Gift Cards, or gift cards to downtown establishments, as gifts for colleagues and friends. Sign up for DAP’s Do Downtown e-newsletter, sent every Tuesday, and weekly text messages about downtown happenings, sent every Friday. Both will help you stay connected to what’s going on in our vibrant, growing, evolving downtown. And know above all that we welcome you to downtown and celebrate your willingness to grow with us.
Kimberly Beckett, President & CEO