How a Unique Vision Attracted International Financing to Akron's Urban Core

Above: UP Akron's new Executive Director, Eric Johnson 

By: Diane Evans

You do not have to look too closely at our nation’s checkbook to realize the extent to which cities will struggle in 2012 to transform into increasingly competitive and lively communities. Urban redevelopment will happen in cities that are creative, specific and unified.

Akron, Ohio, is an example of a city that is positioning itself well, having a master plan for growth that seeks to trigger hundreds of millions of dollars in development in 2012 and beyond.

Surprised? If so, it is understandable.  Akron is the former Rubber Capitol of the World, a city with an industrial heritage.  As such, its economic challenges reflect that of many other “legacy cities” struggling to recover from deep manufacturing losses. 

Consider this profile of Akron from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2010:

       ·  Unemployment at 16.2 percent in Akron, compared to a national average of 10.8 percent;

       ·  Median household income of $31,171, compared to $50,046 for the nation as a whole;

       ·  Population that declined 8.3 percent since 2000 while the nation’s population increased by 9.9 percent during the same period.

With major support from the Knight Foundation, Akron’s nonprofit real estate development corporation, University Park Alliance (UPA), is drawing on existing resources – including a community spirit of collaboration – to help turn the tide.  In July 2010, UPA hired Dr. Eric Anthony Johnson as its executive director -- giving Akron a leader in urban development with world-class credentials and hands-on experience at national, state and local levels. 

When he came to Akron, Johnson recognized a city ready for new opportunity.

Even in the worst of times, Akron’s mayor of 24 years, Don Plusquellic, had aggressively pursued downtown redevelopment projects.  What’s more, University of Akron President Luis Proenza was about to complete more than $500 million in capital spending on new and upgraded university facilities and landscaping.

Johnson saw a growing university that interacted with downtown Akron, a committed philanthropic base and three nearby high-quality regional hospitals, all with close ties to a regional medical school (Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown). 

Under Johnson’s leadership, UPA identified five anchor institutions: the university, the three local hospitals and the Akron Public Schools. UPA then commissioned a study by Pittsburgh-based consulting firm Tripp Umbach to quantify the institutions’ economic impact. In an April 2011 report, Tripp Umbach estimated that these five institutions alone supported 20,612 jobs in the immediate area around the university, and more than 29,000 jobs in the state. In addition, these same institutions directly employed 15,547 people in Akron’s urban core.  Their combined economic impact: more than $2.5 billion of economic activity in the area around The University of Akron and downtown, and $3.5 billion of economic activity within Ohio.

Included in the numbers: institutional expenditures for employment, operations, capital improvements, goods and services, along with spending by staff, visitors and vendors.

Having defined the scope of this combined economic strength, UPA engaged EE&K

Architects to develop a master development plan. EE&K is a firm already well known for its design of many successful urban revitalization projects such as New York City’s Battery Park and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

The firm’s plan for Akron’s core  includes loft apartments along the refurbished Ohio & Erie Canal near Akron Children’s Hospital and downtown Akron, space for research and development firms, and retail development.

Key to the plan is the creation of a biomedical corridor with the help of the Austen BioInnovation Institute. The institute seeks to establish Akron as a leading location for biomaterials and medicine, health care innovation and commercialization. Because of the University of Akron’s nationally-ranked programs in synthetic materials and polymer research, Akron’s leaders chose to focus new job development around innovations that draw on existing competencies.

This vision -- coupled with UPA's determination to implement it -- recently attracted the real estate development firm KUD International to Akron as a key strategic partner in managing and financially backing new building and renovation.

KUD’s decision to come to Akron positions the city for hundreds of millions in new capital investment. It amounts to the remaking of an entire urban landscape with the help of a development firm that could spend its time and investment in many other places—but instead, saw the promise of Akron and came here.

Interestingly, KUD says it landed in Akron for the same reasons that attracted Johnson to the city:  Collaborative leadership, common goals and a compelling vision for a better tomorrow.

Challenges remain. But with the KUD partnership, we can expect shovels to be in the ground in 2012. The cranes you’ll see represent not just a new skyline, but also a new economic future for this once tire-dominated town.

BY Guest Blogger on January 4th, 2012

TAGS: economic development | akron | university park alliance | anchors | knight foundation