Kent progress

I haven't posted an update of all the construction progress in downtown Kent for awhile, so I figured I might as well do one now considering how much is done.

Davey Tree building

The first set of photographs here shows South Water Street looking northeast, now home to the building that is primarily the home of the Davey Tree Resource Group.  Each photo is looking at roughly the same angle, though not a perfect match.  The street lamps visible are the guide for each photo, as well as the trees around them.  The photo progression goes 2010, 2011, 2012.

This was taken September 25, 2010, showing the area just as demolition had started (one building on the right had already been demolished).  The 2-story building was once the home of Jacob's Wallpaper and the yellow building to the left is the former Kent Hardware.  They were torn down soon after I took this.

This is roughly the same view (same lamp posts and trees) taken April 23, 2011.  Construction of Acorn Alley II is going on in the background.  This site would sit largely empty for several months before construction finally started.

January 10, 2012, almost exactly one year ago to the day!  

December 28, 2012

December 28, 2012, a little further back.  Again, the same lamp posts and trees are visible here as well!

Acorn Alley II

The next set of photos is of Acorn Alley II, which was completed first out of this second (and largest) wave of construction (the Phoenix project, of which the original Acorn Alley was the last phase of, being the first).

September 25, 2010, just before demolition started.  This is roughly the same area as the next photos, a little to the left.

April 23, 2011.  This is a little bit further down Erie Street than the first photo, but the original Acorn Alley and the old hotel can be referenced in the background.

August 10, 2011

January 10, 2012, just prior to the opening

November 22, 2012

These next photos are also from Acorn Alley II, but from the S. DePeyetser Street side.

Looking north, September 25, 2010.  The rest of the photos are focused on the corner of E. Erie and S. DePeyster, which is the beige building on the right side of this photo in between the "Bar'N" and the old hotel (behind that little "One Way" sign).  

Acorn Alley II on the NW corner of E. Erie and S. DePeyster Streets, April 23, 2011

August 10, 2011

January 10, 2012

January 9, 2013.  While it's hard to tell in a night shot, the power lines are no longer present.  They were put underground as part of the reconstruction of S. DePeyster Street earlier in 2012.

Original plans

Ametek building

This is the SE corner of E. Erie and S. Water Streets, where Jerry's Diner used to be (adjacent to Kent Hardware), now home to what is known as the "Ametek building".

April 23, 2011.  The main fire station on S. DePeyster Street is the large building in the background.  The Kent Church of Christ is the white building immediately to the left of the fire station near the center of the photo

January 10, 2012

October 17, 2012

November 22, 2012

Why Hello There April!

Hard to believe it's April already.  Seems like the year just started and here is is already a fourth of the way over.  I've also noticed that I haven't blogged here since early January.  Kind of like the last time I mentioned this ("Blogging Decline"), it's a combination of motivation and probably more importantly related to the fact that I have been writing in my journal a lot more these days.

Beginning on my mission, I started writing in my journal on a daily basis.  That continued through my 2-year mission and on for a few more years, finally running out in 2007.  From then I stopped writing and would sporadically write here and there, so I have these random entries for 2008-2011, sometimes just one day and other times I'd string a few days together.  Despite that I would carry my journal with me in my backpack with the intention of writing, but never did most times.  Well, during my Christmas break in Utah, I decided to try once again to get back in the habit of writing every day or at least close to that as a New Year's resolution.  So far so good.  I'm 4 months in (officially re-started on New Year's Eve) and have written pretty regularly.  The most days I've missed have been 3 in a row and then it's usually followed by a long entry summarizing what I've missed.  In March I finally bought my first new journals since 2007.  When I was writing regularly before, I would buy 2 new journals about once a year or so (when I write every day, the 204-page journal usually lasts about 2/3 of the year)

The downside of my journal writing is that it tends to suck my desire to do any other kind of writing for the day, so my blogs have largely gone neglected, mostly because I don't have much else to share or I just completely lack the desire to write.  Plus I have my history blog (which I updated recently) and my private blog (which I also updated recently).  My poor Kent Patch blog hasn't been updated in awhile too.  I have good intentions (I start blog posts and get pretty far with them), but I never seem to have the desire to finish them.  That said, I do have some plans for some new posts here, including a review of the book and movie The Blind Side that I recently saw and read (loved it!).  Downtown Kent continues to evolve as well, so I need to post some updated pictures.  I'm also hopeful to finally make this web address a central website and have the blog be its own separate page instead of the main page.

In the meantime, I'm still subbing in Kent and at Maplewood.  The school year is starting to wind down, so I am looking for work to replace subbing, and not just "summer" work either.  Of course full-time teaching is high on the list, but it is by no means exclusive.  I have applied at a few places locally and am still looking while I wait for formal replies.  I have posted my extended resume here on the site ("Resume" tab at top).  I'm looking forward to tryouts for This is Kirtland! coming up and getting started on that, plus I will be singing the National Anthem for the Cleveland Indians again on April 28 against the Angels.

Downtown Kent updates

I actually started writing this yesterday talking about how I hadn't been able to get new pictures of the progress in downtown Kent since this past fall when I took pictures just as demolition work was starting.  Well, today ended up being a beautiful day perfect for going downtown (I walked there from home) and getting pictures.  The Earth Day festival known as "Who's Your Mama" was going on along East Main Street, so there were quite a few people downtown for that.  The weather was partly cloudy and windy, but around 72 degrees.  I had a wonderful time just getting out and walking!

The demolition ended up being in phases. The block bordered by South Water, East Erie, South DePeyster, and Haymaker was cleared first. A few weeks later, the old Record-Courier office was torn down. That was done before the winter really set in, so for the last several months we've had this big open area downtown (except for the little green shelter for the gas line) kinda waiting for something to happen. Meanwhile, PARTA had to go through some legal wrangling to get the last property for their facility, which they got in the last few weeks.  The last building they need to tear down is a former auto parts warehouse.  Before construction can begin on the new hotel, a 3-story brick house on East Erie Street behind where the Record-Courier office will also need to be torn down.

Above is a picture from September just as demolition had started.  The picture below is today from roughly the same angle.  A point of reference is the two trees with the lamp post in between them on the left of both pictures.  The construction in the background is Acorn Alley II.

This is the corner of East Erie and South Water Streets.  Previously a small diner was here and a hardware store.   Below is what the view will look like when construction is finished. (edit: I had the blocks mixed up when I first wrote this in 2011.  The Davey Tree building seen below was planned for and built on the opposite corner--corner of S. Water and Haymaker Parkway--from the block pictured above.  The building built on this site--the corner of S. Water and E. Erie--was mainly for Ametek and looks similar). It should start in the next few weeks.

Even with all the demolition of the first block, what's been interesting is the next expansion of the highly successful Acorn Alley has gotten off to a much quicker pace. Demolition of the buildings on that site was in late December and construction started soon after. Despite some delays because of our long and cold winter, the steel superstructure is already up and the retaining walls have been up probably for a month or so already. It is scheduled to be done by this Summer. PARTA's new facility, the Kent Central Gateway, is supposed to be done late next year. Because South DePeyster Street is partially closed, I really don't drive by the site much, so I'm not sure how much actual construction work has started. It doesn't seem like much from a distance. The block that had demolition first will be one of the last to finally have construction commence. The final pieces to the funding puzzle were put together last week when Davey Tree and Ametek signed formal leases to move office personnel to the development that will be bound by South Water, East Erie, South DePeyster, and Haymaker. With the announcement of Davey and Ametek, 8 restaurant tennants were announced. They're all local franchises, so for some people they will be familiar, while for others not from the Akron or Cleveland areas they will be new. For me, most are ones I've heard of or been to once or twice, but not very often because they're not close by. Acorn Alley will be bringing 4 restaurants of its own. Suddenly downtown Kent is becoming less of a bars-only area, not that our bars are that bad (especially Rays Place!!).

Current view from the corner of East Erie and South DePeyster Streets.  That old hotel in the background is looking worse every time I see it!

The same view when it's all done!

The center is where the pedestrian alley will come out to the street.  The stairs have not been poured yet nor has the steel skeleton been built for the other building on the left!  The highly-successful Acorn Alley I can be seen in the background.

Looking east at the new site from the parking lot of the warehouse that still needs to be torn down.

The last remaining house on East Erie right next to the dead end at Haymaker Parkway.  I have no idea when it will be demolished.  I took some pictures of it so there was some kind of record of its existence!

I'm hoping construction doesn't remove this fire hydrant so I have somewhat of a frame of reference when it's all done.  Everything else will change, including the part where I stood to take the picture.  The warehouse can be seen in the center (it extends much further back).  The hillside will be cleared and largely excavated.  I took several pictures of it.  Acorn Alley II construction can be seen on the left.

Corner of East Erie and South DePeyster opposite the Acorn Alley construction.  Below is the approximate view of the new hotel from the same angle.

Corner of South DePeyster and Haymaker Parkway.  Below is the approximate view of the new hotel and conference center from the same angle.  The warehouse I mentioned previously can be seen in the background along with the last remaining house and the hill where the PARTA facility will be built.

This is a site plan for everything except Acorn Alley.  The large gray building on the top right is the PARTA Kent Central Gateway, immediately south of it is the hotel and conference center, with the Davey/Ametek development immediately west of the hotel.  The view posted above of the Davey building is the top left corner (northwest corner) of that block.  

While I was downtown today, I also got a picture of some facade improvements at Dominicks bar, which is right next to Ray's Place and across the street from the historic train depot (which we know better today as the Pufferbelly restaurant).  A year ago they announced they would be updating their facade to help it fit in better with the other buildings around it.  From the looks so far, I really like it.  It's certainly an improvement from where it had been.  My goodness!

Looking south down Franklin Avenue today.  The white areas are the second floor of Dominick's.  Below is the picture from the Record-Courier article showing what it used to look like.  See what I mean?!?

All the architectural drawings and renderings come from the Kent Ohio Development Facebook page.  The renderings from Pizzuti (the company developing the hotel & conference center) are marked, but they also came from the same Facebook page.

Changes in Kent

The changes are abounding in Kent right now.  The new Fairchild Avenue bridge is still under construction and I've gotten used to the crazy detours I have to take every day just to go south.  At the intersection of Fairchild and North Mantua, a new Sheetz station is also under construction.  It's supposed to be done later this year, though, it will be tough if it's finished before Fairchild is set to reopen sometime in January.  I can say even with the mess of construction it's already looking better than it has been for the last several years.  Outside the McKay-Bricker Framing building, everything else was run-down and looked terrible.  I was not sad to see any of it go besides the McKay building, which I was very sad to see torn down.

There are some other smaller changes going on along Haymaker Parkway (State Route 59, aka "the bypass").  All of the street lights are being replaced as is the protective fencing on the main bridge.  The fencing was removed earlier this week and I think it looks pretty good without the fencing, though the bridge itself is pretty bland (a typical boring highway bridge).  The new fencing will be black so won't be as obvious.

The biggest changes downtown are just beginning.  On Friday, the first building was torn down in the area that is set to be developed.  If any of you remember the buidling with the yellow zig-zag front roof that was a liquor store and also home of Spellbinders, it was the first to go.  I went downtown today and took some pictures before any of the other buildings are torn down, and let me just say: I really won't miss ANY of the buildings getting torn down.  That entire block is in horrible shape (including the roads), so I welcome the demolition of the rest of the buildings.  The only building that is in any kind of decent shape is the old Kent Hardware building.  I suppose if they saved any building it would be that one, but the cost of adding on and renovating it would outweigh simply tearing it down and starting fresh.   Here are the pictures of downtown now and some of what will replace them in the next 24 months or so.  Downtown is going to be very different in a short time, and hopefully MUCH better.  I'm really excited to see this all happen!

South Water Street with the rubble of the old Spellbinders building visible.  

This is the expected view from Water Street of the new development.  The image comes from Dave Ruller's blog post "Kent Downtown Redevelopment Update..." on September 13th.

Old Record-Courier office that has been closed since the end of 2008.  I doubt this building has changed much at all since the 1950s.  At this point, the new conference center will be built here, though recently the plans seemed to shift to combine the hotel and conference center into one building here.  If that ends up being the case, there will soon be an 8-story building here!

Looking east down East Erie Street, where the new Kent Central Gateway will be built (see below) 

The intersection of East Erie and South DePeyster streets.  This will be developed into a 3 and 4-story complex with offices, retail, and residential space and the road will be completely rebuilt.  

This is the planned view of the new development from Erie Street.  Looks a lot better, huh?  This also comes from Dave Ruller's blog

Looking north up South DePeyster Street.  The new hotel was originally supposed to be on the left side, but as I said above, it's looking like it will be on the opposite side of the street.  All the buildings in this picture except the looming old hotel building at the top of the hill will be torn down for two separate developments.

The back of Acorn Alley, which opened last year.  After the development behind this picture gets going, the developer of Acorn Alley will begin extending it down to Erie Street and building additional 3-story buildings along Erie.  Note the old hotel looming above.  As much as I'd love to see it redeveloped, it's become Kent's albatross.  It's so big and obvious that it will put a literal and figurative shadow over all the new development as long as it's there.

Drawing of the Acorn Alley extension from Dave Ruller's blog.

House on East Erie Street I barely even noticed before!  It's between the former "The Barn" bar (which had a variety of names over the years) and the old Kent Hardware

Dead end of East Erie Street where it meets Haymaker Parkway.  The new Kent Central Gateway will be built in the empty lot and the road will be connected to Haymaker.

This is the view once the new Kent Central Gateway is built from pretty much the same location as the previous picture.  Not sure I like that thing in the foreground, though.  ?????  This comes from PARTA's website for the project, Kent Central Gateway.

Definitely a lot of changes already underway with more to come.  We still haven't heard about the new municipal court building planned by the county, plus there's always the hope the old hotel will finally get redeveloped or torn down and the potential for additional development as a result of all of this.

For more info also see: 

• Building Demo Project Starting...
• Haymaker Light Pole Replacement Update...
• Downtown Demolition

Big news for Kent!

First, if any of you have been watching my blog and noticed some random posts coming up and then disappearing, it's because I was moving all my old posts from my old MySpace blog to here and would occasionally forget to put the original date in. I was doing it to create a book of all my blog posts and couldn't find a place that would make a book using MySpace blogs; only Blogger, WordPress, or the other major blogging sites. I had to hide some of my first posts at this site to create the book of just my MySpace posts (as they briefly overlap) but now everything is done. It was fun to re-read all my old posts and realize I've been blogging now to some degree for almost 4 years!

Anyway, Kent got some big news Wednesday that I was very happy to find out about! The Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority (PARTA) was awarded a $20 million grant for construction of the Kent Central Gateway, better known as the "multi-modal facility" I blogged about way back in April 2008 and an idea that has been around for close to 10 years. If you do check that blog post, the facility proposed at that time was considerably larger than the one that was finally approved yesterday. This new facility will only take up about 1/3 the footprint that the initial design had and will occupy land along the north side of East Erie Street between South DePeyster Street and Haymaker Parkway. It will not involve properties along East Main Street.

Any time a large grant is received for something like this it's big news, but especially so here in Kent which has seen so many "plans" for downtown development come and go with no results over the past few decades. Of all the grants handed out, Ohio as a state only got $50 million and $20 million of that was to Kent, so this has already drawn some comparisons to Kent winning the state normal school in 1910 (which became Kent State University) in terms of surprising and landscape-changing events. Obviously a structure like this will change the look of part of downtown, but the biggest reason for excitement is the fact that this project promises to be a linchpin for even more development which, if it all actually happens, will affect most of the southeastern quadrant of downtown bordered by Haymaker Parkway, East Main, and South Water Streets. At long last, we know one of the major projects WILL happen after so many have amounted to nothing and downtown has continued to struggle. With the recent completion of the Phoenix Project last year and now this, it finally seems like downtown is turning a corner from the doldrums that it has seemingly been in since the 1970s.

As I've read the various articles online about this news and the accompanying comments, there are some major misunderstandings and false ideas out there. The most surprising are comments that basically lead me to believe the reader thinks this grant has been won to establish a bus system in Kent through this new facility. PARTA was established in 1975 and has been steadily growing the last decade, so it is hardly anything new. This facility is merely centralizing the already existing bus system, similar to what most transit systems already have. Along those lines, many commentators have wondered about the "multi-modal" moniker that is commonly used to describe the facility. It is "multi-modal" because it will provide a center for four forms of transportation: bus, car, bike, and walking. Bus transportation is obviously the biggest reason for the center, but it will also have a parking deck, which is a huge reason behind it being a "linchpin" for other downtown development as parking has long been a problem there. It will also be a stop on the Portage Hike and Bike Trail, so people can park their car and/or their bike there to access the trail. In addition to the regular local PARTA lines that will use it, PARTA will also operate their Cleveland and Akron express routes from the building and there are at least hopes to someday have a Greyhound stop there. On top of that it will have commercial space, so not only will there be additional activity besides bus traffic, but tax revenue-generating activity as well so this building is far more than just a glorified bus shelter.


One concern, though, I've thought a lot about is the fact the funding comes from the controversial "stimulus" bill, which I have hardly been short on criticism for. I think here, this could actually be a case where the funds stimulate a local economy by creating a structure which not only improves transportation, but spurs other development. So much of the "stimulus" has been to projects that improve something, but do little to stimulate actual economic growth beyond temporary construction jobs. Indeed, only time will tell if this project actually does stimulate any economic activity in Kent beyond the construction jobs to build it, but from the looks, it would appear at least headed that way. And while I still have a problem with the massive amount of debt Congress is piling up, in the end, these grants would've been given out whether I liked them or not, so it's nice to see some of it come back to Kent for once. It is also refreshing to see leadership in Kent that sees the bigger picture of town-and-gown relations and is actually doing something to help Kent and KSU mutually improve for the benefit of both. I've always thought there was so much potential here and now it seems we're finally seeing it. Go Kent!

Below I included a link to a map of the area now for reference. The marker "A" is the end of Erie Street where it currently dead-ends at Haymaker Parkway. The new building will be to the left of the marker on the north side of the street. The other pictures I included came from PDF files of PARTA's presentation materials to get the grant, which were included on Kent city manager Dave Ruller's post "Beating The Drum" on November 11, 2009. I cropped and labeled both pictures with street names and the red oval on the conceptual map and captions on the building renderings.


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