Walter Zielinski has searched Northeast Ohio for a building to turn into a boutique hotel. He thinks he may have found one in the former Akron Public Schools headquarters.
The 109-year-old Bowen School building, which later served as the school district’s administrative offices, could one day boast a top-floor restaurant with a rooftop deck. It has enough space to build out suites on the first floor. And there could be as many as 35 hotel rooms carved from the old education facility, Zielinski said following a walk-through late last week.
“I have an idea of what I want to do, how it would all work,” said Zielinski, a retired IT professional who said he’s long wanted to open a hotel. “There’s some unique things that make this stand out.”
But first, Zielinski has to win the building.
The City of Akron owns the property at 70 N. Broadway St. and has requested proposals from developers who want to transform it. They’re due by Sept. 18, a week later than originally scheduled.
Former headquarters of Akron Public Schools is ‘definitely salvageable’
At last Friday’s open house, six sets of developers or their representatives examined the 48,000-square-foot, three-story building, which has been empty since 2019.
It’s full of broken glass from smashed windows. Pieces of metal hang from the ceiling in some rooms, with ceiling tiles littering the floor. There is graffiti on some walls. There’s mold in the basement.
There’s also a 1941 Works Progress Administration mural by William Sommer that shows young men measuring with a compass and a ruler, a mother holding a young child and a classroom of students standing behind a teacher, near a globe. All are white. Sommer is an artist whose work is held by the Akron Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art as well as the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and others.
“If you save the building, you can save some of your history from over a century ago,” said Daniel Van Epps, who said he was viewing the old school for another potential buyer who might transform it into residences, a bed and breakfast or an extended stay hotel.
To be repurposed, Van Epps said, the property would probably have to be gutted, drop ceilings removed, the electrical system replaced. Also, the roof would have to be addressed. Still, Van Epps said it can be done. A project to transform the old school building into residences would increase housing options in Akron.
“It’s not in too bad a shape,” he said. “It’s definitely salvageable.”
‘It’s worse than I thought’
Zielinski wasn’t as sure.
“There’s a lot of ifs, a lot of stumbling blocks,” he said. “It’s worse than I thought. I’m kind of disappointed they let it go that bad.”
Zielinski said he worried about the amount of peeling paint and plaster and whether floors that seemed to split between levels were hiding even more issues that would have to be tackled.
“It’s awful,” he added. “It’s going to be a lot of work.”
In addition to removing the ceilings, upgrading the electrical system and replacing the roof, Zielinski said he thought the building would need a new plumbing system, a replacement heating and cooling system and asbestos abatement. He estimated the project would cost between $7 million and $8 million.
Because a grant available for the building’s demolition will expire next April — and be lost if the city moves forward with redevelopment — city officials are requiring a minimum purchase price of $800,000. That money will be returned when the project is successfully completed, but Akron will keep any portion of the purchase price above $800,000.
The city’s offer also includes a parking lot across the street.
Other developers or representatives viewing the property last Friday declined to comment about what their plans for the building might be or whether they were interested in making a bid.
Zielinski, who lives in Peninsula, has always loved hospitality. His family had a catering business, and he said he plans to open a hotel with a partner.
Zielinski likes the accessibility to downtown and the building’s potential — even if it’s flipped from his original vision, which would have put a restaurant on the first floor and suites above instead of the other way around.
Still, he started to imagine what would happen if he had the winning proposal. The views from the roof, after all, are “spectacular.”
“It’s not traditional, which is maybe, like, a good thing,” Zielinski said. “The rooftop deck, the restaurant at top. I’d probably call it The Summit Room or something.”