The developer who turned an old Firestone warehouse into a building that houses Summit County government offices is proposing the historic Firestone Plant #1 be transformed into the City of Akron’s police headquarters.
Philadelphia-based Amerimar Realty Co., under the name Akron Phoenix Development Co., was the only developer to respond to a request for proposals to save the 115-year-old Firestone building. Jim Loveman, a partner with Amerimar, said he’s had a picture of the site on his wall since 2012, when Amerimar first became involved with redevelopment of the area with the Russell Pry Building on South Main Street next door.
“We put a lot of sweat and tears into this campus already,” Loveman said. “What you see in that building is a great example of what the Firestone building could become.”
The city, which has money available to demolish the entire property, put a short timeline on proposals after pushback from City Council members and others about the planning department’s request to tear the whole thing down.
The city was originally supposed to demolish part of the structure and preserve the front but later said it would be too expensive to save that part of the building. Members of the city’s Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission rejected a request to allow the full demolition.
The proposal then went before City Council, which approved demolition with the caveat that the city first try to save the building.
Loveman said the building is in “fine shape,” and if it is redeveloped, the project will have access to millions of dollars of tax credits that can offset the cost, ultimately benefiting the city. In addition to preserving history and making an environmentally sound choice, Loveman said tax credits of $13 million to $17 million could make the project feasible. He expects it would cost between $28 million and $40 million to remake the building.
“It’s an inherent value and asset,” Loveman said. “There’s a lot of value in this building we could put to use.”
What is the city considering for its police headquarters?
The City of Akron is looking at three locations for the police headquarters, Mayor Shammas Malik said at an Oct. 9 Ward 1 meeting at the Highland Square Library. All would cost about $70 million to either build or refurbish.
Malik said the city could remain at its current location — the aging downtown Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center — build new at the former Wonder Bread facility at 178 Forge St. at the University of Akron, or retrofit the building at 80 W. Bowery St. near Lock 3. The Firestone building was not on a long list of proposed options.
The Stubbs building “has been falling apart for decades,” Malik said at the meeting. “I’ve made it my goal to have a solution to that problem.”
Discussions about the location have been ongoing for more than a year and a half, and Malik said this month he expected it would be part of the 2026 capital budget.
A spokesperson for the city said in an email that they would have no comment on the validity of Loveman’s proposal, while Deputy Chief Michael Miller said in a text message that he would defer to the mayor’s office to speak about the idea.
City Council Member Donnie Kammer, who represents Firestone Park, said he loves the concept.
“I think the city should go for it,” he said. “I’m in support of it, but it’s up to the mayor and his administration.”
City’s timeline ‘simply not’ realistic
The city asked for a minimum bid of $5 million for the property, to be returned upon successful completion of the project. Loveman, in his response to the request for proposals, suggested the city consider lowering that price. He also said the city’s proposed two-year timeline for completion “is simply not a realistic timeline for this building.”
Instead, he proposed that Amerimar put no money in escrow, saying to do so “would create an impediment to the good faith negotiation of economical lease terms.” And because the city would be the tenant, the proposal said, a lower purchase price would mean a reduced lease.
The company said it hoped its “track record of negotiating a mutually beneficial lease with Summit County at the Russell M. Pry Building can serve as a template for the proposed negotiation with the Akron Police Department.”
“My hope is that the city will look at this favorably,” Loveman said. “I’d love to see this happen. I think we can create a win-win situation.”
The proposal includes different potential layouts for the building, including interior parking on the second and third floors. While the total building, once the back half is demolished, would be about 200,000 square feet, the proposal says the police department could choose to take parts of the five-floor building, including deciding to take space on only one side of the clock tower, putting tenants on the other side.
Kammer said neighbors want more restaurants and services in the area, something that could be accomplished if the building is split into halves. As far as the police use itself, he thinks it could work well.
“We could move the police academy in there, have training in that building,” Kammer said. “We could have everything under one roof. It really could be something.”
Precedent for redevelopment for police uses
Other cities have transformed old buildings into their police headquarters, Loveman said in his response. The former Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper building, featuring a clock tower, was renovated for the police department by a private developer. And in Cleveland, the ArtCraft building downtown is being rehabilitated into that city’s police headquarters with the help of at least $15 million in state and federal historic tax credits.
It’s the tax credits that make it a competitive project, said Dana Noel, the advocacy chair of Progress Through Preservation, which has urged officials to save the building.
“I think it deserves a serious analysis because it could very well be a really good opportunity for the police department,” Noel said. “They could do everything they wanted there. They could have a gun range. They could have a gym.”
Noel added that the looming clock tower gives the building an “authoritative” feel, making it seem appropriate for police use.
And, he said, Amerimar’s success in redeveloping the Pry building shows that Loveman and his team are serious.
Amerimar’s investment in the Pry building is part of his interest, Loveman said.
“I don’t want to see a decaying building right next door,” he said.
But, more than that, he thinks the project could benefit the city.
It’s a chance to put the police department in a “quintessentially Akron” property, Loveman said, while giving plenty of space for creative uses as needed by the department. It also takes advantage of a moment when the city has state money to right-size the building by demolishing the back of it, and access to tax credits to develop it.
“Here we are at this magical moment,” he said. “I’m arguing these things because I sincerely believe it’s what’s best for Akron.”
‘Of course there are challenges’
There are also opportunities to build any necessary additions to the property, Loveman said, as long as they use a “light touch.” That means secure entrances or other improvements to make the space functional are possible.
Cities don’t have access to tax credits on their own — only tax-paying businesses do, Loveman said — so the city would not be able to access the same financial incentives without a development partner.
If the city moves forward with his plan, Loveman said he would expect a similar arrangement to the one the company has with Summit County — a 20-year lease on the building. The Pry building was a $24 million project that used $9 million in tax credits; Loveman’s proposal for the Firestone building says Summit County’s deal led to about $10 million in savings for the county.
Still, Loveman acknowledged, the process wouldn’t be easy. He said the city’s limited window for accepting proposals was too short to find someone who hadn’t been staring at the site plan for more than a decade. And he said it’s hard to negotiate contracts like this in a matter of weeks or months.
“Of course there are challenges,” he said. “This is Akron. It’s not an easy place to get deals done.”
Still, he’s optimistic that with the police department as a legitimate user of the space, the city could save the building.
If it happens, Rachelle Dain said, there could be a lot of benefits.
Dain, who worked as a secretary in the Firestone plant from 1973 to 1980, said she could still picture the “smoke-filled, yellow, disgusting building” where she made friends she’s kept to this day.
Dain lives in North Akron now but thinks preserving the building would be a sign of respect for what Firestone helped Akron become. Putting the police department in it, she said, might improve officers’ morale and help residents of Firestone Park feel safer.
“I think it’ll make a lot of people happy,” she said of the proposal. “I think it’s a good move, I do. I really do.”
Staff writer Doug Brown contributed to this story.