Correction:
An earlier version of this story used old figures for the Polsky project’s budget. It will be $31 million. It also said design work would begin after the project had been bid; the schematic design phase has begun. The construction manager is expected to bid the project this fall.
From Main Street, Stephen Myers gestures toward the behemoth former department store he’s been tasked with reopening.
“Those doors have been locked for 20, 30 years,” Myers said on a November afternoon in front of the University of Akron-owned Polsky Building. “It’s been like that forever.”
For decades, the redevelopment of the old A. Polsky Co. Department Store, which closed just before Christmas in 1978, then reopened as a university building in 1993, was considered vital to the university and city alike. Yet little has been done to transform the fortress-like building that takes up an entire city block — from Main Street to High Street — into a community amenity that welcomes residents and visitors downtown.
Myers hopes that’s about to change.
The University of Akron’s chief planning and facilities officer said the university now has a plan that’s “more modest” than ambitious redevelopment ideas of years past. This one, Myers added, will actually get done.
The original budget to renovate Polsky was $40 million; the project is now expected to cost less than that.
In three years, Myers said, expect a bookstore and a cafe with outdoor seating on Main Street. More university employees will be based in the building, adding to downtown’s year-round population. And Polsky will be reconfigured to house more community amenities, including retail and meeting spaces.
“How can the university do its part for Main Street?” Myers asked rhetorically.
“When Polsky was originally renovated, it really turned its back to the city in a way. We want to fix that and address it.”
University of Akron’s success is tied to city’s success
To make downtown feel more accessible to pedestrians, there should be something for them to engage in about every 14 feet, said Suzie Graham Moore, the director of economic development for the City of Akron. Without those engagement points, people start to feel like walking in the city is long and lonely.
For years, Graham Moore said, the lack of access to Polsky from Main Street contributed to the feeling that there wasn’t anything downtown.
“It takes an entire block and it closes it off,” she said. “It’s been very closed off for a very long time.”
But the work done at Lock 3, and in converting the Bowery project at 156 S. Main St. and the Akron Law Building at 159 S. Main St. into apartments, have brought more people to the city center. Opening Polsky to the rest of the city is a next step in combining Akron’s needs and the university’s, she said, as well as pushing for more investment downtown.
“We are really saying our university is inexorably tied to the success of the city,” Graham Moore said. “It’s literally a two-way street.”
What is the updated plan for the Polsky Building?
Bridging the University of Akron and the downtown core is a priority for revitalizing the city, said Kyle Kutuchief, the program director in Akron for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has awarded $20 million in grant funding toward Polsky’s revitalization. Improving the building’s accessibility, Kutuchief added, is a key ingredient.
With its mirrored windows and locked doors, Kutuchief said Polsky has been a back door for the university rather than a gateway. The new renovation project has the ability to change that dynamic.
“It’s a full city block, it’s a massive building,” Kutuchief said. “It needs to be a lot of different things.”
Previous renovation plans considered moving the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art into the old department store, but Myers (no relation) said officials decided that wouldn’t work — it took up too much space and it was expensive and messy. Trying to shoehorn art education into the building wouldn’t improve Main Street access or make Polsky more welcoming, he added.
Instead, Made at Myers, a store selling artwork made at the school, will enjoy a Main Street facade. And the Barnes & Noble bookstore and Starbucks that are now accessible off High Street will feature public-facing storefronts on Main Street (though Myers did not know if Starbucks would remain or another cafe company would move in). The bookstore and cafe, Myers said, would be open longer hours to better serve patrons of downtown evening events.
Other services and shops would invite people to come inside from Main Street. Myers said the DocuZip copy center would be housed there, as would a retail space for the University of Akron Press where readings could be held. Other art gallery space would be made available, and a wide staircase would create an amphitheater-like setting for gatherings or performances between the first floor and a mezzanine area.
The second floor, which houses Akron Early College and Allied Health, will remain the same.
Myers wants to lower the third-floor High Street entrance, add study commons with soft seating and create community spaces that can be accessed on weekends for small events. The counseling school might be moved into the building; audiology is already there.
And the university plans to relocate a number of administrative employees to the building’s third floor. Doing so has dual purposes — it brings more year-round office workers downtown while helping the university reach its goal of emptying buildings to eliminate 1 million square feet of space over the next decade. This move would clear out much of the Lincoln and Administrative Services buildings.
Myers is also considering consolidating the university’s popular esports program into Polsky’s mezzanine level, which now houses computer labs and office space. It’s a move that he said would add more evening activity to the building and the surrounding area.
The business school and other classrooms that are built out on higher floors of the five-story building will remain.
“We’ll be able to support the rest of downtown, help with the critical mass the rest of downtown needs,” Myers said. “… It’s going to be an asset to both the university and downtown.”
How much will the Polsky project cost?
Myers said in November the university had about $31 million to work with as fundraising efforts continued.
He said there are some pieces of the plan that could be more or less costly depending on how much money is available — there are discussions about expanding a multi-floor skylight by cutting out and enlarging an area that’s already open across several floors.
“We don’t want this to be a shoestring budget; we want it to be smartly spent,” Myers said. “It’s a little more modest, but it’s doable.”
He said this year’s change in the university administration led to a reconsideration of what an ideal project would entail, and “smartly so.” Myers said the university, which has begun the retrenchment process to shrink its faculty, has to be responsible with its resources. The new plan focuses on the most important part of a renovation: Main Street.
“The desire to be good neighbors is as strong as it ever was,” he said. “We’re hoping that it helps tie in with Lock 3, the Bowery, the revitalized core of downtown.”
Kutuchief with the Knight Foundation said he envisions Polsky as the center of gravity in a downtown core that stretches from the front door of Crave to Canal Park’s ticket window, where the Akron RubberDucks play minor league baseball. The city and the university need each other, he said — and while the project itself is important, what’s more important is how it will affect human behavior.
“It will make them get to know downtown Akron in a more organic way,” he said of the impact of having the building opened. “It makes the city stronger.”
How long will the Polsky project take?
The university is “full speed ahead” with the project and has issued initial requests for qualifications for an architect and engineer, Myers said, as well as a construction manager. The university also received bids for an elevator modernization project that’s part of the renovation; they ranged from $1.48 million to $1.83 million. Currently, the main elevators are opening on random floors and can’t be recalled to any specific floor (though other elevators work properly).
The schematic design phase on the project has begun and a construction manager is expected to bid the project this fall.
Myers said he expects that it will take 12 to 18 months to design the project and another 14 to 18 months for construction to be completed.
If all goes well, the project should wrap up in three years.
Myers also said he wants to restore some of the facade of the building to add to the liveliness of the space. He’s inspired by decades-old images of Polsky when it was as a department store.
“I think we’re in a very good spot,” he said. “I’m extremely excited and optimistic about what the project is going to be.”
Editor’s note: The Knight Foundation is a funder of Signal Akron.