Akron City Council finalized the Highland Square Special Improvement District Monday, requiring that businesses in the district be billed for the safety and beautification services the SID is expected to provide.
The approval comes on the heels of five Highland Square property owners on West Market Street — who were not among the 11 businesses that signed the petition to create the SID — objecting to and appealing the special assessments.
While creating an SID for the neighborhood was discussed in October 2025 following the shooting death of a bystander outside the area’s popular cluster of bars, the first official steps to establish the Highland Square SID were taken in July by Akron City Council.
It approved the collection of $100,000 annually over three years, on top of property taxes, from building owners located on a key quarter-mile stretch of West Market Street that frequently draws significant crowds and occasional incidents of violence on weekend nights.
The money raised by the assessments will go toward strengthening security measures such as private security patrols on weekend nights as well as a beautification plan that includes neighborhood cleanups and murals.
Jerome Linnen Jr. of Highland Square Management Inc., who owns Linnen Co., L.P.A. at 789 W. Market St., is one of the five. He said his property taxes are already roughly $2,500 every six months.
Linnen’s total assessment over the three-year period would be $7,518. He said his property is not a part of the problem and would not benefit from the SID’s plan.
The property owners’ appeals were rejected by the Assessment Equalization Board on Sept. 22. In a memo to City Council, the board said, “We do not find the objections to the assessments for the Improvement to be well taken, and we have determined to overrule and deny such objections.”
Why each property owner submitted objections letters to the SID assessment
In letters written to Akron City Council Clerk Sara Biviano, five of the 24 property owners in the SID — which includes properties between 738 and 889 W. Market St. on the north and south sides of the street — asked to be removed from the district, along with the obligation to pay the assessment.
Each also submitted requests for detailed information on the rationale behind the assessments and how the money would be spent.
- Ted Bare Enterprises, which owns the properties from 822 to 828 W. Market St., including the Highland Square Theatre, is required to pay $9,215.85 total over three years. Rudd J. Bare II, the company’s president, wrote that the fee “has not been sufficiently demonstrated to provide a direct, proportional, or meaningful benefit to this property that would justify the amount being assessed” and asked the city to provide extensive documentation about the district. Bare also described the significant amount of taxes he said the company already pays.
- Highland Square Management, Inc., which owns the office building in a converted 122-year-old house between Mr. Zub’s Deli & Bar and the American Legion, is set to pay $7,518 over the next three years. Linnen, who owns the company and a law office there, said his company will “receive no benefit” from the SID, because it only operates during the day, isn’t open to the public and has its own security system.
- Accurate K Flooring Systems, which owns a mixed-use building on West Market Street and Casterton Avenue, is set to pay $13,945 over the next three years. Company president Mousa Kakish wrote he does “not wish to subsidize by way of assessment the bars and parking lots” and wrote that was never given an explanation about the rationale for the assessment nor detailed plans on how the money will be spent.
- SAC Marketplace, which owns the Grand Marketplace Shopping Center, home to Domino’s Pizza, Yoga Squared and Good Life Body Piercing and Fine Jewelry, is set to pay $17,704 over the next three years. CEO Stephen Comunale said in his letter that much of the money is allocated for private security near bars “several blocks away” during times his retail tenants do not operate.
- Wendell L. Willkie American Legion, Post 19, which owns the 118-year-old brick building on the northwest side of the Casterton Avenue intersection, is set to pay $8,609 over the next three years. Commander Nathan Dickriede said in his letter that the American Legion would receive no benefit from the money and was provided with few details about how it would be spent.
“The purpose of an assessment is to provide some special benefit to the person paying the assessment,” Linnen said. “The position of the people that I’m associated with, the people that filed objections, and a whole lot of other people that probably never even got notice, is that we’re not benefiting from it.”
Linnen, along with other property owners who objected, are still obligated to pay. The property owners are now working to establish a group to dissolve the Highland Square SID, Linnen said.
“The other course of action we’re looking at is a declaratory judgment action for the courts to tell [Akron Mayor Shammas Malik] and [Akron Council Member] Fran Wilson what the Special Improvement District can do and what it can’t do,” Linnen said.
Assessment Equalization Board rejects the appeals
The Assessment Equalization Board made its recommendation to deny the appeals based on two factors:
- Whether the property will be benefited by the improvement(s).
- Whether the amount of the assessment is a proper apportionment of those benefits.
In their letters, the businesses included other reasons for objecting to the assessments, including:
- There is no sufficient information describing the benefit of the SID or the justification of the cost.
- Most operate between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. — the incidents prompting the SID all happened late at night or in the early morning hours.
- Some of the objecting businesses have their own security programs, parking lots and other security measures such as lights and monitoring.
- There is no detailed plan on how the funds will be used.
- The City of Akron’s large parking lot behind Chipotle is not being policed properly, they stated
- There are no proper cameras and lighting in the large parking lot owned by the city.
Wilson, the Ward 1 Akron City Council Member, said that the SID benefits the entire district.
“We worked for the last year with property owners, businesses, and neighbors, city officials, to create the special improvement district so that we were able to tackle some of the big issues that have been plaguing the neighborhood for a long time,” Wilson said.
“While they submitted the objections, I still hold that every single piece of what we are doing with this project touches and benefits every corner, nook, and cranny of the district.”
