The State of Ohio is giving Summit County more than $1.6 million to demolish and clean up two properties near the old Goodyear headquarters in East Akron – the old Goodyear Middle School and the former East Akron YMCA.
The announcement is the latest — and last — of seven rounds of statewide dollars for brownfield remediation this budget cycle. All told, more than $3 million will come to Summit County to clean up areas for redevelopment. Statewide, more than $510 million went to 489 projects in 85 counties.
The largest amount to be awarded here for a single project, $1.4 million, will go to the Summit County Land Revitalization Corp. — also known as the Summit County Land Bank — to demolish the former Akron Goodyear Middle School at 49 N. Martha Ave.
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The building has been vacant since 2011. The money will help pay to abate asbestos in the building, dispose of waste on site and tear the school down. The site will later get water and sewer lines to support future development.
The plan for the site is a 160-unit apartment building, said Paul Harris, general manager of the East End development. Harris said the developers of that project are “chomping at the bit” to get started.
“We’re certainly happy and we certainly will not be waiting,” he said.
More housing coming to Akron’s East End development
It’s the latest in a continuation of the East End development, on the site of the former Goodyear headquarters. There are already 171 apartments there, a hotel, five office tenants and retail space, along with the Goodyear Theater and other amenities. Harris said the developer has applied for low-income housing tax credits to help pay for the new apartments, which will be a mix of low-income and market-rate housing.
The school and the East Akron YMCA, which will get $255,812 to pay for asbestos removal and demolition, are the last two buildings in the area that need to come down, Harris said. He said there are not yet plans for what will happen on the YMCA site at 110 Goodyear Blvd. The state said its remediation “will enable commercial or industrial redevelopment opportunities, further supporting the revitalization of the Goodyear Campus.”
A spokesperson for Goodyear said in an email he had no comment on the transformation of the company’s former headquarters. No one from the land bank returned a phone call seeking comment about the projects.
In addition to the two demolition projects that were announced Monday, the state in recent months has agreed to fund three more projects through the land bank that could help create jobs locally.
- A former muffler shop and auto repair center at 892 Northwest Ave. in Tallmadge will get $143,076 to assess environmental hazards, including abandoned oil tanks.
- Two industrial buildings at 1130-1138 Brittain Road in Akron will get $131,625 to evaluate soil and vapor contamination; the land was used as a dump site from the 1940s to the 1960s. The site could be redeveloped for industrial use, bringing up to 100 new jobs to the area.
- The former SIA Building in Akron was used for making rubber and adhesives. The land bank will get $300,000 to pay for an assessment that will determine the soil and groundwater contamination for the now-vacant property with a 1958 building on it. A redevelopment project is expected to create 20 new jobs.
The state has been distributing brownfield money since 2021. Summit County in September was also awarded $22.7 million to demolish 124 sites, 109 of them in Akron.