Akron officials will spend $100,000 to identify large parcels of land that could be purchased to attract new businesses to the city.
Akron City Council unanimously approved legislation Monday night that allows the city to enter a memorandum of understanding with several other organizations, including Summit County, to find large parcels of land “ready to go” for development, city officials said in a statement.
The money will be spent over the next two years to analyze sites in Akron, “as well as close-in suburbs or inner-ring suburbs, for large potential development parcels that could be aggregated to attract new businesses into the city,” Akron’s economic development director Suzie Graham Moore told city council members.
The idea is to attract companies that would otherwise choose to develop in a nearby county, Moore added in the statement.
“We understand that Summit County lags in the availability of sites of size 25+ acres ready for development with sufficient utility access,” Moore said. “Improving how we jointly prioritize and focus on site opportunities is a big deal, especially when those opportunities provide for urban reinvestment and location of jobs close to workforce to support quality of life for residents.”
The city will enter into an agreement with Summit County, the Summit County Land Bank, the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce and the GAR Foundation. The organizations are each providing funding in addition to a private donor, Moore added.
Elevate Greater Akron and Team NEO, collaborative partnerships focused on economic development, are also assisting with the project, she said.
“Now is a good time to focus on reuse of previously developed land as urban redevelopment is a wise direction to pursue for greater future climate resiliency,” Moore said in the statement. “This is a great example of Elevate Greater Akron partners coming together to collaborate on important work that would not have been possible without the partnership in place.”
Moore declined to share possible sites being explored.
“Since we don’t have those parcels aggregated, we would not be sharing them publicly, only to prevent potential escalation of their price in advance of a deal being made,” Moore said.
The $100,000 expenditure will be made over a two year period, she said.
