Akron City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve funding for the new Downtown Akron Development Corporation. Its goal is to attract businesses, jobs and development to Downtown.
The funding will build on the promise to start a Downtown community development corporation made by Mayor Shammas Malik during his state of the city address in April.
"We need someone who wakes up every day thinking about downtown real estate, attracting businesses, jobs and residents to right here on Main Street," Malik said in his speech.
Akron has been dealing with empty office buildings and shuttering businesses in the Downtown area since the pandemic, including the loss of FirstEnergy from Downtown, which it called home for 50 years.
The ordinance authorizes $150,000 to the Downtown development corporation over three years.
The organization is also getting funding from nonprofit and private partners, said Ron Paydo, president of Huntington Bank in the Akron/Canton market.
“We are really excited at the bank about the Downtown development corporation," he said. "We also have made the decision to invest for a three-year period. There’s a lot of great things about to happen we believe in Downtown.”
The development corporation plans to use the funding to hire an executive director to focus on the redevelopment of Downtown.
"Having an executive director that will think about this 24 hours a day, seven days a week working with developers, working with the city and the county to make things happen is going to just move us forward exponentially," Paydo said.
The development corporation will also spur more partnership between the city and downtown businesses, said Akron Deputy Director of Economic Development Sean Vollman.
“We’re asking for financial contribution from each organization that would then later appoint members ideally in January," he said.
The development corporation has already secured $260,000 in additional funding from partners like Greater Akron Chamber, GAR Foundation and Summit County, he said. Originally designed to be a seven member board, members recently voted to restructure to a board of up to 17 members made up of community partners, he said.
The development corporation hopes to post the executive director job in a few weeks, Vollman said.
