Dec. 07–The East End Hilton Garden Inn is slowly taking shape near the former Goodyear corporate headquarters on East Market Street.
The $18 million, 135-room full-service hotel, the first new hotel to be built in Akron since 1980, is expected to be finished next year.
Renovations at Goodyear Hall are also expected to start before the year ends to turn the site into 107 apartments, a fitness center and more. Work is expected to be finished in 2015.
The project developer, California-based Industrial Realty Group, is financing the hotel with help from the Development Finance Authority of Summit County and PNC Bank’s Tax Credit Investment Group.
Besides a traditional construction loan, funding includes a $6.5 million New Markets Tax Credit from the Development Fund of Western Reserve; $2 million in federal New Markets Tax Credit funding through PNC, and a $2.5 million Ohio New Markets Tax Credit award.
IRG, which specializes in redeveloping aging industrial and military sites, purchased Goodyear’s former corporate campus.
Separately, IRG built a new corporate headquarters for Goodyear on nearby Innovation Way, formerly known as Martha Avenue.
Ground broke in late September on the new five-story Hilton Garden Inn. The hotel site is a former parking lot between Cook Street and Kelly Avenue, between Goodyear Hall and the Ganley auto complex.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544.
