Akron City Centre Hotel
The 19-story Akron City Centre Hotel was opened in 1971, originally as a Holiday Inn. After some years, the hotel would rebrand as a Radisson Hotel Akron City Centre. Unfortunately in 2008, the hotel had lost its affiliation with Radisson, and would sit without a brand-name for the next three years. These three years without a brand-name hotel had made it difficult to attract conventions or conferences to the city of Akron.
The hotel was then purchased by Jack Saheid, and rebranded as Ramada Plaza in July of 2011. At first, the Ramada Plaza seemed to please guests. Many reviews of the hotel had pointed out that it was a great, clean place to stay, with friendly staff and great room service. It was somewhere between 2011 and 2013 when things started to quickly move downhill for the hotel. Reviews started to pour in online about how things were not being cleaned, clumps of dust in the AC units (which barely worked) among numerous other complaints. Some reviewers had even said that it felt as though they were urban exploring the hotel when it was still operating.
The hotel continued to sluggishly operate into late December 2016, when the doors were finally closed due to really what boils down to poor business operation. As of 2020, negative reviews still crowd the Yelp comment feed for this hotel during a time when it was operating.
When the hotel was opened in 1971, it was part of the Cascade Plaza; a plaza developed through the late 1960s to bring an open space with plantings and pedestrian walkways to downtown Akron. The plaza was planned by Lawrence Halrpin and developed as part of an urban renewal project, and included two high rises, one of them being the Akron City Centre Hotel. While the modernist high rise hotel was opened in 1971, construction had been mostly completed by 1969. The plaza also contains 3 other buildings: Cascade I (or PNC Center), Cascade III and Huntington Tower. The plaza was built on the site of a five-story flour mill built by Dr. Eliakim Crosby in 1831, only 6 years after Simon Perkins and Paul Williams had founded the city of Akron. It serves as the roof of a five-level underground parking lot. It also features a central skating rink, and a fountain sculpture designed by Don Drumm, erected in 1968.
Among the 243 rooms and 2 very shaky elevators inside this large hotel, we were able to find some interesting things. After taking an almost deadly elevator ride to the top floors of the hotel, we found what appeared to be a meeting room. The table was still set as if it had been previously prepared for a meeting; a thin layer of dust coating the table top and plates. Packets of butter and mints even remained in baskets, and places remained set at the table. Above this floor, a grand piano remained, surprisingly still fairly well in tune.
In 2017, two developers teamed up to tackle a $25 million renovation of the vacant hotel, with plans of not only reuse as a hotel, but an apartment complex as well. Developer Joel Testa partnered with hotel owner David Brennan to create City Centre LLC to redevelop the building. Brennan had previously served as the mortgagee, but took back the deed when Saheid had fallen behind on payments. Numerous citations had been issued against the hotel when the Akron Fire Department noted repairs needed for the hotel’s fire suppression system. These citations began in August 2015, but other inspections are also documented on September 15, 2015, January 25, 2016 and January 10, 2017, when inspectors finally found the hotel closed.
Joel and David of City Centre LLC hope to breathe life back into this former hotel, bringing positive and forward momentum for the city of Akron and the community.
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