uastudent12

Zipsrifle I wasn't asking about your source. I just wasn't sure where JamesM was getting this information at. I clearly understand why the University would like to build this as close to campus as possible due to the lack of land. However, I agree with what JamesM was told about the University not wanting a large crowd of non-students on campus. Wherever they put this there needs to be easy access to downtown as well as easy access to the arena from the University. Imagine a crowd of 10,000+ fans of a concert pouring out into downtown and spending money in the city. The city and university need this and I hope they can work together in finding a perfect location for this arena to benefit both.

Do you know this for sure? Where are you getting the info?

Yeah I agree I can't wait to see the renderings for the Goodyear project buildings as well. It seems like no one around here likes to make those public. I was interested to see what the Bridgestone Tech Center was going to look like but the only rendering available (or so I've found) is the one on site attached to the fence. Thats funny you mentioned Bass Pro. I just passed one in Florida last week and told my family if Akron was smart they would bring either them or Cabella's. I don't understand why we don't have one. There are plenty of outdoors things to do around Akron, you think we would have one. When I lived in wadsworth I remembered they were tying to bring one there, but of course that fell through.

I was walking by the old Wonder Bread factory today. I heard something about UA might be purchasing the property. If they do I really hope the Arena doesn't go in there.

This is the Great Downtown Dayton plan. http://www.downtowndayton.org/plan/

Im sorry for the confusion. I don't mean the Downtown Akron Partnership. I am well aware of that organization, and what they are doing. I recently just visited the Downtown Dayton Partnership, and if you check it out they have renderings of almost all projects they hope to follow through with, the page is (in my opinion) better laid out, and it just looks more inviting. They have an amazing up-to-date video of the current and future plans of the city, and if I were looking at moving to a city about the size of Akron or Dayton I would like to see in which direction the city was going to take in the future. I wish DAP would follow Dayton's lead and do the same. Does that make sense?

Yes this project is right on the corner of North St. and Howard St. across from the Cascade Mills Store parking.

Here is a nice video that Fox 8 put together of the land breaking ceremony. http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=144030&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClevelandHeadlinesFromWkyccom+%28Cleveland-area+News+from+WKYC.COM%29

I don't think renovating the plaza would necessarily make it take over as the main entertainment venue area. If they could add a few nice restaurants/shops it would create an amazing atmosphere downtown. It would be cool to see maybe a few water features go in the plaza as well. Im thinking something sort of along the lines of a Rockefeller plaza scaled down scenario.

Thanks for the info! Its nice to know people are finally getting smart! I'm still bummed the main corridor isn't going to go through Akron. Last time I read Akron was third in the state for tourism.

Here are some pics of a plan I found of the project.

Unfortunately the highspeed rail system that ohio plans to pursue is going to completely bi-pass Akron. I read up on the situation and by adding Akron it will add almost another hour of time on the Cincinnatti-Cleveland route. If Ohio would get smart they would stray from the 75mph system and go for a quicker system. I realize it will cost more, but I am really not willing to go on something that goes as slow as my car.

This sounds like it will be an amazing project! I really wish that the city could promote construction projects like these more. I think if community members or even people looking to relocate to the area new about all the construction and plans for the future it might help bring people and more companies to the city. The Dayton Downtown Partnership is doing a great job and doing such that.

Yeah I'm not sure whats going on between Spruce St. and Franklin, but I hope they do something nice with it. That area along with the area south of Exchange St. is my least favorite part of the city. It would be nice to see those old homes get torn down and new developments/residences go in. Zipsrifle I agree the construction around the city is awesome. I can't wait until they finish renovating the Y-bridge and finish construction on the Mill St. bridge. The city is going to look amazing in five years from now.

Just found a nice rendering of the new Univeristy Park YMCA that is going in next to Akron General Hospital. It looks like it will be very nice. http://www.summahealth.org/media/15888/15889.jpg

I somewhat agree with that last post. I think a lot of places downtown are way underutilized. I would still like to see a lot of places go in near the innerbelt. Everytime I drive down that road it makes Akron seem like a ghost town. It would be nice to see more businesses start to pop up along the southern end of town. Opportunity Parkway should really hold up to its name. If they did anything to the innerbelt they really need to add a way to get onto 76 East from 59. Im sure that would help with a lot of traffic patterns throughout town during rush hour.

thats a 5,865 enrollment that is not even including the two other phases that they still need to build on the corner of brown and exchange. Once those are done im sure it will be well over 7500. I can't wait to see the whole area in about five years.

Though I am a student at UofA I would still like to see this Arena (If it ever goes through) built downtown. I love both the University and the city of Akron, and right now I think the university is doing well enough. If you were to add this arena downtown it would create an atmosphere that most people want to see downtown. I dont think it matters whether or not its on the campus or not. Students walk down that way anyways to go to class at the Polsky building and to go to the bars. I see it no problem to walk down there for a game or concert. During the winter people who dont like the cold might now want to walk there, but the University has a transportation service called the "Roo Express" that runs downtown. It would be nice to see this go in next to the mayflower. They could build more restaurants/shops next to the kaiser building where Pita Pit is going in. It would be nice to have something like Cleveland's East Fourth in Akron. More shops, restaurants, and apartments.

This place is really nice to go to. You can walk your bikes through Lock 4 to connect to the towpath. Next Wednesday I read they are going to start having Jazz concerts outside. I just wish they would start to work on the interior of those buildings so there are more places to eat. Here is a link of what it is going to look like when its done and some more information on the project: http://www.ci.akron.oh.us/planning/pdf/City_of_Akron_Landmark_Building_CORF_Grant_Application_Info.pdf

Does anyone know what is going on with this? I went to Odot's website and it looks like they are no longer considering doing anything with the innerbelt. It would be amazing if they turned this into a normal road and put more businesses along it. That city and surrounding neighborhoods would benifit tremendously from it.

They just started to work on this about a month ago. I really like what they are doing to the North end of town.

The buidling looks like it going up very quick! It seems like everytime I drive by there another wall has gone up. It will be exciting to see how this looks. I noticed they finally have a rendering posted on the fense around the construction. I will try to get a picture sometime this week and post it on here soon!

I just drove by where is this suppose to be going and they are doing a lot of street work and utilility work. Does anyone know when this is suppose to be complete?

That would be amazing if they ever get to it. I would really like to see more shops and restaurants go in this area. It would be nice to see the whole stretch of main street populated rather than just the north and south ends. I really hope this design calls for a few water features. This should be the main feature of downtown Akron..

Akron needs this...this would be a great attraction....http://www.itireakron.org/2008/09/06/articles/the-downtown-akron-aquarium-est-2008