Eleven brownfield sites ranging from cornerstones of Akron’s history as a rubber capital to locations with names familiar to generations of Summit County families will get millions of state dollars for clean-up and redevelopment.
In Akron, parts of the first rubber business in the city — the former B.F. Goodrich power plant located in downtown Akron — are set to be remediated by removing asbestos and demolishing unsafe buildings.
Portions of Building 59, an older building on the west side of the canal next to the smokestacks, are slated for demolition.
“Right now, it’s very unsafe in there,” said Brad Beckert of Akron’s Office of Integrated Development. “We can’t do a whole lot inside because the building is in such a bad shape. We don’t want people to get hurt doing anything in there.”
The two iconic B.F. Goodrich brick smokestacks in downtown Akron are safe, though, for now.
Beckert said the city will probably have to take the smokestacks down eventually, but that it wasn’t in the plans for this project and there wasn’t a timeline for when it might happen.
“Those are something that eventually we would have to take a look at because they’re not in great shape either,” he said.
Changing skyline:B.F. Goodrich smokestack getting cut in half to ‘RICH’
The efforts are part of the Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program, which provides funds for the remediation of brownfield sites in Ohio that are underutilized due to a known or potential release of hazardous substances. A brownfield is any previously developed land that is not currently in use.
The program will provide nearly $350 million in grants across the state. Almost $20 million has been distributed to projects in Summit County so far.
“We’re not creating any new land anymore, so we have to reutilize land. A lot of these brownfield areas — which are in the central city — are prime locations for, as I’ve described, for residential or commercial structures,” Beckert said. “It’s very important for us to be able to clean these up and to make them usable for developers to commit to reuse the property within the city.”
Akron received nearly $5 million from the state for remediation at the former power plant. The city currently does not have a specific plan for what the site will be used for once it’s cleaned up, but Beckert said there are multiple developers interested in the property and it could be turned into a residential or commercial structure.
Demolition of Building 59 will hopefully start at the end of this year or the beginning of next, Beckert said. The property will likely not be ready for redevelopment until the middle of 2024.
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