The pigeons will have to find somewhere else to live.
The former Kent Hotel has been sold twice in the last week, and just like that, a long-vacant and largely condemned building that has frustrated city officials for 30 years is poised to become downtown’s next jewel.
The upper floors of the five-story building have stood empty since 1979, and condemned for nearly as long.
Two bottom floors haven’t been occupied for 11 years.
For the past decade, the city and two former owners have been mired in litigation and liens over the 1919 landmark, originally the Franklin Hotel, which served as an office for Ohio Gov. Martin Davey, a watering hole for FBI gangster-hunter Eliot Ness and sanctuary for national big-band acts traveling through the region.
The battle over the property ended a week ago, when owner Gregg Vilk agreed to give it to the city for $735,000.
A few days later, the City Council voted to resell it to local philanthropist and developer Ron Burbick, who has invested $14 million in downtown Kent in the last four years, building and renovating homes for more than 30 businesses that employ 200 people.
Economic Development Director Dan Smith acknowledged that the whirlwind move raised a couple of eyebrows since the city did not ask for bids on the property (it was not required to do so) and undersold it to Burbick for $400,000.
But city officials say Burbick’s record speaks for itself. During a recession that has crippled much of the country, the developer has used his own money to renovate a section of Main Street and build the Acorn Alley retail and restaurant district, which opened in 2009. In the past month, a brand-new section of Acorn Alley welcomed Wild Earth Outfitters and Zoupwerks to its expanding family.
Burbick, who lives in Florida, said he is committed to his hometown and wanted to be a part of downtown’s $100 million makeover, which will include a new Kent State University-owned hotel, a transit center, a dozen eateries and a block of commercial buildings.
Money to help nonprofits
On Friday, Burbick announced that once the Kent Hotel is renovated and occupied, 100 percent of any profit from the property will be distributed to Kent and Portage County nonprofits and other organizations supported by his own Burbick Foundation. The foundation will own the building, he said, and he estimates rent could bring in $200,000 to $400,000 a year.
Burbick said he will remain in town over the winter to launch a fundraising campaign for some of the $4 million it will take to renovate the hotel. The foundation will front the first $1 million.
“The prime fundraising period is now through Jan. 1,” Burbick said. “If I lose a week of that, I might lose a year on the project,” and he would prefer for contractors to start work in April and be done by the end of 2013.
The building could have been torn down and something substantial built in its place for $3 million, Burbick said, but he wanted to preserve the historical structure.
“It’s been an eyesore for as long as I’ve been here,” Burbick said, “and it needed to be torn down or renovated.”
But engineer John Fenton has reported that the structure is sound.
On Friday, Fenton and architect Doug Fuller walked through the property, ducking to avoid a flock of pigeons that swirled through the upper floor.
Dead pigeons and broken glass were scattered about the building, crumbling concrete opened holes in the floor and peeling paint hung from the ceiling, but Fuller said it was definitely a building worth saving.
“If you lose these kind of buildings, you lose the soul of your city,” he said.
In the recent past, the owner had gutted the building and torn all of the woodwork and molding down, Smith said, so the interior will be almost entirely new.
Remnants of past
Burbick said a couple of foot-long pieces of molding were found and he would like to replicate it to restore a little of the building’s past character.
Also, while decades of dust and bird droppings covered the floor, a pattern of mosaic tiles was discovered beneath the debris in the two-story lobby.
Plans for the 22,000-square-foot building are in flux.
Burbick believes the basement, which has an outside entrance and was the original hotel’s barbershop, would make a nice wine bar, and most of the first floor and mezzanine could be a restaurant. He said he’s already had interest from possible tenants.
The hotel’s original first-floor coffee shop might become home to the local business chamber, while the second floor could provide office space for other groups and organizations.
“I’ve been envisioning this for years,” Burbick said. There are so many interested tenants in the wings, he said, “it seems even though I acquire more property, I’m still short of space.”
The hotel’s original elevator shaft is too small for modern equipment, so a new tower will be built at the back of the building to provide a second set of stairs as well as an elevator.
Meanwhile the old shaft — where a plunging elevator took the life of the manager after the hotel opened in 1920 — will provide an easy path for the building’s new electrical wiring and plumbing.
The top two floors could be used for living quarters. Burbick has toyed with the idea of converting the space for veterans in need of transitional housing, but there is also interest in turning it into luxury condos because it offers a rare and beautiful view of the city.
Windows on the south and west sides revealed some of the construction going on downtown. The steel frame for the future office of a Davey Tree Expert Co. division is already up.
Fuller, the architect, said the signs of construction make efforts to save the historic building even more symbolic.
“It’s nice to see something from the past coming along as part of the future,” he said.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.