Exit, Stage Left.
As in the Stage Left building, next door to the Akron Civic Theatre on South Main Street in the heart of the city’s downtown. The vacant building will be demolished starting Tuesday, city officials hope.
Akron expects that in the next day or two, it will take possession of the property, which dates back to 1920, from Kent-based Main Street Partners LLC and then start tearing it down, city officials have confirmed. As of Thursday, the deed transfer had not taken place.
The city has not yet said how much it agreed to pay Main Street Partners to acquire the building.
“That building’s going to come down,” said Sam DeShazior, Akron’s deputy mayor for economic development. The demolition will provide needed room for part of the city’s combined sewer overflow project, he said.
The highly recognizable building is next to Lock 3 — the entire wall that faces the city park is decorated with a colorful mural. The building was given the informal name Stage Left, after a volunteer theater-related boutique that moved out from the street-level interior several years ago. Predecessor businesses in the spot included a Rite Aid pharmacy.
The demolition will take about two weeks to complete at an estimated cost of $160,000. City officials hope to get the bulk of the work finished before the official summer concert and entertainment program starts May 27 at Lock 3 with the rock group Dirty Deeds, an AC/DC tribute band.
“It needs to come down prior to the entertainment season,” DeShazior said.
Main Street Partners, which has owned the building for at least five years, agrees with the city that demolition makes sense, said Jack Crews, one of the partners.
When the development team acquired the building, the partners thought it could be renovated, Crews said.
Main Street Partners owns other buildings just to the other side of the Civic. Crews and the city said those structures will remain untouched.
Other than acknowledging Main Street Partners remains interested in its remaining properties next to the Civic, Crews said he could not comment on any plans.
“I know it’s important. People want to know,” he said. “I really can’t talk about it at this minute.”
DeShazior also declined to elaborate.
“Jack’s still working on putting his plans together. Plans are living organisms,” he said.
But the overall plan remains to create a growing, vibrant city downtown where people live, work and play, DeShazior said.
“We want people to think of downtown as a neighborhood,” he said.
DeShazior noted that the city years ago demolished buildings along South Main Street to open up what became in 2003 the Lock 3 Park and festival space.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ