Downtown Hamilton to add an arts hub

Purchase price to be $100K

HAMILTON - A performance and educational arts hub will be created downtown in the former Hamilton JournalNews building, city officials said.

Akron Legacy Real Estate Development LLC has agreed to buy the building at Court Street and Journal Square and lease it to numerous businesses. City officials said the development company is already working with three to four tenants, including a ballet studio and Butler Tech.

“We’re really excited about this,” said Colleen Taylor, acting city law director. “We hope it will bring more people downtown.”

Akron Legacy is a partnership that includes Steve Coon, the developer of the Historic Mercantile Lofts in downtown Hamilton. The $8.6 million project involves transforming three 140-year-old buildings in the 200 block of High Street into a complex of 29 apartments and several commercial spaces. Coon did not return a call Wednesday for comment.

City Manager Joshua Smith said the city is not contributing any money toward the project, but has agreed to execute the purchase agreement and escrow instructions for the sale of the building.

“We have been working with the city as well as several other local economic development agencies to find a way to include the building as part of the ongoing strategic plans for Hamilton’s downtown business district. Cox Media Group Ohio is pleased that this project is moving forward and that we can play a part in this redevelopment effort,” said Rob Rohr, senior vice president/general manager of Cox Media Group Ohio.

Cox Media Group Ohio is the parent company of the JournalNews.

The purchase price will be $100,000 with a June 7 closing date. JournalNews employees moved out of the building last summer and relocated to Liberty Twp.

Jim Blount, a retired JournalNews editor and city historian, said the building was constructed in 1886 and went through extensive changes that included an addition built in the 1950s. “The building was greatly altered when the paper went from a hot type operation in 1971 to computers,” he said.