Developer shares plans for potential rental units in Kent’s South End

A proposed housing development near downtown Kent will be entirely rental units geared to empty nesters, young professionals and downsizers.

So said Jacob Shields, director of acquisitions for developer Grey Fox Capital, at a small Aug. 12 gathering at Hometown Bank, which owns the 17.6 acres GFC hopes to develop. The proposed development adds a new southern face to Kent’s historic South End, long known as the mother neighborhood of Kent: a place where immigrants and people of color, unwelcome in other parts of the city, could and did settle.

GFC plans to build 102 ADA-compliant housing units, evenly split between townhomes and attached ranch homes. Utilities would be routed underground.

The development would border the Erie railroad tracks along Mogadore Road just south of West Summit Street. Preliminary drawings show eight townhomes bordering Franklin Avenue north of the post office, more bordering the train tracks southward, additional units directly behind and to the south of the post office, and more backing south to Maple, Oak and Walnut streets.

Bordering the Erie railroad tracks is a clubhouse and large retention pond. By way of clarification, Shields said the preliminary drawing that seemed to indicate a swimming pool next to the clubhouse is really a pickleball court.

GFC has no plan to purchase the two homes just south of the post office “unless they want to sell at a good price,” Shields said.

Shields said city officials have informed GFC they do not want a vehicular entrance to the development on West Summit Street. Preliminary drawings show only two vehicle entrances, both of them leading traffic on and off Franklin Avenue.

The northern one incorporates the post office turnaround area, which is actually an extension of West Williams Street; the southern one is directly south of the post office. No additional traffic lights are planned for Franklin Avenue. 

With a per-unit price point of $1,800-$2,600, GFC Managing Partner Ryan Sommers said the 800- to 1,600-square-foot, one-to-three bedroom units with attached one- and two-car garages are not meant to attract students or families. GFC’s long experience with such developments indicates that their average renter is 53 years old.

“We do see a lot of young professionals, but what we don’t see a lot of is families,” Shields said. “One out of every hundred residents is a family.”

When attendees scoffed at Shield’s assertion that unit rents would be high enough to discourage most college students, he said the units will not be rented out by the bedroom. Hometown Bank Chairman Howard Boyle added that city codes prohibit more than two unrelated people from living in a single rental unit. (A glance at the actual city code confirms that is true, with certain, specific exceptions.)

While rents would reflect market rates, GFC offers unspecified senior discounts, he said.

All of the development’s streets would be private, relieving the city of maintenance and plowing, Shields said. Residents would not be responsible for property maintenance, and a property manager and maintenance person would be on site every day. Additional leasing and maintenance staff would split their time between GFC’s Kent and Brimfield developments.

Residents would be expected to follow “strict rules” in a development Shields said will “never become” Section 8 housing.

Though there would be no road access to Summit Street, a pedestrian walkway would connect the new community to the downtown area. Additional walkways would connect the new development to Franklin Avenue and West Williams Street, he said.

If the EPA determines that a historic railroad building on the property contains no asbestos, Shields said GFC hopes to incorporate part of it in the development’s clubhouse and repurpose other parts into entry signs off West Williams and Summit streets.

The southwest side of the property is “heavily contaminated,” especially on the top two feet, Hometown President and CEO Mike Lewis said.

Hometown Bank has received a $1.36 million Ohio Department of Development grant to clean up the site, Shields said, adding that the total clean-up cost for readying the area for residential use is closer to $1.5 to $1.8 million. That work is already ongoing, he said.

Given the property’s size, shape, location and lack of ready highway access, developing it for industrial use doesn’t make sense, Shields said.

He estimated that the $23 million development could add about 175 people to Kent’s census tally, raise surrounding home values and add tens of thousands of dollars to city school coffers while not adding students to classrooms.

Partnering with GFC is PMC Financial Services and Pride One Construction, both of whom Shields said have done “countless” other projects in Ohio and elsewhere.

One, dubbed The Villas at Wyles Farm, is currently in process off Town Square Drive in Brimfield. With a clubhouse and dog park, the 103-unit development is similar to GFC’s proposal for Kent, Shields said.

GFC is also active in Streetsboro, counting the city’s Aldi, Chick-fil-A and a third project among its commercial developments.

Kent’s planning commission is set to meet Aug. 19. It will consider GFC’s bid to rezone the 11.61-acre property at 600 Franklin Ave. and a vacant Franklin Avenue parcel bordering the post office parking lot from Industrial to R-3 (High Density Residential). Shields hopes the board will also consider GFC’s preliminary site plan at that time, but Kent Community Development Director Bridget Susel said the commission would not consider any specific projects.

Once ground is broken, which Shields hopes will be next summer, the development could be ready for its first tenants in two years. If all goes well, GFC’s goal is to have it ready for rentals by mid-2028, Shields said.

He acknowledged that the development will rob motorists of the free, unofficial parking area they have long used to access the Haymaker Farmers’ Market and large city events.

Speaking for the bank, Boyle said Hometown is in favor of “anything that will sell that property.” Speaking on his own behalf, he said the proposed development would be a welcome addition to the South End neighborhood he’s known since he was five years old.

In a letter to city officials, Doria Daniels, chairwoman of the Historic South End community organization, stated that neighborhood residents, some of whom descend from people once employed at the Erie Rail Yards and Davey Drill, support the rezoning proposal.

Like others at Tuesday evening’s meeting, Daniels expressed concern about traffic congestion and traffic flow and the impact to already-stressed streets in need of repair. She also wondered about noise and safety issues that might render the new development less “user friendly” to the existing South End.

“As a 186-year-old community that has been traditionally overlooked by most development projects, we are extremely interested about what comes to the neighborhood that will continue to sustain our special historic amenities, promote economic growth, blend well with the neighborhood, as well as protect the environment,” she wrote.

Shields assured the attendees that GFC is sensitive to the historic nature of the property. Once owned by abolitionist John Brown, it was later acquired by town father and railroad mogul Marvin Kent. President of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, Kent gifted the land to his company as a site for its railroad shops. That put Kent on the map, leading in large part to grateful residents eventually naming the town for him.

Now, Grey Fox should do all it can to respect the history and integrity of the existing South End neighborhood, and do what it can to integrate the old and the new, Kent Historical Society member John Ridinger said.

As for the new, he said, “That whole area is why Kent is named Kent. I’m glad to see they’re thinking about using part of the [former railroad] building, but I hope they do more. Obviously, it can’t stay the way it is forever, but we need to make sure that what’s proposed there works.”

Lifelong South End resident Beverly Farrell Lowther remained concerned about the increased traffic on Franklin Avenue.

“This is already a speedway because people avoid the lights on [Route] 43 so they come onto Franklin. The entrance should stay on Summit, where it is now, where it has always been,” she said. 

She worried that gentrification has come to the South End and may squeeze out the neighborhood’s long-time residents.

The only better use for the property would be transforming it into a city park, Kent resident John Siefer said, adding that he liked Grey Fox’s idea to repurpose parts of the old train workshop.

It would be nice for South Enders who want to walk through the new development to Riveredge or Tannery Park, or to the Haymaker Farmers’ Market, to have an easy way to reach their destinations, South End homeowner Tara Goode said.

Though she echoed Farrell Lowther’s concerns about increased traffic on Franklin Avenue, Goode said, “I think this will meet a housing need, and it will be nice to have some new residents in the neighborhood.”