The struggling Akron City Center Hotel, one of the taller buildings on Akron’s downtown skyline, has closed.
It is unclear when the 19-floor hotel at Cascade Plaza off South Main Street shut down. The owner, Jack Saheid, a Texas businessman who took over the aging 243-room property in 2011, hoping to turn it around, could not be reached for comment.
An inspector with the Akron Fire Department stopped by the hotel last week to check on how the hotel was progressing on repairs to its fire alarm system and discovered it was closed, Akron fire Capt. Frank Poletta said Thursday afternoon.
“They were in the process of getting it done correctly, and we thought everything was fine,” Poletta said.
The property opened as a Holiday Inn in 1971 as part of the Cascade Plaza — once downtown’s urban renewal centerpiece — and had flown the flag of a few chains over the years.
Poletta said the city fire inspector had been checking on the progress of the alarm repairs every week or so since about mid-November.
That was when the fire department ordered the hotel shut down because of violations of the state fire code. The biggest concern, Poletta said, was the hotel’s pump that helps supply water to its sprinkler system. Also, its fire alarm system was not working properly.
About a dozen guests were staying at the hotel at the time of inspection and were relocated to another hotel. City Center was permitted to reopen after a couple of days, Poletta said, because it had the pump repaired.
The hotel agreed to limit guests to two floors — Poletta said he believes it was the fourth and fifth floors — where the alarm system’s lights and audible signals were working. Meanwhile, the hotel planned to repair portions of the system that were not working.
“On some floors, the alarms were not working at all,” Poletta said. “On other floors, they were working, but just the audible [portion], not the strobes.”
Mayor looks ahead
Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan said he wants to make sure the hotel does not stay empty for long.
“The City Center Hotel building is a strong but underutilized asset with incredible potential,” he said. “The view of downtown from the 19th floor is one of the most stunning in the city.”
The mayor added, “I will do everything I can to see that this building is quickly reoccupied.”
Horrigan said if the property is not reopened as a hotel, he would work with “regional stakeholders and developers” to attract a new use for the space that will “complement the other exciting developments taking place in our urban core.”
Thursday afternoon, “No Trespassing, Keep Out” and “Hotel Closed” signs were on the hotel’s main glass doors.
Some of the tables in the main floor bar and restaurant, clearly visible through the large glass windows, still have white tablecloths and salt and pepper shakers on them. There are at least two opened stepladders in the room as well.
Murky fade-out
County records list the property as a Rodeway Inn. It is unclear when the hotel, which had been independent for the past several years, started carrying that banner. The hotel’s main entrance glass doors are still adorned with the Akron City Center name.
No one answers the telephone.
Summit County public records show the building was certified as tax delinquent in 2015; it owes $173,532.96 in back taxes. The property also owes first-half 2016 taxes of $69,213.22, which are due on Feb. 17.
The building has an appraised value of nearly $4 million and an assessed value of just under $1.4 million.
The hotel had been downtown Akron’s only hotel for years, and city leaders had fretted that downtown lacked a national-brand hotel.
But the hotel scene has changed dramatically in the past two years, with two national brand hotels opening in or near downtown.
The Hilton Garden Inn opened in 2014 as part of the East End development of the former Goodyear campus, east of downtown.
In March of last year, the 10-story, $25 million Northside Courtyard by Marriott opened at downtown Akron’s northern edge. It is partly owned by Testa & Associates LLC, part of development company Testa Cos. of Cuyahoga Falls.
Flooding deals setback
Akron City Center owner Saheid told a Beacon Journal reporter in 2015 that the hotel suffered significant flooding in 2014 after its sprinkler system malfunctioned and a water pipe or pipes froze and then burst.
The flooding took many rooms out of commission for months while insurance issues were sorted out and repairs were made.
Saheid acknowledged in 2015 that occupancy was very low on some nights, with some potential customers leaving after seeing ongoing repairs.
In a 2013 Beacon Journal article, Saheid described business as “pretty poor” and said he thought the hotel had been hurt by businesses that had left downtown.
He said then that the rooms were “not bad at all” and he didn’t understand the hotel’s poor reputation.
Saheid also said that he had replaced the roof, updated the fire alarm system and had redecorated “at substantial cost.” He said he had been unable to secure about $5.5 million to pay off his debt on the property and for significant renovations.
“I had visions of making this a Trump Plaza,” Saheid said. “I can put in a certain amount of money. ... And, I’ve been putting in $40,000 to $50,000 a month from other places just to keep the place going, to pay staff wages, [make] minor repairs.”
David Brennan and other local business owners bought the Holiday Inn building for $900,000 in 1993 and invested $9.6 million in renovations.
The hotel reopened as a Ramada and was later a Radisson. Brennan put it up for sale in 2008, and it lost its Radisson flag that year.
Saheid struck a deal with Brennan and took over the hotel in April 2011, with the terms never disclosed. He secured a Ramada affiliation in 2011, but later dropped it.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.