OPPORTUNITY

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company is one of the largest tire makers in the world, with their World Headquarters located in Akron, Ohio. The campus included 5 million square feet and more than 400 acres of property. As the company contracted, Goodyear found their space to be inefficient and considered leaving Akron. IRG created a comprehensive strategy to keep Goodyear in the city. As the project’s master developer, their plan involved consolidating Goodyear’s operations and building a new, 642,000 square foot World Headquarters building; purchasing the remaining campus area; controlling the headquarter and campus construction/renovation (while considering preservation efforts); and repositioning the remainder of the site.

OUTCOME

The redevelopment strategy and company transition for Goodyear was seamless. IRG’s expert team created a new vision for the company and the iconic area, re-branding it The East End. The East End became a live, work, play environment with loft-style apartments, office space, retail stores, restaurants, theater, gymnasium and a Hilton Garden Inn hotel (the first new hotel inside Akron city limits since 1980). Not only did these efforts benefit Goodyear, the City of Akron retained thousands of jobs that would have been lost and now enjoys the significant economic investments made by IRG including an improved street-scape along one of the city’s main corridors.

The East End has become an economic and social center for the city. The project’s award-winning, loft-style apartments remain extremely popular with a 97% occupancy rate. In 2018, Akron-based health insurance company, SummaHealth moved to the site, retaining 300 jobs in the city. Also in 2018, B&W announced it would move the company’s world headquarters and 700 employees to the site. Ernst & Young also left their long-time space in downtown Akron to join their project with 85+ employees. A new retail strip center was created to align with the architectural integrity of the property and is now home to bustling Starbucks and Handel’s Ice Cream stores. The East End has gained national media attention from The Wall Street Journal and Forbes Magazine and received dozens of industry accolades for its highly-unique, adaptive re-use approach.