Eric Anthony Johnson is resigning from the top post at University Park Alliance, a high-profile Akron nonprofit seeking to renew a large geographical area in the city’s core.
Johnson, who was appointed executive director in July 2010, leaves several months after the alliance received a big financial boost: an award of nearly $8 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The award includes a $6 million grant to be paid over five years and a $1.8 million low-interest loan for a development project on East Market Street near downtown.
Johnson’s resignation is effective April 12, according to a statement from the alliance released Thursday afternoon.
He could not be reached immediately for comment.
In an e-mail sent out to alliance supporters, Johnson said he was resigning for “personal and family reasons.”
He went on to say that “For the last three years the university park alliance’s mission has been my passion and my most important undertaking ... I have been thankful for and happy in my job with University Park Alliance.”
Johnson, a native of New Orleans, left the Cleveland Port Authority in 2010 to take the top job at the alliance, which has the ambitious goal of renewing a 50-block area around the University of Akron.
Johnson, with experience working in federal, state and local agencies in urban development, was chosen from a field of 70 local and national candidates.
David James, superintendent of the Akron Public Schools and the alliance’s board chairman, said in the alliance’s prepared statement that “Johnson stepped in when UPA needed direction and provided that for us, setting us on a productive path for the future.”
Johnson leaves as the first alliance-owned development, University Square, is under way at East Market and Forge streets, near state Route 8. The $1.8 loan from the Knight Foundation was for this project.
The project’s first construction effort, the new Child Guidance & Family Services building, recently opened.
A complex of retail, office and restaurant mixed-use buildings also is planned for the site, previously occupied by the former Fred Martin Chevrolet auto dealership.
Less than a year after Johnson joined the alliance, it unveiled a master plan developed by architecture and planning firm EE&K of New York.
The plan envisions a wellness center and loft apartments along the canal near Akron Children’s Hospital and downtown; developing the East Exchange Street corridor by the University of Akron; and creating a focal point of research and development firms, retail and living spaces along East Market Street near Summa Health System’s City Hospital and UA.
The alliance, in its prepared statement, also noted the Community Neighborhood Network has grown under Johnson. It is made up of block-watch captains, members of the faith community, and nonprofit and business participants who regularly meet to work on plans, including improving housing in the area.
Housing has been a focus of the group, with the alliance buying 12 rental properties along Excelsior Avenue in an effort to stabilize the neighborhood. That was on top of other houses that the UPA managed at the time.
Overall, the Knight Foundation has awarded $18 million to UPA in the last six years.
The Miami-based Knight Foundation invests in communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers, including the Beacon Journal.
According to the alliance’s latest available Form 990 (nonprofit) federal tax return, Johnson’s salary was $60,000 in the tax year ended June 30, 2011.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.
Beacon Journal business writer Betty Lin-Fisher contributed to this report.