Summa Health System is bringing new life to the former Roadway Express Inc. corporate headquarters as a new administrative center for as many as 800 workers.
Summit County’s largest employer purchased the vacant office building on Gorge Boulevard this week for nearly $6.1 million, the health system confirmed on Friday.
Within the next couple of months, Summa will start relocating administrative employees from the Akron City Hospital campus to the former Roadway site, health system spokeswoman Jennifer Farquhar said. Patient-related services will remain on the hospital campus.
The move will free up space on the City Hospital campus for patient services while bringing together administrative departments that have been housed in crowded offices or spread out among numerous buildings, she said.
“It should definitely free up additional space for patient care,” she said. “It gives us excellent potential to grow.”
The health system still is determining which departments will move from the City Hospital campus and how the vacated space will be used, Farquhar said. For now, the health system’s top executives, including its chief executive , will remain on the hospital campus.
“Right now, the focus will be on departments on the Summa Akron City Hospital campus,” Farquhar said. “Eventually, there could be other plans.”
The roughly 270,000-square-foot Roadway building has been vacant since employees left at the end of March.
Trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc., parent of the former Roadway, said in January it intended to sell the former Roadway headquarters in Akron to Stuart Lichter, the developer of the new Goodyear headquarters. The deal, however, never was completed for the building, which had been for sale since 2009.
Summa was attracted to the Roadway property because it provides ready-to-move-in office space near state Route 8, Farquhar said.
“Travel to and from this center to the various Summa hospitals should be very easy,” she said.
Along with City Hospital, Summa owns St. Thomas, Barberton and Wadsworth-Rittman hospitals and is part owner of Western Reserve Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls. The health system also has an affiliation deal with Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna.
The deal includes office furniture for the building, which Farqhuar estimates is about 80 percent furnished.
“Mostly cosmetic work is all that is needed,” she said.
The property has an appraised value of about $8.76 million, according to Summit County property records.
"We're still within the Akron city limits, which is excellent," Farquhar said.
The deal comes even as Summa continues to look for a potential new minority owner.
The health system recently announced that it is exploring partnership opportunities with larger, "like-minded" nonprofit health systems as it prepares for the changes within the industry. Hospital leaders have declined to identify the potential partners or to say whether they are limited to Northeast Ohio.
Summa officials have said they are continuing business as usual during the talks, which could result in no changes for the health system.
Summa has about 8,100 employees in its fully owned entities and more than 11,000 if its partially owned and affiliated ventures are included.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com.