LOCAL BUSINESS
School finds home
Summit Academy, operator of charter schools for students with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorders, has purchased a shopping plaza in the Ellet area of Akron and plans to move its local elementary school there.
Summit Academy Management plans to refurbish the former Sears Hardware in the Carlet Plaza off Canton Road, turning it into a school for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Nancy Peacock, Summit Academy spokeswoman, said the plan is to have the new building open by Sept. 3.
The current elementary school is at 88 Kent St. in Akron, in the former Annunciation St. John School.
Summit Academy Management, headquartered in Akron, paid $565,000 for the 31,800 square-foot plaza on 3.3 acres. David Kaplan, senior associate of NAI Cummins Real Estate in Akron, represented Summit Academy Management.
Peacock said the elementary school now has about 110 students. The new school will be big enough for at least 20 additional students, she said.
The former Sears Hardware store — at roughly 21,400 square feet — makes up the bulk of the plaza. The Sears Hardware closed last year, leaving Great Clips as the only remaining tenant. There are no immediate plans for the remainder of the plaza, Peacock said.
Summit Academy, with 27 schools throughout Ohio, has a middle school on 2791 Mogadore Road in Ellet, and a high school at 464 S. Hawkins Ave., the former Beth El Congregation synagogue in West Akron.
Ferro takes position
Specialty chemical company Ferro Corp. in Mayfield Heights urged its shareholders to vote for its slate of three candidates as it wages a proxy contest with a dissident group and also a hostile takeover attempt by A. Schulman Inc.
Ferro announced it mailed a letter to shareholders asking them to support the company director candidates at the upcoming annual shareholders meeting on May 7.
Dissident shareholders FrontFour Capital Group and Quinpario Partners are running a three-member slate for Ferro’s board. Ferro’s letter said the shareholder candidates don’t add value and have not offered strategic plans; adding any of the directors “would only disrupt the executive of Ferro’s strategy,” the company said.
Schulman Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Gingo said this week he expected the outcome of Ferro’s annual meeting will be the next major step in Schulman’s attempted purchase of the company.
corporate OUTLOOK
Nestle considers future
Nestle SA’s chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said Switzerland is becoming more difficult as a business location after voters last month approved some of the world’s toughest limits on executives’ pay. Nestle is the parent of the Stouffer brand frozen food operations based in the Cleveland suburb of Solon. Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, has invested more than $3.4 billion in Switzerland over the past 10 years, boosting its headcount in the country by 3,500 to more than 10,000 employees, he said. More than 60 percent of the company’s global research and development spending is in its homeland.
REAL ESTATE
Mortgage rates fall
Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages fell sharply this week and moved closer to historic lows, keeping home-buying and refinancing attractive. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for the 30-year fixed loan fell to 3.43 percent from 3.54 percent last week. That’s near the 3.31 percent reached in November, which was the lowest on records dating to 1971. The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage dipped to 2.65 percent from 2.74 percent last week.
Compiled from staff and wire reports