The historic Greystone Hall in downtown Akron is to be connected with a planned new glass-and-brick structure to form a new hotel in downtown, city officials and developers said this morning.
Developers plan to build the new structure — which would house all of the hotel’s roughly 160 rooms — on the site of the onetime High Street Christian Church, whose congregation has moved to Green.
Financing plans for the $40 million-plus project are still being worked on, and is unclear when the brick church building would be torn down.
Currently, downtown Akron has just one hotel — the aging Akron City Centre Hotel, a former Radisson, off Main Street.
A glass atrium is to connect the city-owned Greystone Hall and the new building, which is to house a swimming pool and all the hotel rooms.
The city-owned Greystone, which is full of architectural details, will house restaurants and meeting facilities.
The hotel project brings together local and out-of-state investors, including Amerimar Realty Co. of Philadelphia.
Financing — not yet in place, but being worked on — would include a mix of cash and debt. The developers said they want to go after state and federal tax credits, with the help of the Development Finance Authority, the new name of the Summit County Port Authority.
Greystone, orginally built as a gathering spot for the fraternal group called the Masons, was constructed in 1917. The city took over ownership in 2001, and the building is now operated by the neighboring John S. Knight convention center as a meeting and special event facility.
The convention center is across Mill from Greystone.
The city plans to retain partial ownership of Greystone, under an economic development plan still being formed.
