SummaCare is moving its headquarters and 300 employees starting this summer from downtown Akron to the former Goodyear campus now known as the East End.
SummaCare has been in its present home, a $30 million, five-story building put up on 6.9 acres that previously was the site of the former Portage Hotel, since December 2002. Ground broke on the soon-to-be vacated building in February 2001.
All employees are expected to have moved into the new site at the former Goodyear headquarters in November.
SummaCare said its current headquarters at Main and Market streets is now too large. The health-care business said it signed a three-year lease for 65,000 square feet of space; all employees will be on one floor.
This will be the first significant business tenant in the East End complex off East Market Street, according to owner and developer Industrial Realty Group.
The move also will create a "medical corridor" along Market Street, according to a press release Monday from Summa Health.
SummaCare's move to the East End coincides with Summa Health’s plans for a new 300,000-square-foot patient tower and a medical office building on its Akron campus. The Market Street medical corridor will include Summa Health’s Akron campus, Summa Rehab Hospital and later this year SummaCare.
“SummaCare is clearly demonstrating its commitment to Akron by keeping its headquarters in the city,” Akron Mayor Daniel Horrigan said in a statement. “The East End neighborhood, with its blend of residences and new companies moving in, is a perfect example of the progress we are making throughout our city. I commend SummaCare for becoming the first tenant.”
Kathy Geier, chair of the SummaCare Board of Directors, expressed how important it is for SummaCare to become more efficient in its operations while maintaining its unequivocal commitment to Akron.
“Our current home on North Main is simply too large for our operations today,” Kathy Geier, chairwoman of SummaCare's board of direcdtors, said in a statement.
“Our employees have enjoyed being in that great location for nearly 20 years but the time is right to move," she said. "Our new East End building will offer even more amenities for our employees and is located in another area of the city that is truly on an upswing.”
Bob Paskowski, SummaCare's interim president, said the new location will have enough space so that all employees can gather at one location.
“In our current location, it was a challenge to all meet together as a team. In the East End complex, we will have access to a large, 300 seat-community room as well as the Goodyear Theater,” he said in a statement.
The restored Goodyear Theater can seat more than 1,500 people.
The move by SummaCare as its first major tenant is a key to future development at the East End, said Carol Smith, IRG vice president.
“We expect other businesses to follow SummaCare’s lead,” Smith said in a statement. “We expect to have additional exciting developments to announce over the next few weeks and months.”