By Katie Byard
Beacon Journal staff writer
St. Vincent-St. Mary High School near downtown Akron plans to demolish a nearby old office supply building to make way for a parking lot and eventually expansion of the school.
“We want to clean that corner up. It’s a gateway to downtown Akron,” said Tom Carone, principal of the Catholic high school.
The one-story building — owned by the school’s foundation — is at 183 W. Market St., at the northwest corner of Maple and West Market streets.
In the last few years, the former office supply store has served as a big billboard for the high school; decals with images of students are plastered on the windows. It also has been used in the last few years only for storage.
Carone said there is “no timetable” for the long-discussed expansion plans.
For now, he said, the plan is to turn the site into a roughly 130-space parking lot for use by faculty members, as well as people attending events at the high school, which has about 650 students.
“Parking has always been a problem,” Carone said.
Carone said the site will be landscaped and there will be a sign at the corner letting folks know the lot is part of the St. Vincent-St. Mary campus.
Joe Weber, chairman of the school’s executive board, said money must be raised for the project. He said the school will be rolling out a fundraising campaign in the next several months.
Akron industrialist David Brennan and his wife, Ann Amer Brennan, donated the property to the school’s foundation several years ago. The donation was part of a $10-million plus gift the Brennans made to the school.
The building previously had been occupied by Corporate Express, a national distributor of office products and furniture. Earlier, it was the home of the Costigan family’s office supply business.
In late 2015, the school had another nearby old building torn down. That building, which dated to 1928 and started as a Studebaker dealership, was at the corner of West Market and West streets. It also was part of Brennan’s donation to the school.
The site at West Market and West Streets is now planted with grass. It also is to be used in a future expansion of the school. Some in town lamented the loss of the old building, but Carone said at the time that it had become too difficult to keep up with the graffiti on the building.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or on Facebook at www.facebook.com.