Merging Growth Missions

MERGING GROWTH MISSIONS

November 27, 2009

Section: A
Page: A1

Betty Lin-Fisher, Beacon Journal business writer

Thanks to a $2.5 million grant, the University Park Alliance was born in 2001 with a mission to revitalize a 50-block area around the University of Akron. Eight years later, there are definite signs of progress in new buildings and community projects with promises of more to come. Among the private and public developments in the UPA area are the new InfoCision Stadium at a cost of $61.6 million, the $28 million Cooper Cancer Center on Summa Health System's Akron City Hospital Campus, and Select Specialty Hospital for critically ill patients at $20 million.

The UPA now is at a crossroads. While it has successfully seen partnerships from alliance members, at the same time, there has been a smaller, community development organization called the University Park Development Corp. that has also had the same mission as the UPA.

The smaller UPDC has functioned with a volunteer board of directors and has been able to do little, as it relies on its annual University Park Art Fair at Grace Park for funding, along with occasional funding from the UPA.
But as a community development corporation, UPDC is able to qualify for certain types of city, state and federal grants that the UPA couldn't.

The two organizations are now exploring banding together to create a new nonprofit organization to eliminate the confusion between the two groups. Parties involved said they have an agreement in principle to transition to a new nonprofit organization away from the University of Akron, which has run the UPA, but there are still a lot of decisions that need to be made. The major groundwork could be in place by the end of January to create a new board of directors to move forward.
''UPA has grown in the number of partners and in importance and now needs a broader base of support,'' said University of Akron President Luis Proenza, who formed the alliance with Summa, the city of Akron and the UPDC in 2001.

''We believe this is something that not only has to happen, but we must remain actively involved,'' Proenza said. ''The end result is in our best interest.''

Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic said combining the two organizations will allow both to re-organize and re-evaluate to better serve the needs of economic development and taking care of the neighborhoods.

GOOD COLLABORATION
The UPA collaboration has been a good, organized way to have partners engaged in long-term plans, Plusquellic said. Partners, such as the UA and Summa, have talked to each other about the development of their campuses instead of competing for land, he said. The alliance has also been one of the best in the country, he said.
''It probably took a lead agency like the university and I compliment them for taking that lead and having this under them. But I think it's grown,'' the mayor said. ''With the growth and the interest in people seeing this carried out, I think it's time to have it come out and have a separate organization.''

RESIGNATION ANNOUNCED
Things such as the name of the new nonprofit organization, location of offices and even who will lead the organization are still being discussed. Last month, UPA Executive Director Ken Stapleton announced his resignation, effective at the end of June.
Stapleton said he had reached many of his goals for the UPA after nearly seven years and he intended to return to Miami with his family. Stapleton also said it was a good time for the new group to find a new leader.
Current UPDC Board Chairman Scott Read said his goal is to make sure the organization has sustainable funding and a clear mission. But Read said he intends to step down as board chair after the transition, because he needs to devote his attentions on his growing business, Dunholt Medical LLC.

Read, who has been on the UPDC board for two years, said one of the first things he asked when he joined was why the UPDC and UPA names were so similar.

''That comes down to funding, perception: It boils down to everything. Having two entities so closely aligned in mission and names really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. That really was the impetus for us to go ahead and combine UPA and UPDC,'' said Read.
UPA has grown to encompass 10 formal partners, including the Greater Akron Chamber, the Akron Public Schools, the Beacon Journal and the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority. This year, Akron General Health System and Akron Children's Hospital joined. Even though their headquarters are not physically in the alliance boundaries, they have operations and efforts within the alliance area.
Since 2001, the UPA has been housed at UA, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with in-kind support from the university and other partners. The UPA is in its third year of a $10 million, five-year grant awarded by the Knight Foundation in 2006.
The City of Akron also has matched the $10 million grant with projects and improvements in the area.

The Knight Foundation is supportive of the transition to a new, nonprofit organization, said the partners.

Thomas J. Strauss, Summa president and CEO, one of the founding UPA partners, said that with the overlap between UPA and UPDC, now is the right time to bring the organizations together ''toward greater unity and focus of more than just economic development in the region. We can look at our neighborhoods and how we can continue to make them the best.''

Amy Fulford, founder and president of Cleveland-based Enlight, consultants who were brought in by the UPA to more directly engage the partners, said the university has played a strong leadership role. But she added that to truly transform the geography, the university needs more direct interaction from the other partners.

''The one thing that has been clear all along is that the partners have been committed to the geography and transformation, but the university was in the driver's seat and they weren't sure how to use everybody else and everybody else wasn't sure how they should be used,'' she said.

CATALYST FUNCTION
Fulford said a new organization can serve as a catalyst to spark more action by other organizations, including funding.
''If we think about the possibility of using the broader-based partner support, both directly and indirectly, as a way to bring even more money to the geography, there's even more we can do,'' Fulford said. ''We would basically leverage the Knight fund by getting other foundations energized by what we're doing,''

Developers are watching the UPA's momentum, too.

''I think we're on the verge of something great,'' said Mike Wojno, president and CEO of Wojno Development. Wojno has been involved with the UPA from two sides, first as a consultant representing Summa during UPA's initial years, and more recently as a private developer of Select Specialty Hospital within the UPA area.

INVESTMENT ESTIMATE
Wojno estimated his company has invested ''north of nine figures'' in Select Specialty Hospital and other investments in future projects in the UPA area.

''Akron has a lot of potential and we absolutely believe that with our pocketbooks and minds,'' he said.
Wojno, who was primarily a suburban residential housing developer before getting involved with the alliance and later in downtown development, said he has liked the ability to work within a shared institutional, governmental and private atmosphere.
''In order to get my type of investment, that speaks to my confidence in what this area can and will do,'' he said.

REBOUND EXPECTED
Wojno said he wants to see more local and out-of-town developers invest. The recession has put a damper on things, but Wojno believes things will rebound quickly when credit is more readily available.

Wojno has a major mixed-use project he hopes to be able to announce within a year ''smack dab in the University Park Alliance area.''
''I think there will be more developers who come in when there's more of a critical mass and credit,'' Wojno said, possibly within the next 18 months.

Stapleton, the UPA's exiting executive director, said there's been a lot happening, but there's still a lot to do.
''We have changed the way people think about this neighborhood,'' he said.