Questions have been raised about the future of Downtown Akron due to the growing amount of empty office space.
Many businesses have implemented remote work, or are moving out of their downtown locations entirely, like FirstEnergy.
Top city officials, including outgoing Mayor Dan Horrigan, have expressed concern about the financial impact of the shift to remote work, given the city’s investments in Downtown in the last several decades.
Shammas Malik’s outlook, on the other hand, is not as “doom and gloom,” according to the city's next mayor.
“We certainly are facing that challenge, but I think that at the end of the day, we have opportunity,” Malik said.
While demand for commercial space has declined, the city has seen a surge in residents wanting to move Downtown in recent years, Malik said.
In his first term, he wants to focus on making Downtown a better place to live to in turn help it become a more attractive place to work.
“You add another 1,000 or 2,000 people, now you're going to add more retail, you're going to add more restaurants, and to get more people who don't necessarily live Downtown to come out for dinner, for lunch,” Malik said. “I think it creates that cycle, and then there's more of a rationale for, you know, a company to be located here.”
Malik’s team is already in talks with some businesses headquartered in other neighborhoods or Akron’s suburbs to encourage them to relocate Downtown, he added.
He hopes the availability and price of commercial spaces will be a selling point.
“That is something that we're that we're taking a look at because, like I said, you can get really good deals in this market right now,” Malik said. “I think it's an ideal time for the folks who are, you know, kind of in the suburbs to consider being located back Downtown.”
Malik is closely monitoring the financial impact of remote work, as well as any new laws down the line that might change how cities can calculate income tax around working from home, he added.
“Am I concerned about that going forward and with the potential big changes in state law? Sure. But we're not going to grow our way out of it without embracing flexible work as well,” Malik said.
He'll encourage businesses to keep hybrid work as a way to attract talent and grow Downtown, he added.
“We're going to have to embrace some of the post-COVID work patterns that are already there; like, we're not going back,” Malik added. “With that being said, I'm mindful of the financial impact, too, and we've seen actually our city income tax do okay during COVID and post-COVID.”
In addition to businesses, Malik will push for more entertainment spaces Downtown, as well as a grocery store, which the area currently doesn’t have.
He’s heard from students at the University of Akron, which is located Downtown, that they’d like to have more fun things to do.
“Just places where young people can congregate safely and have fun, I think is, really important. You know, you can build a skatepark, you know, an arcade, you can build all kinds of different things,” Malik said. “I think Downtown can be a place where young people kind of get a different experience than they necessarily get in their neighborhoods.”
City officials don’t have the capacity to execute these goals all alone, he added. He’d like to see a Community Development Corporation – a nonprofit focused on the revitalization of a specific neighborhood - created for the area.
