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The city of ����ֱ��'s downtown redevelopment efforts earned the Best Project Award for 2012 from the Ohio Economic Development Association.

The Ohio Economic Development Association’s annual excellence awards program recognizes the achievements of individuals and organizations throughout Ohio in the areas of economic and workforce development.

The statewide award recognizes the $106 million public and private investment in redeveloping a large section of downtown ����ֱ��. So far, this project has produced more than 950 construction jobs and 700 new jobs in the city’s downtown district. The redevelopment of downtown ����ֱ�� promised to be transformational, as ����ֱ�� State University officials, city administrators, the Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority (PARTA) and its partners have collaborated to make the city of ����ֱ�� an excellent place to live, work, study and visit.

The downtown ����ֱ�� redevelopment project includes:

• The ����ֱ�� State University Hotel and Conference Center, which is scheduled to open June 2013. The hotel will have 94 guestrooms, and the conference center can accommodate up to 300 people. The hotel and conference center is a partnership between the ����ֱ�� State University Foundation and the Pizzuti Companies of Columbus, Ohio.
• PARTA’s new ����ֱ�� Central Gateway Multimodal Facility, which will rise across from the new hotel and be located at Erie and Depeyster streets and  accommodate buses, pedestrians, bicycles and cars.
• Acorn Alley and its second phase, Acorn Alley II, a retail office space development created by ����ֱ�� resident and business leader Ron Burbick of RLB Phoenix Properties.
• College Town ����ֱ��, a pedestrian-oriented shopping office and lifestyle center developed by Fairmount Properties and its partners Premier Development Partners LLC and BUD ����ֱ�� LLC. The185,000-square-foot development includes the new AMETEK and Davey Tree buildings.
• The extension of the ����ֱ�� State University Esplanade that will strengthen the ties between the university and the city by providing a physical link, providing students with a safe pathway to visit, enjoy and patronize downtown ����ֱ�� and its businesses, as well as connecting residents and visitors to the ����ֱ�� Campus. The new building for ����ֱ�� State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design will be located along the University Esplanade extension.

During the Fall 2011 Bowman Breakfast, ����ֱ�� State President Lester A. Lefton said the redevelopment efforts are a “recruitment strategy, a retention strategy and a part of what great universities do.”

“We are trying to create a pedestrian-oriented, people-scaled sense of place,” Lefton said during the Bowman Breakfast. “Place matters, and ����ֱ�� is going to be a place that matters. The linkage of the university to the downtown project through the University Esplanade is going to be very important to this.”

For more information about the Ohio Economic Development Association, visit .