Construction ahead: Here’s some projects coming to Stark County in 2025

Canton Repository (12/26/24) Construction crews will be busy in Stark County in 2025 with projects to address housing and medical needs, give businesses new or expanded homes, reconstruct roadways and improve local parks.

Here’s a look at some of the construction projects that will be underway in 2025:

Stark County housing projects planned for 2025

Local planning commissions are seeing an increase in housing development projects for 2025 that help address Stark County’s housing shortage for people with low and middle income and for people who are aged 55 and older.

Canton For All People, a nonprofit development corporation formed by Crossroads United Methodist Church and the Lemmon and DeHoff family foundations, has multiple housing projects planned for the Newton and Shorb neighborhoods, two of Canton’s poorest areas.

Its first multifamily housing project, Newton Family Apartments, will be under construction in 2025 at the site of the former Canton Inn at 1031 Tuscarawas St. W.

The four-story, 52-unit multifamily apartment building includes mostly three-bedroom and two-bedroom units with a handful of one-bedroom apartments in the roughly 66,500-square-foot building. The nearly $19 million project also will feature 1,800 square feet of commercial space, 80 parking spaces, a playground and social services and resources provided through Canton For All People.

Canton For All People also intends to build 10 single-family homes in northwest Canton in 2025 to supplement the roughly two dozen homes it has built or renovated this year.

Other housing complexes that are expected to be underway in 2025 include:

Roberts Station, a proposed 50-unit housing development at 2640 Roberts Ave NW (next to the Hall of Fame Fitness Center) for people aged 55 years and older who want to still live independently. Pete Schwiegeraht of Pivotal Development said the $15 million project, which is expected to open by summer, will feature one-bedroom and two-bedroom units in a four-story, building with open floor plans, full-size kitchens, in-unit laundry connections, and accessibility features such as grab bars and ramps. The complex also will offer a community room with activities and programs, a fitness center and computer center. Canton’s ABCD Inc. will serve as the complex’s service coordinator.
The Reserve on Woodlawn, a multibuilding retirement community at 2824 Woodlawn Ave. NW in Jackson Township. Developers William Lemmon and Bob DeHoff, through their McKinley Holdings and McKinley Development companies, plan to redevelop the 46,000-square-foot building that most recently housed Cost Sharing Solutions and formerly Redicon Corp. into 24 luxury apartments. They also plan to build 42 independent living villas and a 142-unit residential care facility with specialized units for memory care, assisted living and independent living. The development will feature pickleball and bocce ball courts, a dog park, walking paths and a fitness area, according to presentations given to Jackson Township’s trustees and zoning board earlier this year.
Parkway Lofts, a four-story, 43-unit development at 1300 Christmas Seal Drive NW in Canton, that will contain a mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units with energy-efficiency appliances, washer and dryer hookups, walk-in closets and vinyl plank flooring, according to Spire Development’s plan presented to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.

Stark County Crisis Receiving Center to be built

Coleman Health Services, which handles Stark County’s crisis hotline, provides walk-in and mobile crisis services and offers mental health and substance abuse counseling, plans to demolish its building at 2421 13^th St. NW in February to create the Stark County Crisis Receiving Center.

Steven Bossart, vice president of business development and marketing for Coleman, said the roughly $11 million project will help Coleman improve and expand its crisis services. The project does not affect Coleman’s services at its Canton office at 400 Tuscarawas St. W or at its Alliance location at 1410 W. State St.

The project will create a two-story, nearly 22,000-square-foot facility that will provide 10 individual rooms and bathrooms for people who are in crisis and need a place to stay short-term until they are ready to return home or move to a different facility.

The new building will offer 20 new assessment rooms, more space for the 988 suicide and crisis hotline call center, a shared nursing center and rooms where emergency responders can bring residents who are in crisis for assessment and monitoring. Coleman, which is based in Kent and provides services in 42 Ohio counties, plans to add 41 full-time-equivalent jobs with a payroll of $3.1 million due to the expansion.

Starting in February, people seeking Coleman’s crisis stabilization services will be directed to Phoenix Rising Behavioral Healthcare and Recovery at 624 Market Ave. N for intake and assessment. Coleman has leased six beds at Aultman Hospital for people needing short-term crisis stabilization.

Construction is expected to be completed by September 2026.

Business projects underway in 2025

Gregory Industries plans to open its world headquarters in Jackson Township in March.

The roughly 24,000-square-foot facility, which sits west of Interstate 77 and north of Applegrove Street NW (and can be seen on Interstate 77 just south of the Shuffel Street NW exit), will house the manufacturer’s administrative, accounting, marketing and sales employees. Gregory Industries plans to move roughly 20 employees to the new site and hire 36 more employees over the next several years.

Roughly 175 employees will remain at the company’s 30-acre campus at 4100 13^th St. SW in Canton Township where it will continue galvanizing and manufacturing steel highway, fence and strut products.

Other planned business projects include:

Foundations Health Solutions, a long-term care company managing more than 60 nursing homes, has received conditional approval from the Stark County Regional Planning Commission to build a 73,585-square-foot nursing facility near the Greens at Belden shopping complex in Jackson Township.
Barnes & Noble plans to open a bookstore in February at 5501 Dressler Road NW in Jackson Township. The store, which will take over the former Arhaus Furniture location, will have a cafe and fireplace.
Progressive Treatment Solutions of Illinois plans to open Consume Cannabis as a dispensary for medical and recreational marijuana at 2160 W. State St. (former Adultmart site) in Alliance. The company already has locations in Arizona, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, including a cultivation facility in Canton.

Road construction projects planned for 2025

Multiple multimillion-dollar road projects are planned for 2025 in Stark County.

The Stark County Engineer’s Office plans to widen, add turn lanes and install raised medians along Dressler Road NW in Jackson Township to reduce traffic congestion and rear-end vehicle crashes along one of Belden Village’s primary corridors.

The roughly $5.5 million project will add a second turn lane to Dressler Road NW, Everhard Road NW and Belden Park Crossing. A proposed raised median on Dressler between University Street and Everhard Road NW would prevent motorists from turning left to get to a business, which crash statistics show often leads to rear-end and sideswipe crashes, according to the county engineer’s office.

Construction is slated to begin by summer and be completed in 2026.

Other planned projects along busy roads include:

Canton and the Ohio Department of Transportation plan to make Tuscarawas Street E more walker friendly through a nearly $3 million streetscape project between Cherry and Gibbs avenues NE. The project, which is expected to begin in the spring, will rebuild the deteriorated sidewalks, reduce the width of the street at pedestrian crossings, add ornamental street lighting, brick accents, trees and curbs and establish a bike lane. The city also plans to repave Cleveland Avenue NW from 12^th Street to 55^th Street NW as part of a $4.6 million project.

ODOT is planning to improve the traffic signals, turning lanes and storm sewers along Fulton Drive NW, from Frank Avenue to Everhard Road NW, in Jackson Township. The $1.6 million project, expected to begin in June, will add a right turn lane on Fulton at Frank, a right turn lane on Fulton at Everhard and a right turn lane on Frank at the Fulton intersection.

ODOT also plans to spend $4 million to repave Interstate 77 from the Tuscarawas County line to nearly Fohl Street SW in Bethlehem and Pike townships. The project, which is slated to begin in July, also includes minor bridge repairs.

Alliance plans to reconstruct, widen and realign Beechwood Avenue and South Sawburg Avenue where they meet State Street to improve the intersection’s alignment and lengthen the left turning lanes. The nearly $2 million project also includes upgrading traffic signals at the intersection and six other intersections along State Street, construction of new sidewalk on the east side of Beechwood Avenue and reconstruction of the GetGo gas station access drive on Beechwood Avenue to limit vehicle access to right turns for entering and exiting. The project is expected to start by summer.

Park projects underway in 2025

The Stark County Park District plans to open its newest park, Pike Ridge Park, to the public in April.

The property, which served as Canton’s sewer treatment area years ago, features rolling hills with elevated views of the surrounding area, several ponds and various wildlife habitats on the 520-acre property at 7379 Cleveland Ave SE in Pike Township.

The park, which is owned by the city of Canton and managed by Stark Parks, is currently open only to guided programs. Future plans include additional equestrian and hiking trails, possible archery range and tower, boat launch along Nimishillen Creek, a shelter and restrooms.

Other park projects planned for 2025 include:

Massillon plans to start its nearly $2 million, multiyear project to enhance Reservoir Park this summer. The first phase includes restoring a waterway at the park and reinforcing the streambank around Sippo Creek. Later phases include building a nearly 10-foot-deep pond, adding a spillway and building fishing piers, and repurposing the pumphouse at 770 Reservoir Drive NE that was reconstructed in 1886.
Stark Parks and ODOT plan to replace the deteriorating Minerva Municipal Park pedestrian bridge over Sandy Creek in Minerva. The project, which is expected to begin in the summer and take 17 months to complete, is the first piece of the Minerva Connector Trail project between Minerva High School and the Nickel Plate Trail. During construction, the southernmost Minerva Municipal Park pedestrian bridge and a portion of Minerva Connector Trail will be closed for all pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
Memorial Park in Alliance will get four new military monuments in 2025. The Alliance Memorial Park Project Committee plans to install the statues to honor veterans involved in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the War on Terror, which represents veterans from the recent wars in the Middle East. The park already has a Vietnam War monument.