New housing complex planned for Canton Inn site, free food market opens on Shorb

Canton Repository (12/7/23) A year after crews demolished the troubled Canton Inn, the plans – and funding – for a new family housing complex on the site are taking shape.

A half-mile away on Shorb Avenue NW, a market offering free fresh food opened last week.

And Canton officials have committed more city and federal funds to the Shorb neighborhood to help homeowners improve their homes and to help developers build new ones.

“The neighborhood, with the challenges it has, didn’t get this way in just two years,” said Don Ackerman, executive director of Canton For All People and lead pastor of Crossroads United Methodist Church. “We’re thrilled at the progress, but, at the same time, we have a lot of work to do.”

Canton For All People, a nonprofit development corporation formed by Crossroads United and the Lemmon and DeHoff family foundations, has been leading the change over the past two years in the Shorb neighborhood, which has among the highest poverty and crime rates in the city.

Roughly $3.9 million of the $5 million in federal funding that Canton City Council has set aside for the Shorb area has been directed to Canton For All People’s planned projects in the neighborhood between Tuscarawas Street W and 12th Street NW and between McKinley Avenue NW and Monument Road NW. Council on Nov. 20 agreed to also reallocate $2.1 million in federal funds to help Canton For All People build the new housing complex on the former Canton Inn site.

Here’s what to know about the latest plans for the Shorb neighborhood:

Former Canton Inn site to become Newton Family Apartments

Canton For All People has partnered with Woda Cooper Companies, a Columbus-based developer that focuses on housing for low-income residents, to build a 52-unit apartment complex at the former Canton Inn site at 1031 Tuscarawas St. W that was demolished in November 2022.

The apartment complex, which will be named Newton Family Apartments, will occupy nearly 2 acres of land and span the former Canton Inn site and a next-door property that was purchased in 2022 by the city’s economic development arm, the Canton Community Improvement Corp. The complex will feature a mix of two-bedroom and three-bedroom units with a scattering of one-bedroom units. It also will boast 1,500 square feet of commercial space and a playground.

Ackerman said a variety of ideas for the commercial space have been discussed but nothing has been finalized. Ideas have included moving the nonprofit’s offices there, relocating or opening a new business there, and giving a nearby food truck space to open a restaurant.

“It was a minor victory when we tore (the Canton Inn) down,” Ackerman said. “It will be a major victory when we can put back in the community some good, safe and affordable units. … By putting something this beautiful, this life-giving on this site of what was a really challenging situation with the Canton Inn says something about where the community is headed and where we are headed as a city.”

The project is estimated to cost $18.4 million. Canton City Council helped fill a $3 million funding gap that developers had for the project by reallocating $2.1 million in federal housing funding that had been set aside for a different multifamily housing project, called McKinley Square.

Mayor Thomas Bernabei, who recommended the reallocation, said McKinley Square, which was a proposed 48-unit complex in the 1000 block of Cleveland Avenue NW, no longer was moving forward because its developers did not secure the state low-income housing tax credits they needed.

Council also used $900,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding that it had previously set aside for the Shorb neighborhood to fill the remaining fund gap for Newton Family Apartments. The project also has received private donations and state low-income housing tax credits.

Developers hope to break ground before summer and have it completed by the end of 2025. Woda Cooper will own 75% of the complex once completed, and Canton For All People will own the rest.

Shorb Neighborhood Market and Connection Center opens

The former Marshall Maytag building that had sat empty at 603 Shorb Ave. NW since 1997 is now offering fresh food and resources to residents.

The Shorb Neighborhood Market and Connection Center opened last week with a line of people at its door. The market, which served roughly 150 people daily at its former location at Crossroads church, will host a grand opening ceremony at 10 a.m. Dec. 13.

The market has expanded hours in its new location. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, it offers free produce and grocery items through its partnership with the Akron-Canton Foodbank, Agape Bread Ministry in Hartville, local famers and other partners. It is open to anyone who is eligible under the Foodbank’s guidelines, and residents can shop once a day.

Besides the market, the site also offers a conference room with a table, 16 swivel chairs and a flat-screen TV that community organizations could use for classes and outreach initiatives. Groups also can use a table in the market area to meet with residents.

“We’re just trying to connect people to the good parts of Canton and the services that are available to them,” said Mike Farmer, managing director for Canton For All People and associate pastor at Crossroads.

Canton For All People purchased the building for $50,000 in 2022 and has completed roughly $195,000 in renovations since then with funding help from private donors.

New development and beautification program

Canton’s Planning Department has launched a Housing Development and Beautification program to help Shorb-area residents improve their homes and build new ones.

City Planning Director Donn Angus said $100,000 in grant funding has been set aside to reimburse homeowners who take advantage of at least one of the three categories under the program:

The exterior façade home repair program provides a 50% rebate for up to $10,000 of eligible exterior façade home repairs and improvement expenses.
The substantial development/redevelopment program provides $5,000 in grant assistance for interior projects that cost more than $2,500 and offers $25,000 in grant help for new home construction.
The home purchase assistance program will provide a grant of $5,000 for all eligible home purchases, which can include a single-family or multifamily home that will be owner-occupied.

The program is being funded through the increase in the city’s income tax that voters approved in 2018.

To be eligible for a grant, the property’s taxes must be current. Properties are eligible for funding only once every three years. An application can be found at: cantonohio.gov/709/Programs-and-Applications.

The city’s program is separate from Canton For All People’s Shorb Homeowner Improvement Program, which has funded roughly $50,000 worth of home improvements each year over the past two years. Ackerman said the organization is increasing its funding of the program to $100,000 for 2024.

60 new houses in six years

Council has committed $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to Canton For All People to help the organization build up to 60 new single-family homes in the Shorb neighborhood over the next six years.

Under a plan presented by Canton For All People, the first homes would be built near the Arts Academy at Summit, then along Shorb Avenue and then in the Newton Avenue NW area following the development of the Newton Family Apartments.

Some of the houses will be built on lots Canton For All People already owns. Some will be built on lots owned by the city. To avoid the requirement of offering the city-owned property for public sale, council authorized the lots to be transferred from the city land bank to the Stark County Port Authority, which then transferred the properties to Canton For All People.

The homes will be roughly 1,450 square feet with three bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms with the option of a two-car garage. They will be built with 2-by-2-foot exterior wall framing for thicker insulation, energy-efficient windows and a 96% efficiency furnace, according to information provided by Canton For All People.

The construction cost of each home will be $165,404 with no garage and $185,615 with an attached two-car garage.

With the help of grants and other funding, Canton For All People plans to offer the homes for roughly $117,000 to qualifying families, which it estimates will bring a family’s mortgage payment to roughly $632 a month. A recent survey of the neighborhood found that residents pay an average monthly rent of $710, Ackerman said.

Ackerman estimates the organization has more than 140 families on its waiting list for houses. The families are a mix of residents already in the neighborhood and residents seeking to move to the neighborhood.