RubberBuzz || Akron Unleashed: Rolling Acres: The Retirement Complex

5.22.2005

Rolling Acres: The Retirement Complex

Davie G.'s latest article takes me back to my childhood and throwing pennies into the fountain at Rolling Acres (which has been turned off). Even though I don't go there very often, I'm sad to see it slowly die. Luckily, there are some thinkers out there trying to save the mall in one form or another.

As Rolling Acres Mall crawls toward the end of its retail life, Sean Daugherty has been rebuilding it in his mind. For more than four years, the 39-year-old Green resident has been dreaming it into a bold new version of a senior citizens complex, with hundreds of residents in apartments and condominiums, plus doctors' offices, shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and exercise facilities, all under one vast roof.[...]

Daugherty is not an expert in retail, nor an expert in urban rehab, nor an expert in senior care. He's just a guy with an idea and enough time to research its possibilities. His is one of those ``just might be crazy enough to work'' ideas.

And -- it just might be crazy enough to work. With the baby boom retirement wave cresting and American life expectancies rising by the year, housing for the elderly is about to become an issue of paramount importance -- and profitability. Daugherty knows the statistics by heart: There are currently 37 million Americans over 55. By 2018, the number will be 75 million.

It sounds like a viable use for the building, but I don't know how many people are going to want to live in an old mall on Romig Road. The area around the mall has deteriorated just as much as the mall and I don't know if people are going to want to invest their retirement money in a area that can't keep a Marc's open. Though if it became as all-inclusive as Daugherty wants, then maybe it would work. Plus, if this goes through, I'll never have to mention "Shady Pines" to my mom again, it'll "The Acres."

The BJ :: Rolling Acres' demise inspires local thinker

(joe :: Rolling Acres: The Retirement Complex)

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