'Connecting the community': Akron's Temple Israel getting new life as arts-based center

Temple Israel, a mainstay of Akron's Highland Square neighborhood since 1911, is being reenvisioned and redeveloped as a community arts center.

Tony Troppe, whose downtown Akron projects include the Blu-Tique Hotel, Blu Jazz+, The Trailhead and more, purchased the Merriman Road property more than a year ago. Work is underway now to clean up the interior as Troppe and partners seek city approval so the project can be completed.

"What we want to do is map out the future. We want to connect the dots," Troppe said. He sees a connection between the Merriman Road property and his other projects in the downtown Akron area.

He calls the Temple Israel site HUG, for Highland (Square) Universal Gathering Place, and says the goal is to use the neoclassic revival building as part of its original mission to be a community and unity gathering place. (He also refers to the project as HÜG, with the umlaut, and pronounces it as "huge".) But instead of its historic focus on religion, the site will focus on the arts as a means to unify people.

Performance space, studios and more

HUG will be a 46,000-square-foot place where artists of all kinds can work, and live for a time, in a dozen studios, use practice/rehearsal space and hold performances in a 300-seat auditorium. The downstairs will hold a 250-person banquet/special events hall and coffee shop. It also has a commercial kitchen that culinary art students can cook in and use to develop skills and recipes.

Additionally, Troppe wants to build an outdoor area where people can host weddings and other memorable events.

"The focus will be arts-based," he said. "It will be for artists and art lovers."

Along with being a community connector, Troppe said the building can fill a void created when Tangier, the longtime restaurant/banquet and entertainment venue on nearby Market Street, was closed and repurposed by The LeBron James Family Foundation.

"All of the special events at Tangier are no more," Troppe said.

Troppe will be seeking permission later this month from Akron City Council to proceed with redeveloping Temple Israel. With city approval he said he can then seek federal and state tax credits to help finance the restoration and preservation work of what is a landmark building in Akron. The building should qualify to be on the National Register of Historic Places, he said.

First performance booked for later this year

He already plans for the venue to host its first performance, "The Nutcracker" ballet, at the end of this year. Work to finish the project likely won't be complete until the end of 2023, he said. He declined to say how much he expects to spend.

Temple Israel is in a great location that is within walking distance of the central Highland Square commercial and residential area, he said.

"It's right on the edge of Highland Square," he said. "It has always been a great gathering space since 1911."

'A gathering space for community'

David Swirsky, who is helping Troppe get the local arts community involved in and energized about the redevelopment project, remembers going to Temple Israel as a child.

"I grew up in the temple. I was part of the congregation there," he said. "My dad (late Akron City Council member Rich Swirsky) taught there. I was bar mitzvahed there. ... The building was a gathering space for community."

Swirsky recalled that he and his father would sometimes brainstorm new uses for the building after the congregation relocated to another site.

"This is really personal for me. It was a dream for me and my dad," he said. "It has that potential to be that community center that it was before."

Purchase was years in the making

Troppe said he drove by Temple Israel almost daily and had his eye on buying and repurposing the building for years. He began to think the building was special and could be used for education, celebration and other uses.

He started having discussions with the owners, the Akron Hebrew Congregation, about buying the building well before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he said.

Besides the design and location of Temple Israel, Troppe said the "Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself" on the front of the building along Merriman Road also spoke to him.

"It's based for sharing the light," he said. "It's calling me on an ongoing, regular basis."

Also helping Troppe with Temple Israel is Bobby Selvaggio, who teaches jazz at Kent State University, plays jazz saxophone and coordinates Troppe's Blu Jazz+ club. Selvaggio said his role with the Temple Israel project is to help provide a vision. He said he is tapping 30-plus years of being a musical performer, teacher and mentor for the project.

"I'm looking to see what I can do to help," he said. "It's a huge space, a gigantic space. I look at this as a creative arts collaborative center."

The community will be able to see not just final performances but also the work in progress of the artists at the building, Selvaggio said.

Connecting the community and dots

"We are creating art. We are not just performing art," he said. "It's about connecting the community."

Another goal for the repurposing of Temple Israel and connecting with other Akron entertainment venues is to create demand for more room-nights at the Blu-tique Hotel in the city's downtown, Troppe said. Future plans are to expand the hotel from its current 71 rooms to 150, he said.

"I'm always thinking about ways to connect the dots,"Troppe said. "I want each project to build on the other one. I want to lay solid foundations, and I want to catapult energy into the next area of activity, the next node."

Temple Israel as a new community arts center is part of that next node.

Troppe said Temple Israel's address, 133 Merriman Road, has a relevant connection as a community connector to Psalm 133 in the Bible. The psalm begins, Troppe said, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."

"It's really kind of fulfilling its legacy," Troppe said.

Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron's Temple Israel getting new life as arts-based connector