Demolition of former Macy's underway in Stow-Kent Plaza
Last Thursday, a demolition crew from B&B Wrecking arrived at the site of the old Macy's department store in the Stow-Kent Plaza.
By Monday, they'd torn a hole in the back wall and most of the ceiling was gone, exposing what used to be the sales floor to the sky. A pair of excavators trundled around inside, moving twisted heaps of metal from one pile to another.
The move to demolish the standalone store that anchored the plaza for the past 50 years came after the owners of the building — Stow Kent Associates LLC, according to the Summit County Fiscal Office — decided the structure "is no longer conducive to contemporary retail area and layout requirements," according to a Nov. 9 social media post by Stow Mayor John Pribonic.
In the same post, he said the owners were speaking with a number of undisclosed potential tenants regarding future uses of the land.
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Although the future of the site is still uncertain, the developer, Burton Carol Management LLC, does not want to leave the lot flat and has a year to present the city with plans for the site, Pribonic said.
During a recent "Minute With the Mayor," a video series featuring Pribonic talking about the goings-on around Stow, Pribonic interviewed two representatives from B&B Wrecking who said they're aiming to have the demolition completed within two weeks of the start of the job. After that, it will take another two weeks to clear the site. Then they'll begin working to remove the footers and the concrete slab.
B&B Wrecking says it plans to recycle everything it can from the job — concrete, brick and steel. The rest is bound for a landfill.
In July, Pribonic said on social media that the property, closed since 2020 after 55 years of operation, had a new occupant and that a formal announcement was imminent.
But Stow's planning and development director, Nathan Leppo, said in November that the age of the building contributed to the owner's decision to demolish the former retail outlet. Between supply chain issues and problems with contractors, the estimated cost of updating the building was substantially higher than anticipated, Leppo said.
The department store opened in 1965, beginning its life as O'Neil's. Later, it became the May Co., then Kaufmann's before being bought by Macy's.
Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Macy's in Stow-Kent Plaza undergoing demolition
