WILL BJ BUILDING BE DEMOLISHED FOR A PARKING LOT. TUESDAY, MAY 2 MEEETING BY HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION

 

Parking lot or salvation for BJ building?

 

The Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission on Tuesday, May 2 will consider whether the former BJ building is demolished and the the property turned into a parking lot or saved as a historic site.

The 230,000 square foot BJ building and tower was bought by Capstone Real Estate Investments in Birmingham, Alabama.

Capstone founder Michael Mouron paid $1.1 million in 2020 for the 44 E. Exchange Street building. The BJ moved to the seventh floor of the AES Building at 388 S. Main St., a former rubber company building.

Mouron’s sons Drew Christopher and Lewis, who manage Capstone Real Estate Investments, own the former student housing building at 22 E. Exchange St. and have converted it into a conventional apartment property known as The Standard. They want more parking for the apartments.

The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 2, on the third floor of City Hall in the City Council chambers.

The Akron Times-Press opened the downtown landmark in 1930, and it became the Beacon Journal’s headquarters after the two newspapers merged in 1938.

The Beacon Journal was editor and publisher John S. Knight's first newspaper after he took over the debt-ridden business during the Great Depression from his late father, C.L. Knight. JSK created Knight Newspapers,, which once owned 32 newspapers and employed 18,000 workers.