Hiring the Cleveland-based company Allegro Realty Advisors to do a background check on the three companies who have shown interest in redeveloping Kent's downtown block is a big improvement over the way the earlier efforts regarding the block are concerned.
That effort involved Right Dimensions, an enterprise whose efforts the city endorsed, prior to a background check. When that firm ran into difficulties, a belated background check revealed they were sorely under-capitalized to undertake the redevelopment of much of anything, let alone an entire city block.
The three companies that are currently showing interest all look to be reputable, but there is no harm in checking first before getting involved and pinning one's hopes on a positive outcome.
Testa Companies hails from Cuyahoga Falls, Fairmount Properties from the Cleveland area and Portage Venture LLC, a division of Cambridge Venture Partners, from western Pennsylvania.
Testa has been around since 1968. Fairmount Properties did First and Main in Hudson. The Cambridge Venture group is doing a hotel project near Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh and has done development work in Florida.
All three on the face of it appear far more promising than the ill-fated Right Dimensions group, so this time the downtown block may in be for a development that could have major economic development spin-offs for the community.
It all seems very hopeful, but that makes the reality check that Allegro Realty Advisors can provide even more important.