When the law firm of Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLC decamped to Fairlawn 20 years ago, it wasn’t the only company to leave downtown Akron for the western suburbs. Now, with the announcement that it will be returning to its Akron roots, there’s optimism that Buckingham won’t be an outlier in its move back downtown.
“The trend is reversing,” said Tom Weise, president of the Schipper Group, which owns and manages the AES Building at 388 S. Main St. where Buckingham will take 35,000 square feet on the fifth floor. “There’s a positive psychological effect. Their return really validates, I believe, the investment the City of Akron has put in.”
Those investments include years of streetscape projects, the revitalization of Lock 3 Park and infrastructure projects including a planned road resurfacing and a water line replacement that were promised to the nearby GPD Group to entice the architecture and engineering firm to stay, and expand in, the city…