The groundbreaking was a festive event.

The rain came down, but optimism was up as Kent State University Vice President for Finance and Administration Gregg Floyd joined U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan and officials from PARTA (Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority), the city of Kent and the Ohio Department of Transportation to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Kent Central Gateway Multimodal Facility. Despite the rain, the ceremony took place April 4 at the construction site on Depeyster Street in downtown Kent.

The new multimodal transportation facility will combine elements of buses, pedestrians, bicycles and cars and will serve as a transfer point that allows bus transport to Akron, Cleveland and all points in Portage County. Located at Erie and Depeyster streets with a curb cut into Haymaker Parkway, the Kent Central Gateway project is estimated to stimulate $60 million worth of new investment, both public and private, in Kent.

This past July, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood visited Kent, touring Acorn Alley and the future site of the Kent Central Gateway project before a ceremonial grant agreement signing took place outside the PARTA offices. The Kent Central Gateway project received a $20 million grant from LaHood’s agency through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The project serves as a catalyst for the revitalization and redevelopment of downtown Kent and reconnects the central business district with the Kent Campus. Both LaHood and Ryan have talked about the significance of the project that will help create a vibrant downtown and unite the city and Kent State, and they have acknowledged the three local project partners: Kent State, PARTA and the city of Kent.

“You’ve got a great project here,” said the transportation secretary during his visit.

In February 2010 when the $20 million TIGER grant for the Kent Central Gateway was announced, Kent State University President Lester A. Lefton acknowledged that the project sets into motion all of the other development projects planned for downtown Kent, including the proposed hotel and conference center. Lefton characterized the Kent Central Gateway project as “a huge, transformative event in the life of Kent, the university and Portage County.”