From a shopping destination to a place people rent
Chapel Hill is a newer Akron neighborhood, and its housing grew up around a shopping center rather than a factory. Richard Buchholzer and Forest City Enterprises opened Chapel Hill Mall off Brittain Road in October 1967 as Akron’s first indoor mall. The original plans for the 175-acre site included multi-family housing next to the stores, which became the Chapel Hill Towers.
The mall’s name came from Buchholzer himself. As a teenager in the 1930s he found what looked like a Native American council circle on his father’s land, and he later called the development Chapel Hill. Industrial Commercial Properties bought the mall in March 2021, it closed the next month, and the site is now a business park.
The neighborhood borders Cuyahoga Falls to the north and Tallmadge to the east, with three Route 8 interchanges. Home Avenue, Howe Road and Brittain Road carry most of the retail.
A rental market with a growing immigrant community
About 70% of Chapel Hill’s housing is rental property, according to Signal Akron’s 2025 neighborhood series. Around a third of the 5,600 residents are Asian, which makes Chapel Hill the Akron neighborhood with the largest Asian share. Many are Bhutanese families who came to the U.S. from refugee camps in Nepal.
Residents interviewed for that series mentioned a few things that matter to anyone selling:
- Bettes Park, next to the site of the former Bettes Elementary on Hyde Park Avenue, is one of the few playgrounds nearby. The school land was sold at auction in 2019, and the Kirat Community Organization of America plans a temple and community center there.
- One homeowner said the vacant house next to his has an overgrown back yard that draws animals, and he wants to know what the city will do about it.
- One renter said she likes living next to a grocery store but feels little sense of community.
What a Chapel Hill seller is usually dealing with
Because so many houses are rentals, a typical sale here involves a landlord, a lease and a tenant. Before you sell, check that the unit is registered under the city’s rules in our Akron rental registration guide, and read how leases carry through a sale in selling a house with tenants.
Owner-occupied houses south of Tallmadge Avenue sell differently. Families buying their first home in Akron, including newer immigrant households, look for move-in condition and nearby schools. If your house is updated, listing it may get you more than a cash offer, and we’ll say so.
For a house that needs work, has a tenant who isn’t paying, or sits next to a problem property, a direct sale removes the showings and repair list. Bob can walk it in about 15 to 20 minutes. Start with the details of your Chapel Hill property.