Debra Harrell has been involved in some mighty big and complicated development projects in her 26-year career with Industrial Realty Group. Converting the closed, 3,000-acre McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento, Calif., into a working business park comes to mind, the IRG senior vice president says.

But building a global headquarters for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., creating a nearby retail center and redeveloping Goodyear's old headquarters and other buildings are turning out to be more complicated than the physically larger air base project that began in 2000, Harrell said. ''It's like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, but it's so much fun,'' said Harrell, who has an office at Goodyear as well as at an IRG-owned property in the area. She moved from California to Akron in late January to work on the Goodyear project.

''I think this is more complex [than McClellan] because there are so many more moving parts. This one just has got so many different components because there's a bigger public funding portion of it, obviously to make sure we have these great jobs in Akron,'' she said.

Harrell and Laura Thompson, Goodyear vice president for business development, are overseeing the East Akron headquarters project for their respective companies. They shared their thoughts on the project as part of a recent tour of Goodyear Hall and Goodyear's current headquarters.

The two executives say they and their respective teams are progressing on the necessary paperwork so that the various private and public entities can close, as they expect, later this year on the $900 million complex, which will be called Akron Riverwalk.

''The good news is, everybody is anxious to close,'' Thompson said.

So far, no ground has been broken since Goodyear, Gov. Ted Strickland and other city, county and state officials announced in December that a deal would keep the iconic tire company and its nearly 3,000 employees in Akron for decades to come.

There have been signs of progress, albeit almost entirely on paper.

The companies announced last month that a 125-room upscale Wyndham hotel will

become part of the retail complex across the street from where the new headquarters will be built adjacent to the Goodyear Tech Center on Martha Avenue.

Thompson and Harrell aren't worried about the outcome of creating a new Goodyear headquarters and essentially building a new East Akron neighborhood.

Thompson, a 25-year Goodyear veteran, took over the headquarters project from former Goodyear senior executive Joe Gingo, who left the tire company in late 2007 to run Fairlawn polymer firm A. Schulman Inc.

''We obviously don't do new headquarters buildings very often — about one every 108 years,'' Thompson quipped. ''I've had lots of help from lots of people. I never did realize how many details there were. Think about remodeling your house, and multiply that by about 10 billion. That's kind of what it's like.''

Adaptive reuse

Goodyear will end up selling more than 400 acres of land and buildings to IRG to be redeveloped, she said. Goodyear will lease back some of the property, including its Tech Center and the adjacent building where it builds NASCAR tires.

''Really, everything but our test track. We retain ownership of that, at least for now. We may do something in the future,'' Thompson said.

IRG specializes in buying old industrial properties, fixing and cleaning things up, then finding new uses for the sites.

The Los Angeles company calls it ''adaptive reuse,'' Harrell said. The company has a significant presence in Northeast Ohio, including the recent purchase of the former Hoover Co. vacuum manufacturing campus in North Canton. IRG also was among the prime movers 20 years ago in turning the former B.F. Goodrich factory complex in downtown Akron into what is now called Canal Place.

''Typically, what we do is we take a property or a building or a complex that was built for a single user and retrofit them for multitenant use,'' Harrell said. ''This [Goodyear campus] is a prime property for us to be able to do that, to take these existing buildings and adaptively reuse them.''

IRG believes it will demolish just one minor Goodyear building that is now empty because it is deteriorating, Harrell said. ''Other than that, right now, there are no plans to knock down any of the assets,'' she said.

It remains too early to say what will become of such places in the Goodyear Hall as the community room, the 2,000-seat Goodyear Theater and adjacent gymnasium. Goodyear Hall is across East Market Street from the current headquarters.

The adaptive reuse portion of the project is about two years away, following the construction of the new headquarters and retail center, she said.

Retaining spaces

There are companies that are interested in certain spaces. Harrell noted that Goodyear Hall's community room has fine paneling, woodwork and a fireplace.

''It's very possible to be reused, but it's too early to tell,'' she said. Goodyear Hall, because of its narrow construction, ''screams residential'' use, she said.

The gymnasium, which became known as the home court of the former Goodyear Wingfoots basketball team in the old Industrial League, probably won't remain a gym, although the wide-open space might be retained, Harrell said.

Thompson, an Akron native, said she remembers going to the gym as a child for Goodyear's annual Christmas party with her family —her dad and grandfather had worked for Goodyear.

''That was a big highlight of being an Akron child,'' she said. ''It was really decked out. I tell you, you really looked forward to this thing.''

It also is too early to say whether the theater can be retained, Harrell said. But there might be hope: The McClellan Park site came with a 450-seat theater that IRG persuaded a theater group to use, Harrell said.

''We're not all about tearing space down,'' she said. ''There are 647 beautiful structures that I talk about at McClellan. We did very little [demolition] there and reused a lot of the assets.''

Because of Goodyear's longtime connections to the community, company officials early on had concerns about what might happen to the properties that they will be turning over to IRG, Thompson said.

That's not the case now that they have come to know executive Stuart Lichter, who founded IRG, Harrell and others in the organization, she said.

''We have worked with Stu now, and Debbie, and have a good relationship, so we understand,'' Thompson said. ''We don't need to know or worry about any details now. We know what they're thinking, and a lot of things will change between now and when they use it. We're pretty comfortable with their ideas for reuse.''

Working out details

Right now, Goodyear is more concerned about working out the details of its new headquarters, she said.

Goodyear is being very supportive of IRG's plans to reuse the buildings, Harrell said.

That support includes giving regular tours to prospective tenants interested in space once Goodyear vacates the premises, she and Thompson said.

It's been largely Ohio-based businesses on the tours so far, Thompson and Harrell said. They will try to use incentives to get out-of-state businesses to move to the Riverwalk properties, Harrell said.

''We have companies that do business with Goodyear that have called us to say, 'We want to locate near Goodyear. How can you help us?' '' Harrell said.

For instance, Chicago-based companies that are longtime Goodyear customers and whose employees frequently fly to and from Akron might be interested in opening offices here, Thompson said.

IRG is thinking that some lower levels of the old Goodyear buildings can be used for parking, with upper levels used for such things as office space and living quarters, Harrell said.

''We've done that with other assets, and it works,'' she said.

Thompson said that Goodyear and IRG are about two-thirds of the way through the sale closing.

''All of this is fine-tuning all these details. Everything is marching along,'' she said. ''We're on schedule for this fall.''

''All of the pieces are falling into place,'' Harrell said.