7TH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS Officials look at office-space bids

Bids will be evaluated on criteria including location, lease price, expandability and aesthetics.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Three developers have submitted bids to provide office space for the 7th District Court of Appeals.
The bids were opened at the Mahoning County commissioners' offices.
All three bids were for locations in Youngstown, including one downtown, one on the South Side and one on the East Side.
The bidding was extremely close, said Greg Strollo of the architectural firm Hanahan-Strollo & amp; Associates.
Details
The proposals included annual lease payments of $211,227 for 13,654 square feet in the McGuffey Plaza on Garland Avenue; $210,250 for 14,500 square feet in the Youngstown City Hall Annex at Front and Market streets; and $216,580 for 14,000 square feet in the Oakhill Renaissance Place, formerly Forum Health Southside Medical Center.
Those bids included utility costs.
The McGuffey Plaza bid was submitted by the Ohio Valley Mall Co., the city hall annex bid was by the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., and the Oakhill bid was from Southside Community Development Corp.
The McGuffey Plaza and the city hall annex bids included lower figures if utility costs are not included in the lease payment. The Oakhill bid did not include a cost without utilities.
Strollo, who is serving as consultant for the court of appeals, said the final determination won't be based solely on dollars and cents.
He said the prospective sites will be evaluated for lease cost, location, capacity for expansion, the time frame for getting the space ready for occupation, aesthetics and the reputation of the proposed developers.
It will take about a month to complete the evaluations and make a recommendation to Mahoning County commissioners, he said.
The court of appeals is housed on the fourth floor of the Mahoning County Courthouse, but its four judges have long complained that they're out of space. The court also has 15 employees.
The district
As the largest county in the eight-county district, Mahoning is charged with seeing that the court has space. The other counties contribute toward the cost. They are Columbiana, Carroll, Harrison, Jefferson, Noble, Belmont and Monroe.
The bidding process was open to anyone in any of those counties.
A fourth bid was received from RBI Properties of Warren, but came in about 10 minutes after the 2 p.m. deadline Thursday.
James Fortunato, purchasing director, accepted the bid but did not open it because it was late. Strollo said he'll check with legal counsel to see whether the bid must be opened.
bjackson@vindy.com