Effort is getting eyesore to heal

Public-private partnerships can mean great things for a community, an executive said.
& lt;a href=mailto:rgsmith@vindy.com & gt;By ROGER SMITH & lt;/a & gt;
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Funny how a chance meeting can bring together a bank, a youth education program and, ultimately, a neighborhood.
Such is the case of 498 Madera Ave.
In July, a fire damaged the house at that address shortly after a foreclosure. First Place Bank was the new owner.
By Labor Day, the eyesore was driving residents of the otherwise neatly kept upper North Side neighborhood crazy. The bank was frustrated in trying to unload the problem property, and the neighbors were protesting.
Four months later, the bank has rid itself of the house and is doing what it does best -- financing -- in this case, the renovation.
YouthBuild Mahoning County now has a premium fix-up project. The agency keeps any proceeds after it sells the newly renovated house and repays the renovation loan.
And the neighbors? They couldn't be happier.
"I thought it was going to be a long, drawn-out thing," said Leon Stennis, who created a new neighborhood group to address the problem, the Northside Concerned Citizens. "I never thought it would come to fruition this quick."
Credit a coincidental encounter at a North Side shopping plaza.
In September, Stennis and Herman Hill bumped into each other while running errands.
Hill is the coordinator of YouthBuild, an education and life skills program through the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority. Teaching construction skills is integral to the program, which is for high school dropouts age 18 to 24.
Stennis and Hill talked about the Madera situation and realized YouthBuild might be able to help.
Stennis then hooked up Hill with Al Blank, senior vice president of retail lending at First Place, and the connection grew.
"Mr. Blank was very supportive," Hill said.
They worked out a deal whereby the bank turned the house over to YouthBuild for $1. Plus, the bank is lending the agency $40,000 at no interest to finance the renovation.
YouthBuild can sell the house after a three-month renovation, which starts in a few weeks. The agency can keep any proceeds left after repaying the loan.
The deal closed earlier this month.
The house will get new windows, doors, drywall and a roof, plus electric and heating work. Youths doing the work as part of their training will save about $20,000 in labor costs.
Hill hopes the seven-bedroom, 1.5-bath, red brick house that dates to 1928 will sell for the neighborhood average of $50,000 to $70,000. That would bring YouthBuild a $10,000 to $30,000 profit.
First Place is a lender, not a contractor, and the bank didn't want to fix or sell the house, Blank said. YouthBuild alleviated that problem.
Blank and Hill envision working together again if the bank ends up with a property that entails a renovation.
"It's just a great thing," Blank said. "This is a classic example of the public sector and the private sector coming together to the best for everyone. When that happens, it means great things to the community."
Stennis agrees.
"This does the bank a lot of good, it certainly does the neighborhood a lot of good, and YouthBuild has a project," he said.
Stennis wants the outcome to inspire other neighborhood groups. Such cooperation shows that reasonable people can get what they need without much fighting, he said.
"You can get things done," Stennis said. "Things don't always have to be confrontational."