Another lease idea on table

A North Side alternative location is being proposed for county offices.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The owners of the Broadway Professional Center -- the former Youngstown Osteopathic Hospital -- are proposing that the Mahoning County commissioners lease space for county departments in that building.
Some 20,000 square feet of the 250,000-square-foot building, at 100 Broadway Ave., are leased to the Women, Infants and Children's Program, Home Weatherization and Head Start Food Service, with the remaining 230,000 square feet available for rent, according to a proposal from CMD Realty Group LLC, part owner of the former hospital.
CMD also said commissioners could also negotiate to buy the building if they wish to do so.
The space, which would rent for $6.75 per square foot per year, could house the county's Department of Job and Family Services, which is now at Garland Plaza on the city's East Side, and the county coroner's office, city health department and Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, all of which are now at Oakhill Renaissance Place just south of downtown.
Bruce Brocker of Canfield, also a part-owner of the Broadway building, said the rent includes the cost of converting the building's second and third floors into office space for the county.
The building
The Broadway building is structurally sound and occupies "an easily accessible location with plenty of parking," Brocker said. "It seems to match up with the county's needs," he said. CMD's proposal said the Broadway building has more than 500 secure, well-lighted parking spaces.
The Broadway offer follows the county commissioners' bid to buy the Oakhill building -- the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center -- which is owned by the Southside Community Development Corp.
SCDC filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy on May 3, and the matter is pending before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kay Woods in Youngstown. To date, the county is the only bidder, but two other parties have expressed interest, said Melissa Macejko, lawyer for bankruptcy trustee Andrew W. Suhar. Terms of the county's offer have not been disclosed.
Anthony M. Cafaro, president of the Cafaro Co., has said his company will analyze costs associated with the Oakhill building and, if it can be a profitable operation, make a bid to buy it.
The Cafaro Co. owns Garland Plaza, at 709 N. Garland Ave., where JFS has been housed since 1988. There, the county has been paying $4.61 per square foot per year since 1998 and rents about 97,000 square feet for JFS, amounting to about $450,000 a year.
A 'stabilizing' presence
"It's a centralized location in the city," Bill Kutlick, owner of Kutlick Realty LLC of Boardman, which represents CMD, said of the Broadway building. "It does stabilize the North Side of the City of Youngstown," he said of potential county occupancy of the building.
"The real issue in my mind is operating costs," Kutlick said. Full occupancy of the Broadway building could be achieved, with no need to heat and maintain vacant space, whereas the 500,000-square-foot Oakhill building likely wouldn't be fully occupied, he added. "What will they do with the excess 250,000 square feet?" he asked.
The Broadway building was built in the early 1950s with later additions and renovations and has multiple heating units that can be zoned and controlled, Kutlick said. Youngstown Osteopathic Hospital closed in 2000.
Brocker said he plans to speak to the county commissioners at their meeting at 6 p.m. today at Coitsville Township Hall concerning the Broadway proposal.
Commissioners did not respond to a request for comment on the Broadway proposal Tuesday.