CIC sets deadline for company plans

The company's initial application was presented in 2004.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Members of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp.'s property committee want a company's plans for three vacant downtown buildings finalized by April 30.
The committee members passed a resolution Tuesday recommending that P & amp;P Development be given until then to execute an agreement for development of the Wells Building, Armed Forces Building and State Theater. Without it, the buildings will go back on the market. That recommendation will go to the full CIC for consideration.
P & amp;P representatives didn't attend the meeting, and Atty. Douglas Neuman, who represents the company, couldn't be reached.
After more than 18 months of exchanging proposals, the CIC voted in September to sell the three vacant West Federal Street buildings to P & amp;P for $24,000.
Company officials said they planned to spend $1.7 million to improve the Wells Building with a restaurant, retail stores, office space and upscale studio apartments. They also would retain the fa & ccedil;ade of the other two buildings and demolish the remainder for parking space.
CIC members frustrated
Atty. Edwin Romero, CIC legal counsel, said that the company was asked in January to provide specific plans and a project time line to the city.
"We have not heard anything," he said.
That frustrated some committee members.
"We've been horsing around with this for two years and nothing's been done," said Jim Miller, a member of the committee.
P & amp;P, owned by Denise Powell and Gail Pullam, initially presented its application to the property committee in January 2004, Romero said.
Some of the delays dealt with P & amp;P's providing proof of bank financing and deciding what should be done with the buildings if the project failed.
Mark Brown, committee chairman, said CIC has been accommodating with requests from the company.
"We've taken one of the best properties off the market for two years," Miller said.
John Moliterno, another property committee member, agreed.
"We've certainly been more than fair and given them enough time to put something in that building," he said.
Recent controversy
P & amp;P was in the news recently as part of a malfeasance complaint filed against a city councilman by two community activists.
Maggy Lorenzi and Josephine Hulett complained that Councilman Artis Gillam Sr.'s Nov. 2 vote for council to support plans to enter a financial guarantee with P & amp;P violates the city charter because his construction company has done work for the two women who own it. Gillam, D-1st, also was CIC's vice chairman when the vote to sell the three properties was taken and pushed for passage, according to Vindicator files.
Gillam has acknowledged that his construction company did work two to three years ago for a McDonald's in Cleveland owned by one of P & amp;P's owners and her husband. His company is also doing work for a Youngstown company owned by Powell, he has said.
He has said that he'll abstain from future votes involving the company but that his attorneys have told him that he did nothing wrong.