Downtown lease OK'd

The company signed a five-year lease.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A business process management company is the latest tenant at the city-owned 20 Federal Place.
The city's board of control approved a five-year lease Thursday with Empyra, based in a small space at the Youngstown Business Incubator in downtown Youngstown.
The company employs 20 workers in locations throughout the area and plans to increase that number in the future, said Shanthi Subramanyam, its president and chief executive. Empyra was established in 1994, she said.
The company is leasing 1,323 square feet of space on the second floor of 20 Federal Place, the former Phar-Mor Centre, and will double its space over the next three years, said Jeffrey Chagnot, the city's economic development director.
It will operate out of the city-owned building shortly, he said.
The city typically only charges a common-area fee for most first-year tenants, Chagnot said.
Because Empyra is taking over already-improved space, the city is charging the company 3 a square foot a month in rent in addition to the monthly 1.75-a-square-foot common-area fee, Chagnot said.
The space was formerly occupied by the Economic Development Institute, a company that left two months ago, he said.
The monthly rental fee goes to 5 a square foot by the final year of the lease, he said.
70 percent occupied
About 70 percent of the useable space at 20 Federal Place on West Federal Street is occupied, Chagnot said.
Also Thursday, the board of control approved a 10-year contract renewal to sell water to the city of Canfield.
The board also approved no-interest loans to two companies: RAS Manufacturing Co. on Salt Springs Road for 1.25 million, and Virgin Oil LLC on Wilson Avenue for 300,000. Both companies plan to use the loans to buy equipment.
skolnick@vindy.com