Kress Building condition to be evaluated

Most of the building’s
damage occurred in the past year or so.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — A structural engineer will be hired to determine what can be done to save a dilapidated West Federal Street building.

The Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp.’s executive committee agreed Monday to permit the agency’s staff to hire an engineer for up to $10,000 to examine the former Kress Building.

“It is in an advanced state of deterioration,” said Reid Dulberger, the CIC’s acting president and the Regional Chamber’s executive vice president.

The building’s steel frame is in good shape, but Kress has significant damage to its roof, floors, ceilings and walls, he said.

The agency will hire a structural engineer in the next three to four weeks, with an assessment taking a few more weeks, Dulberger said.

“It may be possible to save the structure,” he said. “It has potential to be saved. ... So we want to have a structural engineer determine the viability of the building.”

The hope, Dulberger said, is the steel frame and the front facade are in good enough shape to remain. If a tenant can be found, the rest of the building would have to be replaced, he said.

The damage

Given the building’s condition, Dulberger said he anticipates it would be less expensive to demolish the 87-year-old structure than to save the frame and facade. But the facade is historical, and the CIC doesn’t want to demolish it, he said.

Most of the damage was done over the last year or so when holes in the roof led to major water damage, Dulberger said.

A roof replacement has been needed for years, but CIC officials opted not to do that on a building vacant for seven years, he said.

Kress is on the south side of West Federal Street, between Phelps and Hazel streets and just east of the 7th District Court of Appeals building.

The western portion of the building was last occupied in September 2000 by the Wig Warehouse. That business relocated to West Boardman Street because of unsafe conditions at the Kress Building, according to Vindicator files.

skolnick@vindy.com