Developer plans residences downtown

Youngstown can be great again, developer Louis A. Frangos says.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

SOME PEOPLE DON’T SEE much when they look at downtown Youngstown. When Louis A. Frangos looks, he sees opportunity.

Frangos, of Cleveland, has bought some of downtown’s most prominent properties in less than a decade; several of them were bought in the past two years.

He’s bought so many that he is one of the major nonpublic owners of property in the city’s downtown.

Some of Frangos’ purchases were buildings already filled with tenants, such as the First National Bank Tower and the Harshman Building.

But most of his other buildings are either mostly or completely vacant.

Frangos plans to convert three of the buildings — the Wick Building, the Realty Towers and the Erie Terminal — into downtown housing.

There are others — specifically the Stambaugh Building and the Paramount Theatre — that Frangos acknowledges are lost causes.

Frangos, 59, was born in Campbell but moved to the Cleveland area at age 6. Frangos often visits the Mahoning Valley to spend time with family members still living here.

Although it’s been years, Frangos remembers coming downtown as a child to shop and enjoy parades and festivals.

“It’s a city I knew as great when I was a kid,” he said.

And, it’s one Frangos said can be great again.

Purchase history

Frangos, primarily through his USA Parking Systems company, owns 18 parking lots and decks and six buildings in the Cleveland area.

He saw the opportunity to expand to Youngstown. His first purchase was six parking lots, five on Wick Avenue and one on East Commerce Street, in late 1998.

Two years later, Frangos’ company bought the Realty Towers on Central Federal Street and the Plaza parking deck on North Champion Street.

The parking deck also includes space for businesses, with most of it occupied.

Frangos has big plans for the 12-story Realty Towers along with the Wick Building and the Erie Terminal. Those big plans were proposed over a year ago but have yet to come to fruition.

The towers’ first floor is occupied by the Bean Counter coffeehouse and WYTV’s downtown television studio.

Frangos said he’s spent $1 million on the Realty Towers in an effort to convert the upper floors into about 25 condominiums or apartments for young professionals who want to live downtown.

He plans to do the same with the 11-story Wick Building, which has one tenant, the Core, a bar. Frangos wants to turn the building into about 35 condos or apartments in a project similar to Realty.

The two project’s initial budget was $18 million, but because of a soft housing market, Frangos scaled the project back by about $3 million.

Frangos is seeking state and federal grants to make his proposals a reality. He expects to hear about his requests shortly and is waiting to move forward until he gets that information.

Even if federal and/or state money doesn’t come through, Frangos said he’s committed to the two projects.

What’s expected

The Realty conversion should take about 10 months with the project starting shortly, he said. The Wick project would begin a few months after the Realty work, and the Erie project should start about three or four months after Wick begins, Frangos said.

Frangos is developing plans for the Erie Terminal to turn that West Commerce Street building into housing for Youngstown State University students. The building would either have 35 apartment units or be developed into housing for 130 students, he said.

“I think it can all be done in two to three years,” Frangos said.

Despite small movement on Realty and nothing on Wick and Erie, city officials believe in Frangos’ vision.

The city gave Frangos a no-interest loan for up to $4 million last year for the Wick and Realty projects. The city sold Wick and the Erie Terminal to Frangos. Erie doesn’t have any tenants.

“He’s extremely committed to Youngstown, particularly downtown,” said Mayor Jay Williams. “He’s got a genuine interest in revitalizing this community.”

Though Frangos hasn’t done much with the three key properties, Williams said the developer’s financial investment in the city leads him to believe the projects will succeed.

Williams is also pleased that Frangos is a visible presence downtown and not an absentee landlord. Frangos visits Youngstown each Wednesday.

City Finance Director David Bozanich said he is pleased to see the financial investment Frangos has made downtown. He isn’t concerned with the lack of progress at Wick and Realty, which originally were to be done by now.

“It’s the market conditions,” Bozanich said. “We don’t want a speedy project that will fail. We prefer a slower project that will succeed.”

Building situations

Frangos is optimistic about the successes of the Wick, Realty and Erie projects. But not so with two other buildings he co-owns: the Stambaugh Building on East Federal Street and the Paramount Theatre on West Federal Street.

Frangos co-owns Stambaugh with Platia Square LLC, a New York City company. The building’s sale price was $1.15 million, but Frangos said his company and Platia put up only a small amount of that money, and Stambaugh’s ownership will probably revert back to the Seattle company that had owned it. The building’s lone rent-paying tenant is Buffalo Wild Wings. Peregrine falcons nest on the building’s roof.

“It would make a great hotel site, but we’ve been told it would cost $15 million” for that project, Frangos said. “It’s cost-prohibitive.”

As for the Paramount, which Frangos co-owns with Grande Venues of Chicago, he acknowledges “nothing can be done there.”

It would cost about $10 million to renovate the building, he said. Of great concern is the crumbling facade, which could pose a danger.

“I’d like to save the facade; I don’t like ripping down old buildings,” Frangos said.

Frangos said he may approach the city to see if officials will demolish the building but save the facade and turn the area into a parking lot.

Reid Dulberger, the Regional Chamber’s executive vice president and interim president of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., said Frangos’ success is key to the continued revitalization of downtown.

“He’s walked the walk by putting his dollars on the line,” Dulberger said. “The future of downtown will reflect his success, particularly the proposed residential projects. At this point, we are waiting for those projects to happen. They have the potential to dramatically alter the downtown for the better.”

The CIC is a downtown redevelopment agency that is run by the Regional Chamber. In somewhat of an ironic twist, Frangos recently bought the First National Bank Tower, and one of his tenants is the chamber.

“It’s one thing for the CIC or the city to make investments in the downtown and it’s quite another for a private developer to invest in the downtown,” Dulberger said. “It can lead to other development. We are waiting for those three projects to happen with a high sense of anticipation. They don’t happen all at once, and it won’t happen overnight. The residential projects can change the face of downtown.”

Frangos said this is a very exciting time for him and Youngstown.

“We’re always looking at properties,” he said. “I’m serious about focusing on a number of things in Youngstown. There’s a lot on our plate.”

skolnick@vindy.com