YSU to pay $315,000 for church, spend $500,000 converting it

The purchase will give the university control of almost the entire block.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University is expanding its southeastern campus boundary.

The university’s board of trustees has voted to buy Pilgrim Collegiate Church at Wick and Lincoln avenues.

The purchase involves four parcels, including 30 parking spaces, that will give YSU control of nearly the entire block bounded by Phelps Street on the west and Rayen Avenue on the south. The university’s Williamson Hall is in that block, and the Campus Book and Supply store at 23 Lincoln Ave. will now be the only privately owned property in that area.

The suggestion to buy the church at 322 Wick Ave., which includes an attached classroom building, was first presented to the trustees in September.

After learning the property might be on the market, YSU officials thought it would be a good idea to buy the property to protect that section of campus from any type of commercial development.

The location is directly across Lincoln Avenue from historic Jones Hall built in 1931, YSU’s first new building.

“We are interested in selling,” Jack Barton, president of Pilgrim Collegiate and its successor, Faith Community Church, said at that time.

The Pilgrim Collegiate congregation vacated the church, built in 1921, when it merged with Bethlehem United Church of Christ to form Faith Community on East Midlothian Boulevard in 2000.

New Beginnings Outreach Ministries leases the church for its programs and rents space to The Greater Youngstown Point, an agency providing services to the homeless.

YSU officials say New Beginnings uses only the church sanctuary and likely will be asked to stay on as a tenant.

Michael James, executive director of The Greater Youngstown Point, said his agency has been asked to vacate its facilities there.

James said he has several prospects for new locations and wants to keep the program in the central area of the city.

The church was appraised at $375,000, but YSU is buying it, pending approval by the state Controlling Board, for $315,000.

It is expected to cost about $500,000 more to convert the classroom section of the building to university use. Air conditioning will cost around $200,000, some needed structural repairs would add $75,000, and reconfiguring the space would run between $200,000 and $300,000 more, according to university estimates.

YSU’s exact use of the facilities hasn’t been determined yet, but it has been suggested that some classes could be held there and some offices, such as parking and janitorial, could relocate there as well.

gwin@vindy.com