CIC officials reviewing mission

YOUNGSTOWN — Despite the national real estate pinch, it’s a seller’s market in downtown Youngstown, officials with the Community Improvement Corporation say.

As development and demolition eat away at the central city’s remaining vacant properties, committee members from the 20-year-old downtown development nonprofit say it may be time to reassess the CIC’s mission.

“It’s turned a corner,” said Dave Kosec, CIC project manager. “CIC has a few properties, and used to have 25 properties. There have been so many buildings taken down or renovated, there’s only a few left.”

Of the 12 buildings the CIC controls, only three are seen as potential development sites, said administrative assistant Lynn-Marie Popa. No buildings owned by the nonprofit development group are available to perspective buyers, she said.

CIC legal counsel Ed Romero suggested a philosophical discussion about the CIC’s future. Since 1988, the CIC has served as a nonprofit, boosting development in downtown Youngstown.

Read more in Wednesday’s Vindicator and at Vindy.com