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Tough talk for Frangos: no plywood
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City officials will have nothing to do with the co-owner’s plan to board up the windows of the Stambaugh Building.
YOUNGSTOWN — Your plan is unacceptable.
That’s the city’s message to developer Louis A. Frangos about his proposal to board up windows at the Stambaugh Building in the heart of downtown.
Frangos, who co-owns the historic structure, had employees from two of his companies, USA Parking Systems Inc. and the Frangos Group, start removing windows from the building May 28, four days after he said two windows fell from the rear of the structure that fronts East Federal Street.
City officials said Frangos’ companies violated a number of city laws and codes by doing the work without prior notification and approval.
Frangos said his plan is to board up the window frames with plywood and paint the wood. He also had considered putting plastic around the window frames.
The plywood would only be temporary, Frangos said, and he would come up with a permanent decision shortly thereafter.
But city officials dismiss Frangos’ proposal.
“Plywood would create a blight condition,” said Brenda Williams, the city’s chief building official.
The Design Review Committee, which has power from the city to approve or reject work done to the exterior of downtown buildings, gave Frangos three options Wednesday:
•Put in new windows.
•Make improvements to the window frames so the old windows can be used.
•Replace the windows with Plexiglas.
City officials will meet Friday with Frangos and his architect to decide what is to be done with the building’s window spaces.
William D’Avignon, the city’s community development agency director and chairman of the DRC, and Williams, a DRC member, toured the Stambaugh Building on Wednesday.
“The old windows are deteriorated, but a simple solution is to recaulk them,” D’Avignon said.
About 400 windows were removed from the building’s upper 12 floors. The 13-story structure has 531 windows, many of which are located inside the building next to where they used to hang, they said.
If Frangos won’t put in windows, the city has the ability to contract that work and bill the building’s co-owner for the cost, D’Avignon said.
Besides failing to notify the city about the work, Frangos’ company didn’t seek permission from the Design Review Committee.
“He absolutely needed approval from DRC as well as a building permit, and he also failed to notify the city’s engineering/traffic department,” Williams said.
City officials discovered the windows being removed June 5, shortly before one fell several feet onto East Federal Street as Williams watched.
Bill Sperlazza, Frangos’ development project manager, also said a strong storm last summer led to at least four windows from the building falling to the ground — at least two onto a parking area and at least two onto the roof of Buffalo Wild Wings, the structure’s lone tenant.
So how did city officials fail to discover the removal of more than 400 windows from one of downtown’s tallest buildings, located near city hall on South Phelps Street and the city annex on Front Street?
“I don’t know,” D’Avignon said.
Besides Williams, her staff consists of a full-time inspector and a part-time one, and some things are going to be missed, she said.
Frangos admitted that he or his staff should have contracted city officials immediately, but failed to do so.
“Unfortunately, in our zealousness to prevent anyone from getting hurt, we started the window removal” without city approval, Frangos said. “... It was an honest oversight.”
The matter is being reviewed by the city’s law department.
The city already cited Jeff Hamm, USA Parking’s regional operations manager, with a third-degree misdemeanor for violating the city code for failing to keep the building’s exterior surfaces in “good condition.”
His trial is set for Friday and, if convicted, Hamm’s maximum penalty is a $500 fine and 60 days in the Mahoning County Jail, according to the city clerk of court’s office.
Frangos could also face the same charge, Williams said. Also, Frangos could be fined $100 a day for violating Design Review Committee code, D’Avignon said.
To put that in perspective, D’Avignon said new windows for the Stambaugh Building could cost between $800,000 and $1 million.
Williams and D’Avignon said they’re surprised by Frangos’ failure to notify the city about the removal of the windows, particularly because he’s followed all city laws and codes as he converts Realty Towers, a short distance from Stambaugh, from a vacant building into an upscale housing complex.
To convert Stambaugh into a usable building would cost about $15 million, Frangos said.
Seventeen prominent downtown developers and preservationists recently wrote a letter to Mayor Jay Williams expressing concerns about Frangos’ plans for the building.
“I respect the passion of the people,” Frangos said. “The first thing I wanted to do was save the building.”
As for the rehabilitation of the building, “It’s undoable this week or this month or the foreseeable future, with the economy,” Frangos said.
Meanwhile, Frangos owes more than $100,000 in unpaid taxes to Mahoning County for four buildings — including the Erie Terminal, which the city sold to him last year for $375,000 — and six parking lots.
Frangos said that when the county reassessed property, they raised his taxes higher than he believed they are worth.
skolnick@vindy.com