Allentown vs. Youngstown: Give development a chance

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Ron Unger, director of advancement for the nonprofit ArtsQuest in Bethlehem, Pa., stands in front of the Bethlehem Steel plant. The structure will soon be incorporated into an entertainment center.

By Sarah Sole

Special to The Vindicator

From the highway, the signs are similar: trucks, cars, gas stations, restaurants, hotels.

From the side streets, the similarities continue: houses, school buses, traffic lights.

From the history books, the parallels between the Allentown, Pa., and Youngstown areas are nearly exact: Both communities were once heavily dependent upon steel for employing their residents and supporting their economies. When the steel industry buckled two and three decades ago, both areas were ravaged by widespread unemployment and all of the problems associated with poverty and despair.

While the Youngstown area continues to be marked by the demise of its once-dominant industry, the communities surrounding Allentown have moved on, and the differences between the two communities are pronounced

U The unemployment rate is 4.3 percent in Allentown, while in Youngstown it is 5.8 percent, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

U About 31 percent of Youngstown residents are living below the poverty level, but in Allentown the portion is 24 percent, according to the 2006 American Community survey, a demographic survey the Census Bureau conducts to obtain population and housing statistics on an annual basis.

Officials in both communities are all too familiar with those statistics, and each has theories to explain them.

In Youngstown, the popular refrain among those engaged in economic development is time and patience. The argument is that the Mahoning Valley will rebound — eventually.

In Allentown, officials say they began serious economic planning and rebuilding even before Bethlehem Steel closed for good in 1998 after a series of gradual closings that began in the 1980s.

Sitting in his small office inside the bustling Bethlehem Municipal Building, John D. Rohall, executive director of the Redevelopment Authority of Bethlehem, says similarities exist between Youngstown and Bethlehem.

“You have a lot of deteriorated steel mills and things that are similar to what’s happening here,” Rohall says.

One area where the cities differ, however, is in their use of the old mills.

Rohall says Bethlehem has always been focused on revitalization projects, leveraging state and local grants with private investments.

City officials wanted to preserve properties and began some planning for this as long ago as the 1950s and 1960s, Rohall says.

Rohall says Bethlehem works hard to incorporate existing buildings into any new designs, while Reid Dulberger, former president of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corporation, says Youngstown officials and developers usually tear down old structures and build new ones.

Dulberger, who earlier this year left his job as executive vice president of the Regional Chamber for a position out of state, says he understands the importance of incorporating the past into a community’s future but that this method of development takes a great deal of time and money.

Rohall says Bethlehem has been lucky to have help from area banks and businesses. He says the area was also fortunate to have had mayors and other political leaders with great foresight and strong leadership abilities.

Rohall says the fact that Bethlehem Steel anticipated an end to its industry also helped considerably. Steel was not the city’s sole industrial focus, either.

“They had the foresight to say, ‘you know, you don’t want all your eggs in one basket,’” he says.

Bethlehem is now in the final planning stages for a massive casino, hotel and shopping complex project on part of the Bethlehem Steel property.

Similar plans existed even before Bethlehem closed. When the steel company did go bankrupt, the plans were put on hold. But when Bethlehem Steel sold out to the company’s present owner, Bethworks LLC, a partnership consisting of Newmark Knight Frank Inc. and Sands Bethworks, the project was launched again and finally materialized when the state issued the area a gaming license to open a casino.

This gambling license attracted the needed private investors, who are now building a casino, hotel and shopping complex on the site of the former sprawling Bethlehem Steel. The project will create 1,825 permanent workers, and Sands Bethworks estimates 5 million visitors per year.

Designers for the new complex are salvaging as much as possible from Bethlehem Steel, including a large ore crane, which will be incorporated into the casino’s entrance.

In fact, a related project uses two imposing steel mill stacks as the backdrop for a performing arts and broadcast system center.

Dulberger argues that it will take time for the Mahoning Valley to re-emerge.

The current market makes it difficult to do big projects, Dulberger says.

“The real estate market is still relatively weak,” he says. “Everybody sees some things that have to happen first.”

One of the first steps, he says, could be to bring more residents to the city.

Currently, Lou Frangos owns three buildings downtown that are slated for residential redevelopment, Dulberger says. The Reality building in Center Square and the Wick building are two, and YSU has expressed interest in making the third, the Erie Terminal Building, into student housing.

Dulberger says he hopes work on the Reality building will begin this year. Construction on the other two buildings will start next year, he says.

Dulberger also says he has hope that a developer will be willing to turn the former Wean Building, which once housed the steel mill company Brown Bonnel, into an entertainment center. The Wean Building, weathered-white in color, hugs the Mahoning River and sits off Phelps Street in downtown Youngstown.

Dulberger, however, thinks that it will be four to six years before a developer will be willing to look at the project.

Dulberger says University of Michigan students studied the downtown and targeted the Wean Building.

Focused on linking Youngstown State University with the downtown area, the Michigan students said the Wean building would be a good location for entertainment and other public events, Dulberger says.

While Bethlehem’s model could be an example for Youngstown, one fundamental difference exists. Pennsylvania has legalized gambling, while Ohio does not.

Despite this difference, Dulberger says traditional entertainment such as restaurants, performing arts, movie theaters and music are alternatives to casinos.

Others also have suggestions for the Wean building.

Bill D’Avignon, director of city planning, has suggested a rock-climbing wall for the building. Other city leaders have also suggested an indoor tennis facility.

Anthony Kobach, chief planner for the Youngstown Planning Department, says he hopes entrepreneurs will bring their own ideas.

Hunter Morrison, director of Urban and Regional Studies at YSU, says the Wean building could be an indoor amusement park or a mixed-use entertainment center.

Morrison, however, agrees with Dulberger that any real change to the Wean building is some years off.

“It’s not something that’s gonna happen today,” he said, adding that the Chevrolet Centre needs to be stabilized first.

The market also needs to grow, he says.

“To some degree, it hinges on funding,” he says.

Rohall says Bethelehem’s project would not have progressed as quickly, or possibly at all, without legalized gambling.

While Mayor Jay Williams said he is personally not in favor of gambling, he believes that without it, the chances for redeveloping the Wean building will be limited.

“Gambling just causes people to look at things differently,” Williams says.

But Williams says it doesn’t appear likely that gambling will be legalized in Ohio.

“Both times it’s been soundly rejected,” he said.

Williams says the community probably needs to focus on smaller, easier projects.

For example, land around the Chevy Centre and downtown office buildings have entertainment potential, he says.

“Sometimes it’s easier to build from the ground up than to convert,” Williams says.

The city would need money if it wanted to redevelop the Wean building.

The city, state and federal government could provide financial assistance for a project through tax abatements, he says.

The city, however, needs partners, Dulberger says.

The Wean Building’s location near the river gives the building potential to be developed into something other than industrial space, Dulberger said.

“Unfortunately, we’re not utilizing that right now,” he said, of the building’s location.

The Wean Building’s major tenant is Youngstown Pipe and Supply.

Referring to the Wean Building, Tom Finnerty, associate director for the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at Youngstown State University says, “That’s the last of the big old mill buildings.”

Rohall stresses that Youngstown may not be able to take everything on single-handedly.

“You need a cash flow generator to make it all worthwhile,” Rohall says. “You really need to develop partnerships and associations of people to try to come in there.”

Like Rohall, Andrew Stern, managing director of Newmark Knight Frank, Inc. and project executive on the Bethlehem Steel project, cited proximity to New York City and Philadelphia as the main reason for his company’s decision to commit to the Bethlehem project.

In contrast, when you get on the freeway from Youngstown, the nearest large city is Chicago, Stern says.