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7 North Side buildings being torn down
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SITE IMPROVEMENT: Rubble is all that’s left of a house on Fifth Avenue at Park Street on Youngstown’s North Side. Seven dilapidated and boarded-up buildings are finally coming down. City officials refused to wait any longer for the buildings to be demolished; they had been vacant for two years.
The property owner has a deal to sell the land.
YOUNGSTOWN — Seven dilapidated and boarded-up buildings on the city’s North Side, located on property that was to be a medical facility at one time and then a student housing complex, are finally coming down.
“This is so good for the city,” said William Conti, president of Stambaugh Auditorium, which is next to the structures being demolished. “The site was atrocious.”
Select Medical Corp., which purchased the buildings in 2006 for $2 million, has a purchase agreement with a company interested in developing the property on Fifth Avenue, between Westbound Service Road and Park Avenue, and next to Stambaugh.
The company is “doing its due diligence and we hope the project goes through with no obstacles,” said Bob Wiley, a broker associate for Coldwell Banker Commercial, who is handling the property sale for Select Medical.
Wiley declined to identify the company with the purchase agreement. Regarding a final deal, “nothing will happen before the spring,” he said.
But city officials refused to wait any longer for the buildings to be demolished, said Wiley and William D’Avignon, the city’s community development agency director.
The buildings sat vacant for two years.
“We expressed our concerns with the appearances of the property in a high-profile location,” Mayor Jay Williams said. “They have a responsibility to maintain their property and I’m pleased they’re doing so.”
Select Medical officials were told by those who work for the city that the buildings were a “fire hazard” and had to come down, Wiley said.
“I can’t dispute that,” he said of the buildings’ being a fire hazard.
The demolition started Friday, and the project will take about six to eight weeks to complete, depending on the weather, Wiley said.
“That area can be an asset to the North Side,” he said.
Though Wiley wouldn’t talk about the proposed project, D’Avignon said he’s been told the site would have one or two retail businesses and some residential apartments, not necessarily for students.
Place Properties, a major national developer of student housing, let an option on the property expire in September. The company wanted to build a $17 million, 109-unit housing facility, primarily for Youngstown State University students, on the site.
Place Properties wanted a property tax abatement from the city to build the project. But the company canceled the project because of delays in getting the state’s approval needed for tax abatements, according to city officials.
Place Properties officials haven’t commented on the company’s decision to scrap its plans. Attempts to reach them again Monday were unsuccessful.
YSU opposed the project — saying the location posed a danger to students.
Select Medical was going to build a 56-bed, long-term, acute-care facility at the Fifth Avenue location in 2006. But when St. Elizabeth Health Center starting building a medical campus in Boardman, the company decided to open there.
“We’re pleased it’s finally coming down,” D’Avignon said.
Meanwhile, local developer Dominic Marchionda said he’s secured about $8 million for the first phase of a student housing complex he is developing in the city’s Smoky Hollow district.
The first phase would be for 110 beds for student housing on Elm Street at the location of the former Coney Island restaurant and an attached warehouse.
Construction would start in the spring and be ready for occupancy in the summer of 2010, he said.
The overall project is to cost $24 million and have about 400 units.
skolnick@vindy.com