YSU will buy lot for additional parking

By Harold Gwin

Construction on the business school is slated to begin in January or February.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University will spend $100,000 to buy a former Phar-Mor employee parking lot along Wood Street as part of its $34.3 million Williamson College of Business Administration project.

The property, actually nine lots owned by WR & L Associates Inc., is located directly across Wood Street from the college building site and will provide additional parking for that facility, said Atty. Greg Morgione, YSU’s associate general counsel.

Morgione outlined the purchase in a property acquisition proposal before the Finance and Facilities Committee of the YSU Board of Trustees Thursday.

The committee approved the purchase, and the issue will now go before the full board at its Sept. 19 meeting and then must win approval from the State Controlling Board.

Meanwhile, demolition of five old buildings on the Williamson site should be completed by the end of September, Morgione told the committee.

The 106,000-square-foot building has a completion date of mid-2010 and should be ready for the start of fall classes that year, said John Hyden, YSU executive director of facilities.

Final building designs are now being done, and bid documents should be ready in October, Hyden said.

Actual construction is expected to begin in January or February, but a ceremonial groundbreaking will be scheduled sometime in October, he said.

The site, bounded by Wood Street on the south, Rayen Avenue on the north, Phelps Street on the east and a proposed Hazel Street extension on the west, expands the southern edge of campus, and city and university officials have said the new school will strengthen the link between the university and the downtown business district.

It will also improve a blighted area of the city, according to Mayor Jay Williams.

Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president, said the city, YSU and the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, which has offices adjoining the site, have worked in collaboration to take a blighted block and turn it into a vital part of the campus and surrounding community.

The university is raising $16 million from private sources to help finance the project. The rest will come from state capital funds.

gwin@vindy.com