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Downtown razing work under way
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DEMOLITION: Pro Quality Land Development of Campbell is demolishing three vacant buildings near Youngstown City Hall. The land will be converted into a parking lot addition.
YOUNGSTOWN — Three vacant downtown buildings near City Hall being demolished should be down shortly.
Pro Quality Land Development, a Campbell company, began the demolition project Tuesday. The demolition work should be finished in about a week, said Cosmo Iamurri, Pro Quality’s owner.
The structures are at 20 and 24 W. Boardman St. and 21 S. Phelps St.
The three buildings, all 89 years old, can’t be renovated, said John P. Coyne, whose Cleveland-based company, Coyne Investments Ltd., owns the property.
The plan is to pave the location and turn it into a 41-parking-space addition to a 23-space lot on the northeast corner of West Boardman and South Phelps streets. Coyne is vice president of business development for Ampco.
Whether that can be done now or the spring depends on the weather, Iamurri said. If it’s too cold, paving will have to wait, he said.
Portions of the sidewalk are closed to pedestrians while the demolition work is being done; the streets won’t be closed to vehicular traffic, but portions are restricted by cones, he said.
Coyne Investments paid $324,000 to purchase the properties.
There haven’t been tenants in the three buildings in at least a year with some of the space empty for about a decade.
Ampco and a law office used to be at 20 W. Boardman St., City Title Co. and a bail bondsman were the last tenants at 24 W. Boardman St. Former lawyer Richard D. Goldberg was the last tenant at 21 S. Phelps St., Coyne said.
skolnick@vindy.com