YSU buys additional property for $34M Williamson project

By Harold Gwin

Property purchases for the business college building total nearly $1.2 million.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University is buying yet another piece of property in conjunction with the construction of a new building for its Williamson College of Business Administration.

The YSU board of trustees has voted to pay $225,600 for the former City Printing Co. building at 36 W. Wood St. owned by Joseph A. Valentini. The price is the same as the building’s appraised value.

The location, at Wood and Phelps streets, is directly across from the Williamson project site.

City Printing has already relocated to 122 Oak Hill Ave.

The purchase must now be approved by the State Controlling Board, and that is expected to occur within the next couple of months, said Atty. Greg Morgione, YSU associate general counsel.

“There is a need for additional parking in that area for the college of business,” he said, noting that the City Printing building will eventually be razed to provide some of that parking space. In the meantime, the university may use the first floor of the two-story structure as temporary office space, he said.

The building has a shared wall with the building housing James & Weaver, an office furniture company, at 22 W. Wood St. YSU has an interest in the James & Weaver property but isn’t moving to acquire it at this time, Morgione said.

Construction on the new $34 million, 106,000-square-foot Williamson building began this spring, and it is scheduled to be ready for occupancy in fall 2010.

In addition to buying the land where that facility will be located (bounded by Phelps on the east, Wood on the south, Rayen on the north and an extension of Hazel Street on the west), the university has purchased other property to provide more parking.

It paid $100,000 to WR & L Associates Inc. in late 2008 for a former Phar-Mor employee parking lot (actually nine separate lots) just across Wood Street to provide some spaces.

The city bought and cleared the Williamson project site, and the university bought the property from the city in four parcels to create a construction location large enough to hold the building. YSU paid $270,000 for a portion of the former Cherol property, $240,000 for the former Downie auto service property, $200,000 for the former Earl Calvin apartment complex and $146,000 for property formerly owned by the Diocese of Youngstown.

The project moves the university’s southern boundary closer to the downtown business district, a move university officials have said is designed to enhance the relationship between the campus and the city.

gwin@vindy.com