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Two downtown bar buildings will be razed for parking spots
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The Jolly Bar in downtown Youngstown
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Downtown Bar on Commerce and Symphony Drive
The $400,000 project will convert the buildings to 26 parking spaces.
YOUNGSTOWN — Two former downtown bar buildings, both in poor condition, are to be demolished by the end of the month and replaced with parking spaces.
The city’s Design Review Committee approved plans Tuesday submitted by MC Investments, a Cleveland company, for the projects.
“All I can say is ‘thank you,’” John DeFrance, a committee member, told MC Investment officials about demolishing the two vacant structures.
The two buildings to be demolished by the end of June are:
U The Jolly Bar at 31 Spring Commons, closed for about a decade. The three-story, 6,688-square-foot building was built more than 100 years ago. Portions of the building also were used as a boarding house, the Valley Hotel, for a period of time.
U A bar, closed for about 30 years, at 309 W. Commerce St., on the southwest corner of Symphony Place. The two-story, 3,960-square-foot building was also built more than 100 years ago. Committee members and those at the meeting on behalf of MC Investments didn’t know the name of that former bar.
The company purchased the two buildings in December 2008 for $150,000, and is spending another $250,000 on demolition and other related work, and paving the property for use as parking spaces, said John P. Coyne, MC Investments owner.
The Jolly Bar building is “loaded with asbestos” while the other bar doesn’t have any, he said.
“We want to take the buildings down before they fall down,” Coyne said.
MC Investments owns the space around the two former bars and leases that property to Ampco System Parking, which operates paid parking lots on those sites as well as throughout the city’s downtown.
MC Investments owns property near the Jolly Bar with about 80 parking spaces and near the West Commerce Street building with 15 spaces. When the project is done, 9 spots will be added near the Jolly Bar and 17 added near the other former bar location, said Dan Strong, Ampco’s operations manager.
“It’s hardly worth the effort, but [they’re] eyesores,” Coyne said of spending $400,000 for 26 additional parking spots.
How bad are the old bar buildings?
“It’s a pit inside,” Coyne said of the West Commerce location.
All the glass windows are long gone from that building; the windows on the upper floor are open and plywood covers only a portion of the lower floor windows.
skolnick@vindy.com
In addition to the impending demolitions of two former bar buildings at 31 Spring Commons and 309 W. Commerce Street, there are other business developments in downtown Youngstown. Here are some.
- Construction on the $8.4 million Realty Tower Apartments at 47 Central Federal St. is expected to be done by the end of the month. The first tenants will move to the 13-story building in August.
- Work on the first floor and basement of the Semple Building on the south side of West Federal Street, between the Taft Technology Center and Home Savings and Loan Co., is to be finished this week. Turning Technologies will use that space as a warehouse. Improvements to the second and third floors, to be used for office space for four companies, is expected to be done by August.
- The State Theatre and the Armed Forces Building on West Federal Street, near Hazel Street, are demolished. The rear portion of the theater property is a parking lot. Work on the rest of the site needs to be done. These projects and the Semple Building were paid with $2.75 million worth of state and federal grants.
- The Lemon Grove restaurant/bar will open in mid-June at 122 W. Federal St. The Lemon Grove will feature organic coffee, beer from small Northeast Ohio brewers and gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches. The project cost more than $100,000.
- William Leonard Extraordinary Gentlemen men’s spa recently opened at 101 W. Federal St.
- Exterior improvements are being made to 25 W. Federal St., a vacant structure.
Source: Vindicator files