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Eyesore will be razed
The city hopes to clean up and sell the property.
CAMPBELL — A half-burned eyesore on McCartney Road will be demolished with federal money the city will receive through the county.
About $720,000 is earmarked for demolishing condemned city properties.
The old nightclub on McCartney, which the city now owns for back taxes, will be a priority, said Mayor Jack Dill, adding that it was an eyesore even before it burned.
“Coming in and out of the city, that’s all you see,” he said.
Dill believes the nightclub, which was originally a Greek restaurant, closed in the late 1980s. It burned in the early hours of May 15, and arson is suspected, the city fire department said.
There are eight acres that accompany the building, and the city hopes that once the property is cleaned up, it will attract a buyer, Dill said.
The money that will be used for demolishing properties is not stimulus money under the Obama administration, said Anna DeAscentis, grants manager for the Mahoning County commissioners.
Rather, it is from a Housing and Urban Development initiative that began while George Bush was still president.
DeAscentis said that the funds, which the county receives through the Ohio Department of Development, were officially available in May. Campbell, one of several Youngstown area communities that will receive funding, has submitted a list of 82 properties for demolition, she said.
The county will solicit bids for the demolitions once the properties have gone through environmental reviews and owners have been notified, she said.
Dill said demolishing the old club is especially important because the Route 422 corridor will be well-traveled if Valley View Downs, the harness-racing track planned in Union Township, Pa., comes to be.
The track is in limbo after the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission turned down a conditional permit for slot machines there. Centaur Inc., the Indiana corporation that is developing the track, needed the permit so it could keep its financing. But the commission, which didn’t have all the background information it wanted to award the gaming license, would not grant the conditional permit, and Centaur lost its financing approximately a year ago.
Centaur said in a prepared statement that it “continues to vigorously pursue the successful development” of the track and is in “active negotiations with various parties to develop strategic alternatives for the project.”
Youngstown, Campbell and Coitsville are all looking forward to the economic benefits the racetrack will provide.
“The racetrack will definitely help the city with jobs and the housing market,” Dill said.