Developer to decontaminate YSU project site

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — The developer of a proposed student housing complex on the north side of Youngstown State University said it’s no secret that there are contaminants in an old building on the site.

The Electrochemicals Inc. facility will be razed and the site cleaned up to Environmental Protection Agency standards, said Dominic Marchionda, president of US Campus Suites LLC, which will own the development.

The old plant building footprint will actually be part of a tenant parking lot, he said, pointing out that none of the four apartment buildings proposed for the land bounded by Bryson Street on the east, Madison Avenue on the north, Elm Street on the west and an expressway service road on the south will be built over the plant site.

A total of 450 apartments are included in the $28 million project.

Three of the four buildings will be built on what is now university parking lots. Test borings on the parking lots showed no migration of contaminants from the Electrochemicals building, said both Marchionda and Sarah Lown, the city’s development incentive manager.

The fourth building will be located where a house now sits.

The city is helping to secure funds for the $1.8 million cleanup and demolition of the old 70,000-square-foot plant, filing an application in January for $750,000 from the Clean Ohio Assistance Fund for remediation of the property. Marchionda, who now owns the building, will pick up the rest of the tab.

He said he didn’t pay a penny for the building or start development plans for the project without first getting assurances that the property could be properly cleaned up.

The bank would never have approved a loan for the development if there had been any serious question regarding contamination, he said, noting that KeyBank is providing $7.5 million for the construction of the first building in the project. That work will begin in May or June.

Environmental testing of the plant turned up higher-than-acceptable levels of some heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel and lead. There was no groundwater contamination found.

The cleanup plan calls for the removal of about 600 tons of contaminated soil and its replacement with an equal amount of clean fill soil.

Tentative plans call for the demolition and cleanup to begin this August and be completed in January.

An anonymous letter addressed to students and circulated around the YSU campus last week urged people to attend a university board of trustees meeting to inquire about contamination on The Flats at Wick site. No one did.

The letter accused YSU of “dropping the ball” and approving the housing concept without mentioning the contamination on the property.

“We’re aware of those [contamination] findings,” said YSU spokesman Ron Cole.

The university is working with the developer and the city to make sure that the site is properly remediated and the land made perfectly safe for development, he said.

Marchionda said the anonymous letter appeared to be someone trying to stir up controversy.

There’s been no effort made to keep the contamination matter secret, and the city has posted the building with a notice that Clean Ohio Assistance Fund money is being sought to clean it up.

The city even held a public meeting on the cleanup plan on March 12, but no one showed up, Lown said.

The building isn’t that bad in terms of old brownfield locations, Lown said, pointing out that the environmental testing has been very thorough. There are a few spots where soil will have to be excavated to a depth of about 12 feet, but the contaminants didn’t seep off the building site, she said.

“People are relieved to see that building coming down,” Lown said.

gwin@vindy.com