Developer has 6 more months to pay

By David Skolnick

The apartment project is to be finished by mid- to late June.

YOUNGSTOWN — The developer of an upscale apartment complex being built downtown will have six more months to repay $2 million to the city.

The city’s board of control — consisting of the mayor, law director and finance director — unanimously approved a request Thursday to give Management Parking LLC until Sept. 30 to pay back the money it borrowed.

The money was used to help fund the construction of the Realty Tower Apartments at 47 Central Federal St., a formerly vacant 12-story structure.

The company borrowed the money in September 2006 and was to pay it back in 18 months. At the company’s request, the city extended the term in March 2008 by another year. The company wants an additional six months, a request granted by the board of control.

“The project has taken longer than expected,” said Finance Director David Bozanich. “They’re getting close to finishing it.”

The repayment date will come after the project’s completion.

The $8.4 million project is to be finished by mid- to late June, said Bill Sperlazza, development manager for Management Parking, a company run by Lou Frangos of Cleveland. Frangos’ companies own numerous downtown buildings and parking facilities.

The first tenants could move in as early as August, Sperlazza said.

The building will have 23 apartments ranging from 1,215 to 2,057 square feet.

Under the city loan program, a business must have an irrevocable letter of credit from a lending institution — Key Bank in this case — to ensure the city gets repaid if for some reason a company can’t pay back the money.

Also Thursday, the board of control agreed to pay $185,919 to Brownfield Restoration Group LLC of Akron to oversee the remediation of the former YBM Corp. site that is to be cleaned up and demolished.

YBM was a ready-mix concrete company on Logan Avenue at Hubbard Road that closed in 1989.

The entire project will cost $1.1 million with $854,935 coming from a state grant. The rest of the project’s cost is coming from the city.

City officials want to turn the property into a light-industrial use site.

The board also retained the services of Brownfield Restoration for environmental work on the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube office building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The cost for the work won’t exceed $25,000, Bozanich said.

The plan is for the building — which Bozanich called an eyesore — to be torn down. The cost to demolish the building, vacant for about 30 years, is $400,000 to $500,000, he said.

skolnick@vindy.com