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Warehouse space almost done
The building’s two upper floors will be finished in August.
YOUNGSTOWN — Work to the first floor and basement of the Semple Building should be done by next week, allowing Turning Technologies to use the space as a warehouse.
Improvements to the building’s second and third floors will be finished in August, said Dave Kosec, development project manager for the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp.
The CIC owns the structure on the south side of West Federal Street between the Taft Technology Center and Home Savings and Loan Co. The Semple Building has been vacant for about a decade, the ground floor last used as a vitamin store.
Discussions with companies to occupy four spaces on the upper floors — about 2,000 square feet each — are ongoing.
The CIC used $1.13 million in federal and state money to make the interior improvements to the Semple Building.
Turning Technologies, a software company headquartered at the Taft Technology Center, needs the space, about 13,000 square feet, for storage.
B&B Contractors & Developers Inc., the Youngstown company serving as the project’s general contractor, and subcontractors are pulling double shifts to get the work done by next week, Kosec said.
Semple is connected to the technology center through a hallway.
The Semple renovation is part of the CIC’s Tech Block project along West Federal Street, just east of Vindicator Square.
Using $2.75 million in federal and state funds, the agency has also demolished the Armed Forces Building and the State Theatre, saving the facade on the latter structure. The dilapidated buildings are being replaced, for now, with parking lots.
The CIC spent close to $6 million to demolish six vacant buildings and construct the Taft Technology Center, which opened in early 2008. The center is just west of the Youngstown Business Incubator, the home to several high-tech firms.
skolnick@vindy.com