Business interested in Kress building, downtown

YOUNGSTOWN — The vacant Kress Building on West Federal Street is in poor shape, but there is a business interested in locating there, says an official with a downtown property development agency that owns the structure.

Dave Kosec, development program manager for the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., declined today to publicly disclose the business looking at the 89-year-old Kress Building.

There have been numerous failed proposals for Kress in recent years. This one is “more serious than the others,” Kosec said.

The business owner plans to discuss his proposal with YCACIC officials in greater detail in early 2010 after he evaluates the building, Kosec said. The 30,000-square-foot building’s steel frame is in decent shape, but the interior is beyond repair, YCACIC officials have said.

Kress is on the south side of West Federal Street, between Phelps and Hazel street and just east of the 7th District Court of Appeals building.

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