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Scaffolding to be added
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RENOVATIONS: Scaffolding is set up outside the National City building in downtown Youngstown. National City Bank was bought out by PNC Bank last year, and the building’s signage is scheduled to be replaced in the coming months.
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RENOVATIONS: Scaffolding is set up outside the National City building in downtown Youngstown. National City Bank was bought out by PNC Bank last year, and the building’s signage is scheduled to be replaced in the coming months.
YOUNGSTOWN — New PNC Bank signs will be going up soon at the downtown National City Bank Building, but the scaffolding on the Wick Avenue side of the downtown building isn’t coming down just yet.
Actually, more will be added, and depending on the schedule to improve the building’s exterior, the scaffolding around the structure could be there for several months, said Anita Atheneos, property manager for Park South Development Co. LLC, which owns the building.
Exterior work of more than $1 million to the entire structure is expected to start soon, perhaps in a few weeks, Atheneos said. That work requires the company to place scaffolding around the entire building, she said. The company won’t know how long the work will take until engineers review the project next week, she said.
Park South’s permit to have scaffolding on the Wick Avenue side of the building expires next month, said Charles T. Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public works department. The company hadn’t submitted plans to the city for the exterior work as of Tuesday, he said.
“If they give us a plan, I’d probably grant another extension,” Shasho said. “As long as they are making progress, they can have an extension.”
The city’s design-review committee Tuesday approved the design and placement location of four PNC Bank signs on the downtown structure, which will be renamed the PNC Bank Building shortly, and one near it.
There was the possibility the signs wouldn’t be installed because of problems with the building’s exterior — two pieces of granite fell off it in summer 2008, resulting in Park South’s having the scaffolding installed.
The signs will be secured through the building’s exterior and to its interior, eliminating the danger of their falling, said Shasho, a design-review member.
The design-review committee oversees exterior work in downtown and its surrounding areas.
It will take about a week to install the signs, and the new signs will be unveiled Nov. 6, said Chris Wrobel of Icon Identity Solutions, the Elk Grove Village, Ill., company that is serving as PNC’s project manager for the Youngstown building.
PNC purchased National City on Dec. 31, 2008. All National City branches in the Mahoning Valley will be renamed PNC. That includes the nine-story building downtown at Wick Avenue and Commerce Street.
The bank takes up more than half of the downtown building’s 24,305 square feet.
Park South, based in New York City, purchased the building for $4.5 million in February 2005.
Also Tuesday, design-review committee members said they want to meet with the company developing a CVS store on the North Side to discuss issues regarding a retention pond and sign.
The city’s engineering department approved plans from Orion Development, the company building the CVS store, for a water- retention pond a few feet from the sidewalk along Fifth Avenue to control potential flooding on the property.
But the department overstepped its authority by not requiring Orion to get the location first approved by the design-review committee, said Bill D’Avignon, the committee’s chairman and head of the city’s community-development agency.
Though some committee members said they’re concerned with the safety of having a 6-foot-deep pond near Fifth Avenue, Shasho, who oversees the engineering department, disagreed.
It would be rare for the retention pond to reach full capacity, Shasho said.
The committee plans to have a special meeting later this month with Orion officials.
The committee will request Orion either build underground pipes with a 1-foot-deep pond at that location, have all of the drainage system underground or use a more porous type of asphalt on its parking lot that would absorb water, members said.
Orion has also asked the committee to approve changing a sign to be built near the CVS, an issue that would also be discussed at the special meeting.
The sign was to be monument-style on the ground and similar to other businesses in the area. Orion wants to change that to a pylon sign, which would be on a pole.
“They’ll have a tough time getting approval for the [pylon] sign,” he said.
Ken Hrabar, an Orion official, declined to comment Tuesday to The Vindicator about both issues.
skolnick@vindy.com