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Company hired for asbestos, lead work at Erie Terminal
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
Photo
Lou Frangos
The city’s board of control hired a Solon company for $6,500 to determine the amount of asbestos and lead in the Erie Terminal and apply to receive state funding to remove those items from the building.
The abatement probably would cost more than $100,000, city Finance Director David Bozanich, a board of control member, said after Thursday’s vote to hire Partners Environmental for the work.
Only government entities are permitted to apply for Clean Ohio funding, so Youngstown is doing so on behalf of Louis Frangos, who owns Erie Terminal, Bozanich said.
The city sold the Erie Terminal at 112 W. Commerce St. on June 29, 2007, for $375,000 to Frangos, of Cleveland, who owns several downtown Youngstown buildings and parking lots and decks.
The 7,800-square-foot, 87-year-old building is vacant. Its last main tenant, the Mahoning County Child Support Enforcement Division, left in December 2003.
Frangos wants to convert the former industrial building into student housing based on its close proximity to Youngstown State University, particularly its Williamson College of Business Administration, under construction.
To date, no work has been done on the nearly $8 million Erie Terminal plan.
“It’s a great project, but we don’t have a time line as to when we’ll start,” said Bill Sperlazza, Frangos’ development project manager. “This is a different time. It’s rough for developers and businesses in this economy financially. The economic climate isn’t conducive to doing development.”
Frangos spent $8.4 million on Realty Tower Apartments to convert the former mostly vacant downtown building at 47 Central Federal St. into an upscale 23-apartment complex. The project finished in September 2009.
To date, four of the apartments are rented, Sperlazza said.
Frangos recently had three of the apartments fully furnished “down to spatulas and ironing boards” to be rented for at least one month at a time, Sperlazza said.
One company recently used an extended-stay apartment at Realty, and there is interest from several others, he added.