YSU continues purchasing in ‘Fifth Avenue Gateway’

By Harold Gwin

The university is moving closer to owning property it needs to build athletic fields.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University continues to buy up property along what is referred to as its “Fifth Avenue Gateway.”

The university has, for the past several years, been purchasing primarily individual residential lots in the area west of Stambaugh Stadium bounded by Fifth Avenue on the east, Belmont Avenue on the west, Arlington Street on the south and the Madison Avenue Expressway on the north.

The university is getting close to controlling all of the properties it needs to develop the area, said Atty. Greg Morgione, YSU associate general counsel.

There aren’t any plans to buy any of the commercial properties along that section of Fifth Avenue, he said.

The intended use of the property being purchased has changed over time. At one point, it was considered as a possible spot for student apartments, and, more recently, as a possible location for the Watson and Tressel Training Site indoor athletic facility.

The apartments were eventually built on the other side of campus and a different site has been picked for the WATTS Center.

Now, the university is looking at the land for new intramural sports fields and facilities and some additional parking.

The board of trustees approved a plan in December to set aside $2.1 million for the athletic facilities as part of a $24.5 million issue borrowed through the sale of bonds for ongoing campus improvements.

The trustees also voted at that meeting to buy six properties in the targeted area, five of them residential lots. The sixth is the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 171 union hall at 348 W. Rayen Ave. The university is offering $145,000 for the union property which is the appraised value of the site.

The property has been vacant for about a year, said Tony DiTommaso, a Local 171 trustee.

The union still rents the building out from time to time but is prepared to sell it, he said, noting the union is operating out of a location on Boardman-Canfield Road in Boardman that is more central to its service area.

The latest property purchases must still be approved by the state Controlling Board, a process that should take one to two months, Morgione said. Money for the purchases will come from $1 million set aside for acquisitions in a $21 million loan the trustees took out in February 2009 for the campus improvement program, he said.

There are a number of potential uses for the union building, though there would be some expense involved to renovate it for university purposes, Morgione said. The property comes with 70 parking spaces, which was a main factor behind YSU’s interest, he said. Those spaces are being counted in an administration proposal to create 1,376 surface lot parking spaces on and around campus when the 1,278-space Lincoln Avenue parking deck is torn down in, perhaps, a year.