City yanks $236,000 tax break for store

By David Skolnick

The application for the tax abatement incorrectly states that the store isn’t being relocated.

YOUNGSTOWN — City council unanimously agreed to withdraw a $236,007 tax abatement to CVS for a new store on the North Side because it’s shutting down its East Side location.

City officials said CVS and Orion Development, the company building the store, never told them that the store on Oak Street on the East Side would close as a result of the opening of a new store on Fifth and Park avenues.

City officials Thursday disputed statements made two days earlier to The Vindicator from Mike DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman, that the company has “always been up front about it being a relocation.”

“The first I heard about the East Side store closing was a few weeks ago and it wasn’t from CVS or Orion,” said T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s economic development director. “It’s disappointing that we found this out at the 11th hour.”

CVS is closing the East Side store Saturday. A sign outside the $4.8 million North Side store says it will open at 5 p.m. Saturday.

The city could have helped CVS find a potential tenant for the East Side facility if the company had asked, Woodberry said.

On the application for a tax abatement, it specifically asks: “Will the project involve the relocation of employment positions or assets from one Ohio location to another?”

The form, signed by Frank Neely, an Orion partner, marked the “no” box on that question.

The next question reads: “If yes, state the locations from which employment positions or assets will be relocated and the location to where the employment positions or assets will be located.” The response was “N/A,” meaning nonapplicable.

But that’s not the case.

CVS and Orion officials couldn’t be reached Thursday by the newspaper to respond.

But DeAngelis said Tuesday that the company is “opening the store with or without the abatement. If there’s a misunderstanding with the city, we regret that.”

City council voted Thursday to repeal the $236,007 tax-abatement, which was to be spread out over a 10-year period.

Council also authorized the city’s law director to “take all necessary action to recover” a $4,509 building permit fee for the construction of the store and about $6,000 in sewer, wastewater and water tap-in fees.

Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st, said she finds CVS’s handling of this to be “offensive.”

The seven full-time employees at the East Side store are moving to the new location, and the company has three new hires.

skolnick@vindy.com