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City plans to act on Paramount, Erie Terminal
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
The city plans to apply for about $500,000 in state money to clean up the Erie Terminal building and use $80,000 of its own money to purchase the long-closed Paramount Theatre.
Both are empty downtown buildings. Louis Frangos owns Erie and is the majority owner of the theater. Frangos, of Cleveland, owns several downtown buildings and parking lots and decks.
The city’s board of control voted Thursday to increase the payment to Partners Environmental Consulting of Solon to $8,090 from $6,500 to determine the amount of asbestos and lead-based paint that needs to be removed from Erie.
The increase of $1,590 came after Partners, hired in April, did initial tests and told city officials that further ones were needed.
On Thursday, city Finance Director David Bozanich estimated the cost of cleaning up the building at 112 W. Commerce St. at $500,000. The city plans to seek that money from the state, Bozanich said.
Frangos wants to convert the 7,800-square-foot former industrial building into apartments for students and, potentially, employees of Youngstown State University.
The structure is near the Hazel Street extension and YSU’s Williamson College of Business. Both projects should be done in the fall.
“We think [Erie] will have a high value because of its location,” Bozanich said.
Frangos purchased the property for $375,000 from the city in June 2007. Erie has been vacant for more than six years.
Frangos bought the Paramount Theatre — with Grande Venues of Wheaton, Ill., as his minority partner — for $79,900 in April 2006.
Frangos said he’s spent about $80,000 on the building since he purchased it.
The 9,510-square-foot building, vacant for more than 30 years, is on the corner of West Federal and North Hazel streets in the heart of the city’s downtown.
Improving the building would cost about $10 million, city officials estimate.
Instead, the city plans to buy the Paramount for $80,000 and seek about $750,000 from the state to remove asbestos and to demolish the building except its facade. City council will consider the purchase at its Wednesday meeting.
Why is the city buying the rundown building for essentially what Frangos and Grande Venues paid three years ago?
“The property can sit in the middle of downtown with nothing happening, or you can come to the conclusion that it’s worth the cost and buy it to do the right thing,” Bozanich said. “We’ll return it to a good viable use. It’s causing problems in that area. It’s blight.”
Work on the theater site is at least 18 months away.
The city plans to keep the building’s facade and the metal frame that hangs over West Federal Street, that used to be the theater’s marquee, and use the back for parking. There is also talk of turning that area into a site for outdoor concerts and other entertainment events.