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Conversion plans move forward for downtown apartments
Photo
Dominic Marchionda
YOUNGSTOWN
Even though he doesn’t own the Erie Terminal yet, Dominic Marchionda received approval from a city downtown committee for his plans to turn the vacant structure into a 65-bed apartment complex.
Marchionda, a Poland property developer, said Tuesday that he expects the purchase of the downtown structure for $740,000 to be finalized in a few days.
He hasn’t started the work, but Marchionda said that by August he expects to be finished converting the vacant six-story building into a 65-bed apartment complex for Youngstown State University graduate students and upper classmen as well as young professionals. The work will begin next month, he said.
The apartments would be on the upper five floors.
The first floor would be for a coffee shop, a deli and a pub, Marchionda said. The first-floor work should be done by early next year, he said.
The entire project will cost about $9 million. The West Commerce Street building is to receive $3.22 million in state and federal historic-preservation money. The project has to be done by October 2012 to receive the money.
“We’re well ahead of the deadline,” he said.
The city’s Design Review Committee voted Tuesday to approve Marchionda’s plans for the Erie Terminal. The committee’s members praised the proposal saying it will be a great benefit to the city’s downtown.
Marchionda was supposed to purchase the building from Louis Frangos of Cleveland, a real- estate developer who owns several properties in the city’s downtown, in December 2010.
The delays largely were caused, Marchionda said, because he was working with state historic-preservation officials on his plans in order to qualify for money.
Frangos purchased the building for $375,000 from the city in June 2007.
Marchionda is paying nearly double that amount but says the 7,800-square-foot property’s value has increased since then. The most-significant change is YSU’s $34.3 million Williamson College of Business Administration, which opened last year near the Erie Terminal location.
“We saw an opportunity with” Erie, he said. “It’s the main connector between downtown and the YSU campus.”
As part of the Erie deal, Marchionda agreed to sign a one-year exclusive purchase option in October 2010 on the vacant Wick Building on West Federal Street.
“What happens with [Wick], I’m not sure yet,” Marchionda said. “We have some great ideas.”
In the past, Marchionda said he envisions Wick’s being a combination of housing and retail, including a restaurant.