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SPACE EFFICIENCY
All State Public Warehouse adds purpose to old building
By Kristen russo
Youngstown
The old concrete and brick building at 117 North Ave. near downtown Youngstown leaves only clues of its former life for the casual passer-by.
With signs attached to its sides, it also hints at its new one.
The five-story building, built in 1927 by the Youngstown-Erie Terminal Co., once functioned as a general warehouse.
Then it was known as the Erie and Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Rail Road Freight House, according to a 1928 map at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.
Now called All State Public Warehouse, the building functions as an overflow storage facility — a place from which companies can rent space to store extra equipment, products and papers they don’t have room for in their own buildings.
The tenants share the costs of labor, overhead and utilities at the public warehouse, rather than paying all the costs to run their own individual warehouses, said Mike Memo, owner of All State Public Warehouse.
“It’s a very cost-effective way to keep overhead down without them having to expand their own warehouses,” Memo said.
It’s a destiny the building was made for.
With six levels, including the basement, three freight elevators, four loading docks and a ramp in the back for cars to drive through, there are plenty of means for unloading, moving and storing.
Memo also runs his medical-supply company, Diagnostics Direct, out of the warehouse.
He said he bought the building in December 2009 from Thermal Ventures, parent company to Youngstown Thermal, which provides steam heat and cooling services to downtown businesses.
The Youngstown Thermal heating plant is still located next door at 205 North Ave.
Memo said he began renting space from the heating and cooling company in 1996. By 1999, he was renting about 30 percent of the building and subletting parts of his share to other companies.
He began renting and subletting the entire building in 2004.
Last year, he had the roof replaced, cleared the building of asbestos and cleaned the downspouts and drainage.
Memo said he has 15 clients renting storage space in the facility, including Muscle Connection, Modern Office, Gasser Chair and B.J. Alan Fireworks.
“We have a great relationship over there,” said William Weimer, vice president of B.J. Alan Fireworks.
“There’s no temperature control, but for us, it’s perfect. It’s dry, reasonably secure and in a good location,” he said.
Weimer said B.J. Alan Fireworks has rented space at the warehouse to store packaging and novelty items for at least 10 years.
According to the Mahoning County Auditor’s office, the building is 168,000 square feet. Memo said he has only about 20,000 square feet left to fill.
Inside, the building is open and spacious. At random stops, the doors on the 8,000-pound-capacity freight elevator open to rows of exercise equipment, clusters of old desks and chairs stashed away for safe keeping, boxes holding unseen goods.
On the ground level, doors lead outside to the back of the building, where the old train tracks and platform are visible.
From the street, this view is hidden by fencing and barbed wire.
On the other side of the building, men unload the latest shipment: latex gloves made in Sri Lanka.
To fit more in the truck, the shipments came without pallets, which means the men have to unload each case by hand.
Fighting off the cold with their hats, hooded sweat shirts, coats and gloves, they move the 2,300 cases of disposable medical gloves from the back of the truck into the warehouse.
Outside the building, six small, white signs hang from the structure, their black lettering the only hint of what’s inside. A few read: Diagnostics Direct and All State Public Warehouse. The others are a complement to the barbed wire: Private property. Keep out. Violators will be prosecuted.