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YSU explores takeover of Mighty Moe’s
The Vindicator
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A Youngstown State University spokesman said the tentative plan is to open a new restaurant on the site of the former Mighty Moe’s, 315 Elm St. University trustees approved the building’s purchase in 2009.
State OKs university purchase of restaurant, bar properties
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State University is moving ahead with plans to reopen a restaurant near campus and level a nearby building.
“The plan, tentatively, is to explore opening Mighty Moe’s as a restaurant and to demolish the Rayen building and convert it into space for parking for the restaurant,” YSU spokesman Ron Cole said.
“We have retained Brownfield Restoration Group to conduct an environmental assessment of the Rayen building and assist the university in submitting a Clean Ohio grant application for site demolition and/or remediation of the building,” he said.
The university hopes to have the Rayen building demolished before opening the restaurant, he said.
There have been talks of having the restaurant operated by Sodexo, the university’s food-service company.
In 2009, YSU trustees voted to purchase both properties from owner Mohammad Fard, but in early 2010, the state controlling board, which must approve such public spending, denied the university’s request to buy The Rayen, at 158 W. Rayen Ave., for use as a future parking lot.
The board deferred a decision on the purchase of Mighty Moe’s, 315 Elm St. It was built in the early 1970s as a Burger King restaurant.
Controlling board members at that time questioned the purchases, after noting the purchase price was substantially higher than what Fard had paid for them in recent years.
The restaurant property was purchased in 2002 for $160,000. The other property was purchased in 2005 for $9,640.
The university agreed to pay $530,000 for the restaurant property and $90,000 for the other and submitted appraisals backing up the market values.
But last July, the controlling board approved both purchases after YSU decreased to $70,000 the amount to be paid for The Rayen, minutes from a July 19, 2010, meeting show.
Mighty Moe’s closed in early 2009, but university officials have said that it remains operational.
The Rayen, built in 1916, is in bad shape with a leaky roof and other problems. It was the site of several bars through the past 50 years including the Bavarian House, Tony’s Hideaway and Pogo’s Pub. Ernie McDougal’s, the last bar in the building, closed several years ago after losing its liquor license.