O'Reilly Auto Parts to join Belmont Plaza in Liberty

By robert Guttersohn

rguttersohn@vindy.com

Liberty

When Alan Friedkin spoke in the mostly empty section of Belmont Plaza set between Citi Trends and National College, his voice echoed in the 20,241 square feet of open space.

But by the spring, loads of auto parts will drive out from that last vacant lot in the plaza, feeding supplies to the six O’Reilly Auto Parts stores currently in the Mahoning Valley.

After six months of negotiating, Friedkin and O’Reilly signed an agreement in November bringing an O’Reilly Auto Parts retail store and supply hub to Belmont Plaza, which District Manager Clint McFadden predicts will create 15 jobs initially.

McFadden said the supply hub is part of the auto retailer’s expansion throughout the Mahoning Valley.

He said O’Reilly is looking to have open up to 15 locations despite the slow-growing economy.

McFadden attributed the growth to O’Reilly’s selling of quality parts, but admitted also the retail store’s model fits the times.

“We go through these trends all the time,” McFadden said.

“When people have some extra cash, they go and pay someone else to do the repairs. But when the money is tight, they try do some of the repairs on their own.”

When O’Reilly was in the Valley scouting locations for the hub, Friedkin used Belmont Plaza’s location as a selling point.

There’s access to Interstate 80 only a mile north on Belmont Avenue, access to the 711 connector two miles away and Belmont Plaza sits on the north-south avenue for which it is named, which runs downtown.

“We are in the center of the highway region,” Friedkin said.

The addition of O’Reilly to Belmont Plaza also acts as a closing of one chapter in Friedkin’s career.

When the interior design is complete and the brick fa ßade is in place, the plaza will be at full capacity for the first time since before he persuaded a group of Chicago investors to buy the property at auction about 10 years ago.

O’Reilly will join Aldi, Citi Trends, Big Lots and National College in the strip that Friedkin describes as the “focal point” of the Belmont corridor.

“There was virtually nothing in here,” Friedkin said of when the building was auctioned.

Friedkin was born on the North Side of Youngstown and crossed the border to Liberty in 1978 after getting married.

“I believed in the area,” Friedkin said.

But the large retailers such as J.C. Penney, Woolco and Kmart that once lined Belmont went out of business or left town for the malls in Boardman and Niles.

“When we saw places like Boardman and Niles explode,” Friedkin said, “everyone said Liberty is taking a back seat. I like to believe that we already hit the bottom and are on our way up.”

He said while looking at the properties along the avenue, he thinks “change of use” and seeks businesses that serve a more general market.

With that philosophy, he told the investors about Belmont Plaza when it went to auction 10 years ago. They purchased the 120,036-square-foot strip for $1.25 million.

“Today, it’s probably worth 6 or 7 million [dollars],” he said.

Aldi at the northern corner of the shopping center, took two years of negotiations and National College, at the southern corner, serves more than 700 students.

“Who’d ever think you’d have a college in a retail strip?” he said.

The exterior space where the O’Reilly Auto Parts hub will occupy is now cinder-block wall painted over with a dirty orange.

But according to architectural drawings Friedkin provided to The Vindicator, the wall will be replaced with a glass entrance and a fa ßade matching the entrances of Citi Trends and Big Lots.

Its placement reaffirms the rebirth of the Belmont corridor for township Adminstrator Pat Ungaro.

“I was thrilled to death,” Ungaro said when he heard of the deal.

Although he would not go into detail, he said there are still more projects for Belmont Avenue on the horizon.

Liberty “still has problems,” Ungaro said. “But it is growing.”