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Downtown Youngstown: ‘Eyesore’ scaffolding is removed from PNC
YOUNGSTOWN
While it will be another week before an improvement project to the exterior of the PNC Bank Building is done, scaffolding that surrounded the downtown structure since May 2008 is finally gone.
The scaffolding was removed Tuesday.
“We are very pleased it’s finally come to a close; we’re sorry it took so long,” said David Rizzuto, director of operations and finance for Pan Brothers, a New York City company that owns the building on the southwest corner of Wick Avenue and Commerce Street.
“We appreciate the patience of those who had patience with us,” he added. “We know it’s a long time. We didn’t like that it took this long, but public safety comes first.”
The project was initially delayed because of a lawsuit Pan Brothers had with its insurance company over who would pay for the exterior work to the building. The lawsuit was settled in November 2010 with the terms sealed.
Also, the problems with the building’s exterior were worse than originally thought, said Angel Ortiz, owner of AO Construction and Restoration, the Boardman company doing the work.
The original plan required 54 steel strips to be used to secure exterior granite to the building.
But Ortiz said about double the number of steel strips were needed. Also, Ortiz said his company found five loose granite panels on the building’s exterior that needed to be replaced. The granite had to be shipped from Italy, he said.
When AO was hired, the company was only supposed to replace two large granite pieces that fell off the building about 40 feet to the sidewalk in 2005.
Steel strips still have to be installed on the building’s first two stories, but scaffolding isn’t needed for the work, Ortiz said.
“We’re pleased the work is finishing and the scaffolding is gone,” said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public works department. “We’re not happy it took so long. We would have liked to see the landowner come to a resolution sooner.”
Sharon Letson, executive director of Youngstown CityScape, an organization involved in downtown landscaping and planting flowers, said: “I’m thrilled to see it gone. It was an eyesore for such a long time.”
The city had given Pan Brothers until the end of July, based on a permit issued in July 2010, to clean and caulk the granite panels on the building’s exterior and install steel strips between the panels to keep them in place.
Work progressed slowly or not at all between July 2010 and this past May.
Pan Brothers’ officials had said the work would be done by mid-June, then the end of July and then the end of this month. Because work was being done in July, city officials agreed to give Pan Brothers until the end of September to finish.
The problems with the building’s exterior began in 2005 when two large granite pieces fell off the structure.
The scaffolding was erected in May 2008 after city officials learned about the incident from three years earlier. No panels have fallen since.
A permit from the city to keep the scaffolding up expired Jan. 24, 2010. The city threatened to file a lawsuit in June 2010 after The Vindicator reported the permit had expired months earlier. Instead, it gave the company a one-year permit in July 2010 to make the necessary improvements.
City officials spoke with the building’s owner for the past three to four weeks, and planned to pursue legal action if the scaffolding weren’t removed by this Friday, Mayor Charles Sammarone said.