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Youngstown Legal Arts Building sells for $175,000
YOUNGSTOWN
A property development company has purchased the Legal Arts Building, one of the largest vacant downtown office buildings, for $175,000.
Dominic Marchionda, head of Legal Arts Properties LLC, which bought the property, said the deal happened so quickly that he’s not sure what he’ll do with the building.
“I’ll do something with it; it’s not going to sit there,” he said. “I’ll work with the city to find the best use for it.”
One idea, Marchionda said, is to build a “boutique hotel with office space. It’s a great location, and it’s a cool-looking building with covered parking.”
Marchionda first looked at purchasing the building from Commonwealth Real Estate Investors, about two years ago. But they were asking too much, about $480,000, Marchionda said.
“It became available at the right price [recently], so I bought it,” he said.
The building is 3,089 square feet, according to the Mahoning County auditor’s website.
The ground floor used to house The Hub, a breakfast and lunch diner that closed in early 2004. An explosion in June 2004 of an acetylene tank used at a jewelry repair shop caused damage to the structure, and when repair work wasn’t done, the few tenants at the building left.
It’s been vacant since late 2004.
The building’s basement and first floor need work, but the rest of the structure is in good shape, Marchionda said.
There were a few companies interested in recent months in purchasing the building, said T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s economic development director.
Woodberry said she is pleased to hear it’s been sold.
“It’s a good thing for the city,” she said. “The building has been vacant for some time. There’s only an upside to anything that would involve an investment and making that building productive.”
The Legal Arts Building was constructed in 1965 primarily for legal offices — it’s across the street from the county common pleas courthouse — at the site of the former Sears Roebuck building.
It changed owners numerous times during the 1970s and 1980s.
Marchionda, of Poland, heads a company that built the $8 million, 114-unit Flats at Wick student-house complex near Youngstown State University.
Also, another Marchionda company is spending about $9 million to turn the Erie Terminal building on West Commerce Street into a 65-unit housing complex for YSU graduate students and upperclassmen as well as young professionals. The housing complex should open in June, Marchionda said.