Committee approves plans to beautify the Paramount Theatre location

YOUNGSTOWN

As a contractor prepares to level the long-vacant Paramount Theatre and turn the downtown area into a parking lot, a group received approval from a city committee to beautify the front portion of the property.

Baumann Enterprises Inc., a Cleveland firm hired by the city for $721,000 to demolish the asbestos-filled building, will start the job in about a month. The work, to take about four months, will be done only at night on weekdays to causes as little disruption as possible to that busy downtown area.

The building, vacant since 1976, is on the corner of West Federal and North Hazel streets.

Members of the Paramount Project, a group that wants to preserve the memory of the 95-year-old building, received permission Tuesday from the city’s Design Review Committee for its plans.

Those plans include refurbishing or replacing the existing iron marquee awning on the front of the building and cementing it into the ground, said Phil Kidd, a Paramount Project member.

Also, the group plans to have a seating area surrounded by planters with a line of brick columns and black-metal fencing, he said. The group hopes to use the existing terra-cotta on the building for the columns.

The cost is about $130,000 to $160,000. The city received an $803,490 state grant for the Paramount project, and may be able to give money not spent on demolition toward the beautification project.

Also, a mural may be commissioned by the Paramount Project for the east side of the structure, he said.