43
Panel approves new doors for downtown pub
YOUNGSTOWN
Any garage-door controversy was quickly slammed shut during Warehouse 50’s appearance in front of the city’s Design Review Committee.
The doors initially were misconstrued by the media, said Ryan Reese, president of Warehouse 50, which will take over the former Dooney’s Downtown Bar & Grill in the Stambaugh building.
They were never going to be “garage doors,” Reese said. They will be 8-foot-high glass doors with five to six sections that can either all be opened, or the sections can be opened individually.
The doors are being designed to look similar to the existing windows.
“It’s something similar to what they’ve been utilizing at patios in Akron and Cleveland,” Reese said.
The current windows are thin and allow heat and cold air to enter the business. There also is rotting wood around them, said Chris Sammarone, a co-owner in Warehouse 50 and the former Dooney’s. The plans for the sliding-glass doors were unanimously approved Wednesday by the city’s Design Review Committee.
The plans still will need to be approved by the Ohio Historical Society.
Mark Taylor from NYO Property Group, which manages the building, stated company employees reviewed the plans and hope the state historical society would approve the change, because the new doors would not alter a historic part of the building.
“We don’t want to jeopardize our historic standing,” Taylor said.
The state has approved this type of door on historic buildings before, he said.
Sammarone said the glass doors would make it easier for both customers and staff to make use of the patio area.
“One of the issues we had was only having one ingress and egress. When servers would try to go outside there were sometimes customers trying to come in. It created a bit of a logjam,” Sammarone said.
This is one way that the bar and grill will get the full benefit of the patio area, he said.
The new doors would be about a $15,000 investment, Sammarone said.
Bill D’Avignon, deputy director of the Youngstown Planning Department, said he “loved the new concept and how free-form and open it is.”
The commission also approved the new Warehouse 50 sign that will replace the Dooney’s sign.
The awning on the building will remain the same.
This will be the third bar and grill to operate at the site.
Buffalo Wild Wings closed in May 2012. Dooney’s opened in July and closed in April.
Warehouse 50 is expected to open in June.