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Banner Supply buys Mahoning County annex
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County South Side Annex, 2801 Market St., was purchased for $190,000 by its neighbor, Banner Supply Co., an East Indianola Avenue building-supply company, at a Friday auction.
“We’re located right around the corner,” said Rich Abel, Banner’s vice president. The company bought the annex because it offers a large building and parking lots, he said, adding that the company will use the site for storage.
“It’s not often you get a chance to buy something this large that’s so close to where you are,” Abel said.
“We want to stabilize this neighborhood as much as anybody,” rather than leaving a large, long-vacant building adjacent to Banner unused, he added.
Bidding against Banner was another nearby business, Cyclone Auto Restyling, 101 W. Indianola Ave., an auto-seat repair and accessory installation company.
A third active bidder, who had been bidding by phone from California, dropped out earlier in the public auction, which was conducted by Auctioneer George Roman of Canfield.
“It has great potential, and I think the [county] commissioners will be happy to have someone paying property taxes on it,” Roman said of the site after the auction.
“It was a heck of a bargain for Banner Supply,” said David Ditzler, chairman of the county commissioners, who attended the auction with his colleague, Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti.
“They’re synonymous with good business, with roofing materials,” Ditzler said, adding that he was glad to have such a stable and “excellent company” own and occupy the site.
“It shows expansion of another business in Mahoning County,” Righetti said. “I’m happy about it,” she added.
The neighboring nonprofit Warriors Inc., 2733 Market St., registered as an auction bidder, but did not actively bid.
In December, the county commissioners rejected a $75,000 bid from Warriors because it fell short of the then-advertised $426,667 minimum bid.
Warriors, which operates the Eagles Christian Preschool, across Hylda Avenue from the annex, had planned to use the annex to expand its preschool and offer more services to youths and families.
The minimum bid for the 1957-vintage, two-story 97,232-square-foot annex on a 4.4-acre site was $75,000.
The brick building, located in the city’s Uptown district, had been a Sears and Treasure Island department store before the county bought the building from the Cafaro Co. for $1.6 million in 1975.
The last county agency to leave the annex was the auto-title department, which moved to Oakhill Renaissance Place in October 2012.
Founded in 1926, Banner Supply is a fourth-generation family business at 103 E. Indianola Ave. that also has locations in Warren, Cleveland and Greensburg, Pa.
It is a roofing, siding, spouting, window, heating and air-conditioning supplier known for its direct-to-rooftop delivery of shingles from a truck-mounted conveyor belt.