Youngstown OKs loan for Wick Tower project downtown

By David Skolnick | July 23, 2014 at 12:03a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

The city’s board of control approved a financial package for a $16 million project converting the vacant downtown Wick Tower into a 52-unit rental and extended-stay facility.

The deal, approved Tuesday, includes a $2.6 million loan with 3-percent interest and to be paid back within 18 months, a grant of up to $500,000 for water and wastewater improvements, and a 100-percent, 12-year real-property tax abatement.

Without the city’s involvement, Mayor John A. McNally, board of control chairman, said, “I’m not sure the project would have been possible.”

Wick Properties LLC, a subsidiary of the NYO Property Group, has been working on the project since September 2013. City officials say the project should be done by July 2015 though it could be sooner.

“Our desire is for them to finish the project this year,” said city Finance Director David Bozanich, the board’s secretary.

Wick officials couldn’t be reached Tuesday by The Vindicator to comment, but NYO’s website states the building’s grand opening is scheduled for January.

At 34 W. Federal St., the 104-year-old Wick, closed for about eight years, is being converted into 52 apartments and extended-stay living facilities with the latter rented for short periods to those conducting business in the area.

The state is providing $3.7 million in tax credits with the federal government giving about $3 million in tax credits after the project is finished.

The state tax credits would be used to repay the loan to the city, Bozanich said. The loan is equivalent to 70 percent of the state tax credits.

“We assessed our risk, and we felt it was minimal,” he said of the Wick loan.

Among other NYO downtown properties are Realty Tower Apartments, the Flats at Wick, Erie Terminal Place, the Metropolitan Savings and Loan Building, the Harshman Building, the Stambaugh Building, the Legal Arts Building, the former St. Vincent de Paul thrift store and office building and 16 Wick Building.

The city received Wick as a donation in 1993 from Burdman Bros. Inc., and sold it for $125,000 to Lou Frangos, a downtown property developer, May 20, 2005. The building was largely empty at the time but became vacant under Frangos, who wanted to turn the structure into an apartment complex.

NYO, through its Wick Properties subsidiary, bought the building for $150,000 from Frangos in August 2012.