State provides $5M tax credits for hotel project downtown Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown’s $25.5 million Stambaugh Building project to convert the downtown historic building into a 120-room hotel has received the boost it needed — $5 million through the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program.

The 12-story Stambaugh Building, 44 E. Federal St., designed in 1907 with eight floors, just five years later added four floors to accommodate client demand.

But today, all but a small portion of the first floor is without tenants, according to the Ohio Development Services Agency, which awarded the tax credits to the NYO Property Group.

Due to increased demand for hospitality space in the area and the need for a hotel in downtown Youngstown, NYO Property Group acquired the property and plans to convert the building into a hotel, ODSA said in announcing the tax credit.

The extensive rehabilitation is expected to begin in the first half of 2015 and be completed in the summer or fall of 2016, said Dominic J. Marchionda, NYO chief executive officer.

The Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program provides a

25 percent tax credit for the rehabilitation expenses to owners and lessees of historically significant buildings.

Tuesday’s award of $5 million to the Stambaugh project is the maximum amount allowed under the program and is the largest historic preservation tax credit awarded in the Mahoning Valley since the program began, according to the Ohio Development Services Agency.

Read more about the project in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.