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Vindicator building now part of business incubator’s Tech Block
YOUNGSTOWN
The Vindicator office building at West Boardman Street and Vindicator Square went from telling the story to being the story Thursday, when the Youngstown Business Incubator welcomed it as the fifth building in its downtown Tech Block campus.
“Today marks another step in Youngstown’s turnaround,” said Barb Ewing, chief operating officer of YBI, touted as the No. 1 university-affiliated business incubator in the world.
Government officials, Youngstown State University leaders, community members and others gathered to fill a portion of West Boardman Street an hour before the 11 a.m. festivities. Those in attendance were given a tour of YBI’s new building, which will be used for additive manufacturing startup firms and graduate space for YBI’s successful portfolio companies.
“It’s just a perfect location for us,” Ewing said.
The building also is perfect for YBI’s ambitious plans. Because it is constructed of reinforced structural steel and poured concrete, it will be able to handle equipment related to additive manufacturing, or the process of joining materials to make objects from 3-D model data.
Ewing thanked several organizations and people who had helped to make the expansion possible, including Vindicator Publisher Betty Jagnow and General Manager Mark Brown.
The structure, marked by the iconic Vindicator sign, was once home to the newspaper staff where reporters diligently worked for decades to chronicle years of important Youngstown and Mahoning Valley history. The building’s history extends back to the William Maag family.
“I promise you that we will do all we can to preserve the legacy and the family,” Ewing said. “And to honor the newspaper and all it has meant to our community.”
All the newspaper’s functions are moving across West Boardman Street to The Vindicator’s production building at Vindicator Square and West Front Street, which already houses the newsroom and press and is undergoing renovations for new office spaces.
The older building originally was constructed in 1931 by the Scripps-Howard chain, which ran the Youngstown Telegram.
The Vindicator acquired the Telegram in 1936.
Former Mayor Jay Williams, now U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for economic development, highlighted the building’s history.
“A lot has changed since then,” Williams said, adding that YBI’s acquisition will “shake the rust off our past” and prepare the community to move forward.
Williams said the city is experiencing a revitalization and is a “compelling example” of how the federal government strives to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
“The Youngstown story, the Mahoning Valley story, is the national story,” he said. “There are still a lot of challenges.”
The YBI received state, federal and local grants to renovate the 57,000-square-foot facility. Funding was secured from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Ohio Capital Appropriations Budget and the city of Youngstown.
YBI borrowed the funding to purchase the building through Village Capital Corp., a community development financial institution in Cleveland. VCC worked with the Raymond J. Wean Foundation in Warren, which provided the capital for the loan.
“This is a way to use some of our investments,” said Gordon Wean, the foundation’s board chairman.
YBI’s expansion took off after the completion of the Taft Technology Center and renovation of the Semple building, in 2008 and 2009, respectively. In 2012, YBI welcomed the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, the federal pilot program for additive manufacturing known as America Makes. It would move into YBI’s fourth building on West Boardman Street.
Thursday’s announcement “is even hard for me to believe,” Jim Cossler, CEO of YBI, said in a statement.
“In 2001, when this whole journey began, not many people believed we would be able to accomplish much with the couple thousand square feet we had managed to renovate in an old, abandoned, five-story building. But, we did — in the biggest way possible.”
“And our story is nowhere near complete,” he added.