43
A vacant Youngstown building is being demolished
YOUNGSTOWN
A longtime vacant downtown building is being demolished to make room for more parking.
Most of the former Western Union building at 213 W. Boardman St. is in piles of concrete and twisted metal. The debris is expected to be removed by Thursday, said Terry Coyne of Mary Coyne Investments, the Cleveland-based company that owns the property as well as a parking lot on either side of the building.
By demolishing the 7,000-square-foot building, 21 spots will be added to the existing 74 spaces, and is expected to open July 10, Coyne said.
“It’s a lot of work [to add 21 spots], but it’s tough to get people to park in that lot because of the building,” he said. “The building was a lost cause.”
Coyne Investments purchased the building and the parking lot from Louis Frangos for $262,500 on June 3, 2014, according to the Mahoning County auditor’s website. About a decade ago, Frangos owned numerous properties and parking lots in Youngstown, but has divested himself of much of it in recent years.
The former Western Union building has been vacant for at least two decades.
The city sent a notice to the owners about two months ago ordering the property either be repaired – bricks had crumbled and there were broken windows – or be demolished, said Abigail Beniston, Youngstown’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent.
Coyne Investments owns numerous parking lots in the city’s downtown including on West Front, West Boardman, South Hazel, West Commerce, West Federal and South Chestnut streets, and on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and first invested in Youngstown in the 1990s.
The building being demolished was the last structure in the city owned by the company, Coyne said.
In 2009, the company demolished four vacant storefronts on West Boardman Street to expand a lot near city hall, and took down two structures including the former Jolly Bar/Valley Hotel to add more spaces on West Commerce Street.
“The day will come when there will be a demand for space for downtown buildings,” Coyne said. “We’re in this for the long haul, 20 or 30 years.”