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Gallagher Building awaits return to greatness
youngstown
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Glass glitters in an alley between the Gallagher Building and a parking lot that leads to Hazel Street downtown.
A glance up from the ground to the building leads to a broken window.
Weeds, graffiti and fenced-off entrances are the outer decorations for what once was an iconic place for artists, performers and everyone else as the former home of Cedar’s Lounge.
Today, the Gallagher Building is waiting for someone to make it iconic again.
Rumors are the Gatta Co. of Niles, which owns the building, has plans to sell it, and several developers have taken an interest in the property.
Dominic Gatta III, owner and president of the company, did not return phone calls from The Vindicator for this story to confirm those rumors.
Meanwhile, the city’s Code Enforcement and Demolition office has penalized the Gatta Co. for the property’s deteriorating condition.
An exterior inspection of the building took place July 7. The company was informed of what violated the city’s code enforcement at the property including weeds, defacement and sanitation.
Another inspection took place Aug. 8 to see if the issues had been addressed. They hadn’t. A $100 penalty was issued.
After the initial inspection, in the first 30 days every property owner has the right to appeal. Gatta has not appealed and fines haven’t been paid, according to the city. A second penalty of $500 was issued Sept. 16.
The city will perform another inspection today. A third penalty of $1,000 could be issued if the issues are not addressed after the third inspection.
“That’s where the penalties stop,” said Abigail Beniston, city code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent.
The next step after that could be criminal charges.
“It just depends,” said Beniston of what the next step could be. “Every case is different. We have a plethora of different avenues we can take.”
If the building is sold, the fines transfer with the property, Beniston said.
The Gatta Co. has owned the 112-year-old building located at the corner of Commerce and Hazel streets since September 2012. It was purchased for $192,500.
The company came out with a plan to turn the first floor into a restaurant and bar. The second floor of the building would be renovated for commercial offices and the third and fourth floors would become apartments, according to The Vindicator archives. The total cost to renovate the building was listed at $5.9 million.
For this project, Cedar’s, a legendary rock ‘n’ roll bar that had been in the building for more than 30 years, had to relocate. In 2013, the bar, now called Cedars West End, relocated to 706 Steel St. on the West Side. It remains a prime live music venue in the city.
In its beginning years, the Gallagher Building was home to the John Gallagher Co., a wholesale liquor establishment that began in 1905 and ended with prohibition in 1920, according to the National Park Service. John Gallagher, an Irish immigrant who came here in 1864, started a wholesale liquor business in 1870. After much success, Gallagher had the neoclassical, four-story warehouse on the corner of Hazel and Commerce designed by Owsley and Boucherle, a prominent Youngstown architecture firm.
The building is considered one of the few commercial buildings to survive from “Youngstown’s greatest industrial and commercial economic prosperity,” according to the National Register of Historic Places Program. The building made this list, which represents the nation’s historic places worthy of presentation, in 2014.
Also in 2014, the Gallagher Building received a $1.32 million Ohio Historic Preservation tax credit from the Ohio Development Services Agency to update the building.
Tax certificates are not issued until the work is complete and verified by the agency. If the tax credits are not used then they can be rolled over into the next round for an upcoming project, an agency spokeswoman said.
Therefore, the tax credits for the Gallagher Building are still valid.
At first, it was reported the Gallagher Building project would come to fruition in 2013. But 2013 came and went and renovations were moved to start in spring 2015.
“I think [Gatta] had some high hopes for it,” Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally said. “I know there have been some ongoing discussions between interested parties. I would like to see someone who has the capability to fairly soon get in and renovate the building.”