Historic Stambaugh transforming to luxury hotel

By KALEA HALL

khall@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Stambaugh Building Progress

Video

The NYO Property Group knows restoring the grandeur of the Stambaugh Building is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “It’s going to be a cornerstone of the downtown,” said Jackie Marchionda, designer and space planner for NYO, a downtown development company. The 125-room DoubleTree by Hilton hotel at 44 E. Federal St. will now open in February at the recommendation of the hotel operator, Marshall Hotels and Resorts Inc.

Leaders of NYO Property Group knew restoring the grandeur of the Stambaugh Building would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“It’s going to be a cornerstone of the downtown,” said Jackie Marchionda, designer and space planner for NYO, a downtown development company.

The 125-room DoubleTree by Hilton hotel at 44 E. Federal St. will open in February at the recommendation of the hotel operator, Marshall Hotels and Resorts Inc, two months later than originally planned.

The hotel’s look is taking shape. Drywall is up throughout the building, the rooms are built and a model guest room is complete.

Marchionda worked with a design team and purchasing agents from Hilton to finish the model room.

“We had to work within Hilton DoubleTree standards,” she said. “Their standards are high. It was certainly one of the reasons why we chose them in the first place. I wanted [the rooms] to be classic and elegant and timeless, but modern and refreshed.”

The rooms are brought to life with natural light and a unique view of downtown Youngstown.

“It’s spectacular,” she said. “It’s exciting to see the city and our area from that perspective.”

With its partners, developers James and George Pantelidis of Pan Brothers Associates, a real-estate services company in New York City, NYO has a plan to restore the more than 100-year-old building that was on the brink of being beyond repair.

The project, in the works since 2012, has seen its share of complexity and delays because of the nature of restoring the historical elements of the building.

Soon, the vision in mind will become reality.

“It’s pretty neat,” said Dominic Marchionda, CEO of NYO Property Group and Jackie’s husband. “We haven’t had a hotel since the 1970s.”

The city’s last downtown hotel was the Voyager Motor Inn, which closed in 1974.

The DoubleTree will have two food options on the first floor: a steak house and an Italian bistro and wine cellar. There also will be a coffee shop and bank.

Other amenities include a fitness center, conference spaces and a second-floor lounge overlooking the central business district. A rooftop bar will open later in 2018.

“[Guests] are going to love what we are going to do with the second floor lobby,” Jackie said. “It’s just a great gathering space.”

The average cost to rent a room will be $129. The hotel has been well received by the community, Dominic said.

“It’s a risk to do something like this in Youngstown,” Jackie said. “You always have to weigh that but we also feel a very strong commitment to the community and we didn’t want to see that building go into demise.”

The Stambaugh Building is a 12-story, neoclassical revival building that opened in 1907. It’s filled with marble from the first floor to the top that will all be restored, along with the terra cotta, the copper corners outside the building and the elevators. The plaza landscaping in front of the building will be redone.

This isn’t the first downtown renovation the Marchiondas have taken on in recent years.

NYO’s Wick Tower, built in 1906, at Federal and Phelps streets opened in 2015 with 35 apartments and 14 extended-stay housing units.

The $34.3-million hotel project has to follow certain historic- preservation standards to receive $9 million in state and federal historic tax credits. The Western Reserve Port Authority board approved financing and sales-tax benefits for the project.

In December 2016, the city agreed to lend $2,750,000 for the project with $750,000 of it forgiven and the remainder borrowed without interest under certain conditions. The funds will come from the city’s water, wastewater and environmental sanitation funds.

Though the hotel project is not under investigation, a state investigation is underway into three projects of NYO Property’s subsidiaries that received $2.27 million from the city’s water and wastewater funds: the Flats at Wick student-housing project; Erie Terminal Place apartment project; and the Wick Tower. The city has provided about $9 million since 2009 in water and wastewater funds for economic development projects.

Dominic Marchionda would not comment on the investigation.