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Youngstown to consider selling a former dining hall building to a company that wants to open a restaurant
YOUNGSTOWN
City council will consider legislation Wednesday to have the board of control sell the former St. Vincent DePaul Society dining hall to a company that plans to turn the structure – and the attached closed cigar store – into a restaurant.
The proposal would be to sell the old dining hall at 208 W. Front St. to Winner Group Holdings Ltd., headed by Earl Winner, for $79,000. Winner Group also owns the former cigar store, which shares a common structural wall with the closed dining hall.
“One of the driving factors [for the sale to Winner] is the common wall, and the other is the best use of the structure is as an entertainment facility,” said city Finance Director David Bozanich.
Winner also owns the Utopia Video Nightclub and the New Brickhouse Tavern, both on East Midlothian Boulevard.
The city purchased the former dining hall from the St. Vincent DePaul Society last month for $79,000 – the appraised price – with plans to quickly resell it for that amount. The property is near the downtown amphitheater project site.
“It will be beneficial to have a restaurant operate right at the gateway to the amphitheater – it will clean up a vacant building and bring a new restaurant downtown,” said Mayor John A. McNally.
The city is spending $8 million to $9 million to construct an amphitheater and park along the Mahoning River from the South Avenue Bridge to just west of Hazel Street at the former Wean United Building. The 3,250-seat amphitheater will be on property that includes the former Wean site on South Phelps Street.
The amphitheater is to open sometime in spring 2019.
The cigar store has been closed for about five years.
The old dining hall, which St. Vincent operated since the mid-1980s, served its last meals June 30. The building was then closed after the Mahoning County Building Inspection Department found it to be unsafe.
An employee complaint prompted a safety-hazard inspection June 23, and that inspection reportedly found a collapsed ceiling above a second-floor office, rotting floor under compartment sinks on the first floor and rotting floor-joist tails in the basement.
The cost to fix the issues at the old building was too expensive for the society, and the dining hall was relocated in August to the fellowship hall of Sts. Cyril & Methodius Church, 252 E. Wood St.
Also Wednesday, council will consider allowing the board of control to settle a dispute with Youngstown Thermal, which contends the city owes it about $160,000 in unpaid steam service to city hall caused by a broken meter, owned by the company. Youngstown Thermal contends the broken meter led to four-plus years of underbilling.
The two sides have agreed to a $110,000 settlement, said city Law Director Martin Hume.
The tentative deal calls for the city to pay $63,005.46 to Youngstown Thermal and give the company a $46,994.54 credit for future water billings.