Valley native plans restaurant, apts. downtown

VINDICATOR EXCLUSIVE

By KALEA HALL

khall@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Ryan Sheridan likes the idea of taking something and making it useful again.

In this case, that something is the historic Gallagher Building located at the corner of Commerce and Hazel streets downtown.

Sheridan is now the owner of the 113-year-old building, and his goal is to bring it back to life.

His plan: restore the first floor for restaurant space and use and the other three floors for living.

“The building has a lot of stories behind it, and it would be a shame if it didn’t exist anymore,” Sheridan said.

The Gallagher Building’s story goes back to 1904 when it housed the John Gallagher Co. wholesale liquor establishment. John Gallagher was a successful liquor seller. He had the neoclassical, four-story warehouse built to support his business until Prohibition came in 1920.

In more recent years, the Gallagher Building was home to Cedar’s, a rock ‘n’ roll bar that was there for more than 30 years until it moved to the West Side in 2013 upon the building’s expected renovation.

Sheridan’s company, 131 Commerce LLC, purchased the Gallagher Building from The Gatta Co. of Niles for $280,000 at the end of 2016. Dominic Gatta III, owner and president of Gatta, said the sale of the building has been in the process for about a year.

The Gatta Co. purchased the building in September 2012 with the plan to turn the first floor into a restaurant and bar and the upper floors into apartments. Gatta acknowledged the building was in rough shape when he purchased it.

In 2014, the building was placed in the National Register of Historic Places Program and received $1.32 million Ohio Historic Preservation tax credit from the Ohio Development Services Agency, according to Vindicator files.

The project’s price tag was $5.9 million, but it never came to fruition for a combination of reasons, Gatta said.

“Everyone was aware of the progress we were trying to make,” Gatta said. “I poured everything I had into this building.”

To receive the historic designation, Gatta paid tens of thousands of dollars, he says.

“It was very significant,” he said of the nomination. “It didn’t quite get the credit it should have.”

Gatta also runs the Federal Building downtown.

“It’s just me,” he said. “I don’t have a staff of 20 people. I really do care about that building. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have gone through the 18-month procedure to get it recognized.”

Last year, the city’s Code Enforcement and Demolition office penalized The Gatta Co. three times for the building’s condition. With the sale of the building, the penalties of $1,600 will transfer to the new owner.

“They knew it was being sold,” Gatta said of the city. “It was just a lack of cooperation.”

Gatta wishes Sheridan all the best with his project.

Sheridan expects to hear back from the state soon about how much he will receive in historic tax credits.

“They have to look at my plans,” he said. “It needs to be apples to apples to extend the tax credits.”

Sheridan owns and operates Braking Point Recovery Center of Austintown and Columbus. Braking Point is an addiction-recovery center that’s been open for outpatient services since 2015.

Before offering outpatient services, Braking Point offered drug testing, driving-under-the-influence school and other services. At the beginning of 2015, Braking Point had eight employees. The company now has about 170 workers between the two locations.

“For as sad as it is, it’s the one business that you want to do so well that you go out of business,” he said.

That’s one of the reasons why Sheridan wanted to get into developing other businesses in the area.

He also wants to be a part of the downtown transformation. Sheridan has an apartment downtown, and the Austintown native has watched it become the bustling place it once was back in its heyday.

Dominic J. Marchionda of NYO Property Group introduced Sheridan to the Gallagher Building and its seller.

Marchionda’s company operates several properties in Youngstown, including The Wick Tower and the Realty Tower downtown, and its also the company transforming the Stambaugh Building downtown into a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel.

“I’m happy for him,” Marchionda said.

Sheridan’s imagination took off when he walked inside the Gallagher. Sheridan hopes to get started on construction “in the very near future.”

He’s unsure of how much the building’s transformation will cost.

“It’s inspiring ... to look at something and say, ‘I think I can do something with this,” he said.