Global manufacturer to open showroom inside Commerce Building

By Kalea Hall | March 3, 2018 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A global manufacturer of tabletop products for the hospitality industry plans to open a showroom in downtown Youngstown this spring. Steelite International, which is headquartered in England with a primary U.S. operation in New Castle, Pa., will open the showroom on the fifth floor of the Commerce Building, 201 E. Commerce St., in June.

“It will be a showroom which will bring in customers from all over the world,” said John Miles, president and CEO of Steelite. “Our showrooms around the country tend to be in historic or significant buildings, and the Commerce Building met that criteria. We needed a large space [with] a commercial kitchen.”

The fifth floor of the Commerce Building was previously home to The Fifth Floor restaurant and before that, the Youngstown Club.

The building was constructed for Oster Brothers Furniture Store in 1917 and went through a complete renovation in 1989, according to the Ohio One Corp., which owns the building. During the renovation, the fifth floor was added for $2 million to house the Youngstown Club. In 2012, the Youngstown Club closed, and in 2015, the Fifth Floor restaurant opened, but closed in 2016.

“We were looking for another restaurant, but the space seemed to be too large for today’s restaurant,” said Richard E. Mills, president of Ohio One. “I couldn’t be more delighted nor could have picked a better tenant that could use all the facilities on the fifth floor of the Commerce Building. It’s just another feather in downtown’s revitalization hat.”

Steelite sells to every “significant” restaurant in the region, Miles said.

“We have a large local customer base and global customer base,” he said.

Had there not been a new downtown Youngstown hotel opening in May, Miles said it would have been difficult for Steelite to make the decision to come downtown.

“We have people coming from all over the world, and the fact that it’s [there] is helpful,” he said.

The DoubleTree by Hilton hotel inside the historic Stambaugh Building will feature 124 rooms, two restaurants, a coffee shop and banquet spaces.