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YSU president is interested in having the university explore buying two off-campus housing facilities
YSU president wants university to get appraisal
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel said he’s interested in having the university explore the possibility of purchasing two off-campus buildings – one that houses students and the other that is largely occupied by those attending YSU.
Tressel said Friday he just became aware that the Flats at Wick and Erie Terminal Place are for sale by the NYO Property Group.
Tressel said he’d recommend to the YSU Board of Trustees that the university get an appraisal of both properties as state law doesn’t permit it to buy anything above an appraised value.
“Anything in our footprint, we always like to discuss,” he said. “We’re not in the development business or necessarily the apartment business. But because they’re existing facilities and they’re both practically on our campus, I think we ought to go through the steps of getting an appraisal and consider” purchasing them.
Tressel said YSU “fortunately doesn’t have as much debt as other universities. We would have to borrow the money to buy them.”
NYO recently put both properties up for sale. They’re listed by Platz Realty of Canfield.
The Flats at Wick on West Madison Avenue, built in 2010, is a student-housing complex of 53,948 square feet and includes 49 units. Its sale price is $8.5 million.
Erie Terminal on West Commerce Street, opened in 2012, is a 48,000-square-foot, 40-apartment complex with retail space on the first floor. Most of the tenants there are YSU students though there are others who also reside there.
Dominic Marchionda, the head of the NYO Property Group, couldn’t be reached Friday by The Vindicator to comment.
In April, creditors filed for foreclosure of the Flats on Wick claiming Marchionda owes more than $5.2 million.
Both facilities – along with Wick Towers, a downtown apartment complex on West Federal Street, are at the heart of a 101-count corruption case with Marchionda, 10 of his companies, along with ex-Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone and former city Finance Director David Bozanich as the co-defendants. They’re facing charges including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, aggravated theft, money laundering, receiving stolen property, tampering with records and telecommunications fraud. They’ve pleaded not guilty.
An indictment alleges Marchionda improperly spent at least $600,000 from city funds he received for the three projects on personal items.
Earlier this week, the judge overseeing the cases agreed with a motion from Sammarone’s attorney to let him have a trial separate from the others indicted.