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City Officials Seek to Sell or Demolish Masters Building
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The city plans to seek a reassessment and revaluation of the former Masters Tuxedo building, a step toward possibly selling the property.
The 23,690-square-foot building, located at 3600 Market St. and built in 1950, originally was the former home of Paul Morris Sporting Goods. The property, which also has a bowling alley located in the structure, became part of the city’s land bank in late 2010.
According to Bill D’Avignon, city community development director, the city is seeking the revaluation to advance a possible sale of the property. A couple of parties have expressed interest in the 1.5-acre site, including the operators of the nearby Goodwill Apartments, which he said wants to acquire it for additional parking and to landscape. Another party has expressed interest in the building itself.
However, the current valuation of the building is an obstacle, D’Avignon said. Land bank guidelines require properties to be sold at their fair market value. The blighted property, according to Mahoning County records, is valued at $215,330, a price potential buyers are balking at.
“There has been some interest in acquiring that building,” affirmed DeMaine Kitchen, chief of staff to Mayor Chuck Sammarone. Whether someone is interested in the property or not, however, the city wants to eventually eradicate the structure as part of its efforts to address blight on the city’s main corridors and in neighborhoods.
Demolition is the top priority the mayor says he hears about from constituents, Sammarone reported at Thursday’s Board of Control meeting. “Years ago the biggest complaint was, ‘When are you going to plow my street?’ Then it was, ‘When are you going to cut the grass?’ Now all I hear is, ‘When are you tearing these properties down?’ he said.
Since January 2012, the city has demolished 581 structures, with an additional 122 currently under contract, 50 “in the pipeline” and another 40 being privately demolished, Kitchen said. At Thursday’s meeting, the Board of Control approved contracts totaling $41,284.30 of the demolition of 13 structures.
The city is considering four companies that have submitted bids to neighborhood planning which would determine the second and third phases of the city’s demolition plan. Sammarone also said he wants to create another demolition crew in the city’s street department, which he says is the quickest and cheapest way to do demolition. He also noted that the city will soon run out of funds to continue demolitions at the pace in recent years permitted by allocations for the Ohio Attorney General’s office and revenues from V&M Star, recently renamed Vallourec Star.
“Basically what we’re trying to accomplish is what the people want who live in these neighborhoods or have businesses on these main thoroughfares. We’re trying to satisfy them,” he said.
The condition of the neighborhood was among the concerns expressed by representatives of Cardinal Mooney High School, which until this week had considered relocating from the city, and the city also is working with Vallourec to improve the area near its plant. “They want something done on [Route] 422 so it looks better when they bring people in from out of town,” he said. “We’ll do that with any business.”
People are leaving the city’s neighborhoods primarily due to blight, Kitchen said. “We talk about education and the school systems but they have options when it comes to education,” he said. “They don’t have a lot of options when it comes to the blight next to them. The only option is for us to eradicate that and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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