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Building Projects Progress in Downtown Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. will likely extend the deadline to Aug. 1 for P&P Development to firm up financing to rehabilitate the Wells and Armed Forces buildings and the front of the old State Theatre.Upon learning that it took Gregory Vantell Associates, Boardman, until May 12 to appraise those buildings and two others in the downtown, the CIC property committee recommended to its board that it grant the extension when it meets next Tuesday. P&P was supposed to have financing in place April 27.The CIC board earlier agreed to sell the properties at their appraised value provided developers rehabilitate and refurbish the long-vacant structures.P&P Development, a partnership between Gaelle Pullen, a Cleveland businesswoman, and Denise Powell, owner of James & Weaver Office Environments, Wood Street, intends to convert the first floor of Wells Building into a restaurant and retail shops, the second and third floors into office space and the fourth floor into condominiums. They presented their proposal, with an estimated price tag of $250,000, to the CIC in January.Pullen and Powell lined up KeyBank, Cleveland, to finance the work but the lack of an appraisal has kept the bank from making a firmer commitment, Jason Whitehead, CIC executive director, said.Vantell appraised the Wells Building at $24,000, the Armed Forces Building, which would be razed to create 65 parking spaces, as worthless, the entire State Theatre property as worthless, the First Federal Building at $22,000 and the J.R. Davis Building at $5,000, Whitehead reported.Members of the property committee, led by city Water Commissioner Charles Sammarone, expressed frustration at the length of time it took to secure the appraisals. While P&P paid for the appraisals of their buildings and the CIC chose the appraiser, Whitehead explained, Vantell was slowed because there are no comparable buildings that would allow it to more easily arrive at the values.KeyBank has provided P&P with a letter supporting the project, Whitehead said, and P&P is yet to have any tenants sign a lease or commit to taking space in the Wells Building. Pullen and Powell have been active in recruiting tenants, he added. KeyBank representatives have visited the Wells Building two or three times, he said.Pullen and Powell, Whitehead assured the property committee, remain eager to do what they said in January.SKA Ltd., a partnership led by attorney Jeff Kurtz of Poland, is proceeding in its plans to convert the First Federal Building into a martini bar, Whitehead said. The appraisal should make it easier for SKA to secure financing from Sky Bank since Kurtz and his partners intend to avail themselves of the CIC's recent change in policy that allows interested parties to buy a building outright instead of lease with an option to purchase.SKA has secured a $10,000 grant to a new facade, $44,500 from the Youngstown Initiative and needs to come up with $200,000 or so in private financing, Whitehead said.Regarding the Davis Building, which Kurt Seidler, president of Seidler Engineering Inc., has gutted, Whitehead reported that project is behind schedule because Seidler's bank wouldn't finance the project based on his original CIC agreement, lease with option to purchase.Seidler wants to buy the Davis Building, which should make it easier for him to secure bank financing, Whitehead reported.The property committee learned that Jance Construction Co. is on schedule with the four-story office building to house Mahoning County Children Services Board and the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation. "We might begin to see steel put up by the end of this week," Whitehead informed the committee, "or early next week" now that workers have finished pouring the concrete foundations.The new courthouse for the state 7th District Court of Appeals finds itself on a "tight time line," Whitehead said, but, as the committee chairman, Mark Brown noted, "The project is on track." Brown is general manager of The Vindicator."We want the bid to be awarded by the end of the year," Whitehead said."End of '04," Reid Dulberger, executive vice president of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber iterated, "and construction to begin in [early] '05."The chamber administers the CIC under contract."