YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Construction of a new Mahoning County government center in downtown Youngstown will position the county for the next 60 years, Commissioner Geno DiFabio predicts.
Design work is underway for the project, which is expected to begin construction in 2027 and take 18 months to complete, according to the president of the Mahoning County Board of Commissioners.
"We've got to make Mahoning County as welcoming as we can to people coming in," DiFabio says. "We want to have a climate here that says, 'Hey, we're open for business. We're here to help. Here's what we have.'"
In January, county commissioners and the Western Reserve Port Authority entered into an agreement to develop a government center at 101 E. Federal St., the site of the Eastern Gateway Community College building and parking garage. The building's sole remaining tenant, the Mocha House Youngstown Downtown restaurant, will relocate to another former Eastern Gateway building, 101 E. Boardman St.
Demolition of the existing structure at the project site - the Eastern Gateway Community College building and parking garage - is set to begin in the fall, so as not to disrupt the downtown Youngstown summer festival season and this year's Panerathon fundraising foot race.
Discussions already are underway with various departments about locating there, including but not limited to tenants at Oak Hill Renaissance Center. The county leases spaces for several departments and agencies across the county, including the board of health and planning department.
Among the departments under active discussion to move is the largest department now at Oak Hill, the county Department of Job and Family Services, which has 300 employees.
"We want a true government center," DiFabio says. "That was the vision for Oak Hill when it first started. It just never came to fruition the way it should have."
Plans for the East Federal Street property, which encompasses an entire city block, include a parking structure to accommodate at least 500 vehicles that will benefit more than just the employees and patrons of the county officers which will occupy the building, the commissioners say.
"You're going to have a parking deck that on the weekends when Covelli Centre or the amphitheater [have shows] or there's big events downtown that we can utilize," Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti says. That parking revenue also will help generate funds for the deck's upkeep.
"This new government center is going to basically direct businesses to come down here," Commissioner Anthony Traficanti says. "When they see the county making a significant financial investment with infrastructure, I think that is a good signal to other people who want to come downtown to invest their money."
Options remain open for Oak Hill, once it is emptied, Traficanti says. It potentially could be redeveloped if the county could find an entity or individual to take it over.
"It would be a perfect place for housing," Traficanti says.
The commissioners also have discussed building a new structure on the 15-acre property to accommodate the county morgue, which is located within Oak Hill.
Historic preservation or other tax credits might be available to a developer interested in repurposing the building, Rimedio-Righetti says. If the decision is made to demolish the existing structure, which was the former South Side Hospital, there could be state brownfield funds potentially for that, DiFabio said.
The Mahoning County Veterans Service Commission recently relocated from Oak Hill to another building renovated by the port authority, 1915 Belmont Ave. The structure is among those donated to WRPA by Steward Health Care.
The building's location - near the Carl Nunziato VA Clinic, 1815 Belmont Ave., operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - and the programs that are going to operate from the building "are going to be so phenomenal for all of our veterans," Rimedio-Righetti says.
Rimedio-Righetti, who is leaving office at the conclusion of her term after choosing not to seek reelection, says she would like to see a campus model develop similar to the Mahoning Valley Campus of Care, another joint project with WRPA.
"It becomes one big campus for Mahoning County," she continues. "Who's to say you can't put homeless veterans' housing there? I mean, there's room to do that."
The location also contributes to the rejuvenation of the Belmont Avenue corridor and provides convenient access to restaurants both downtown and to the north on Belmont, and to Mercy Health-St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.
The county is working on infrastructure such as the sanitation system to accommodate new areas for development, DiFabio says. Housing starts already are underway and county officials want to see more of them. They also are working with the county's partners at WRPA, Lake to River Economic Development and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
In the past year and a half, the county has invested well over $50 million in infrastructure such as sanitary sewer projects, including treatment plant upgrades, Traficanti says. In addition, the county has paved 125 more miles of roads during the past two years than before, utilizing funds generated by the countywide sales tax.
"Things like the Market Street Bridge [project] in the city could not have been done without that money," Rimedio-Righetti says.
Projects in recent years also have included the $18 million Five Points pump station project and the widening of Western Reserve Road from Hitchcock Road to South Avenue, and $18 million in upgrades to the Mahoning Avenue industrial corridor, Traficanti says.