CIC Adopts $1M Budget to Maintain Buildings, Lots

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. Tuesday adopted a budget for fiscal 2016 of $1.02 million and elected each of its officers to another term of one-year.

Most of the budget adopted will be spent on maintenance and repair of the buildings, parking lots and vacant properties the CIC owns, said Tom Humphries, president of the CIC and president of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber.

While the chamber administers the CIC under contract, Humphries declined to say how much the chamber is paid. Because both the chamber and CIC are private entities, such information does not require disclosure.

Regardless, in the update chamber staff provided the board, development services manager Dave Kosec, reported the CIC will spend $20,000 for a transformer on West Federal Street to provide the level of electricity needed for three properties — the Wells Building and site of the Armed Forces Building and State Theatre — on the southern side of that block.

Strollo Architects is preparing to move into the Wells Building later this summer.

And in a discussion of parking in the downtown, prompted by news reports of the inconveniences visitors complain about when trying to park close to a restaurant or bar, Humphries noted how the lots the CIC owns are the best maintained in the downtown. The CIC will spend between $11,000 and $12,000 to resurface and seal them as well as repaint lines, Bruce Luntz, CIC financial officer, said afterward.

Strollo’s decision to restore and move into the Wells Building has made the neighboring vacant properties more attractive, Kosec reported. Since work begfan on the Wells Building, he has held discussions with a small number of people who have expressed interest in the properties.

Analysis of the foundation of the State Theatre must be performed so the CIC can provide such parties the information they need on how and whether to proceed.

Complaints about the availability of parking downtown are the type of problem the CIC could only wish for a decade ago, the board nodded in agreement. “In every building we’ve been involved in recovering,” Humphries said, “we have provided parking lots [to serve tenants]. Our lots are open evenings [after 5 p.m.] and weekends.”

CIC parking lots “are private properties,” he noted. Fees charged to park on the lots are a source of CIC income.

“The majority of demand [to use CIC-owned lots] is Friday and Saturday nights, between 9 [p.m.] and 2 [a.m.], Kosec said.

Re-elected Tuesday as chairman of the CIC is Richard Pavlock, a retired banker. Other officers are vice chairman, James Miller, owner of Midwest Safety Systems Inc.; treasurer, Richard Schiraldi, a partner in the Youngstown office of Cohen & Co.; and secretary, Patricia Syak, executive director of the Youngstown Symphony Society.

Chosen to join the board are Peter Asimakopoulos, president of the Mahoning Valley region of First National Bank of Pennsylvania; Garry Mrozek, CEO of Home Town Pharmacy Solutions; and John Moliterno, executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.