YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Youngstown Design Review Committee deferred action on a proposed cigar shop and event center on the east end of downtown that has become a flashpoint in recent days and gave a conditional recommendation for a façade grant for another business during its monthly meeting Tuesday.
Committee members wanted additional aesthetic details about the project proposed by Trina and Art Thompson for a parcel at East Boardman Street and East Federal Street and Angelilli Industrial LLC’s building on North Hine Street.
Trina Thompson owns A Floral Vision, an event company on the West Side, and Art Thompson owns Steel City Cigar Mobile Lounge. In December, the city’s board of control entered into a five-year lease with A Floral Vision LLC for the property, where they want to construct two buildings, a 40-foot-by-80-foot event center and a 40-foot-by-56-foot retail space, according to city documents.
“Both properties would coincide with each other,” Art Thompson said. If a large cigar event was taking place at the retail shop, it could spill over into the event space, and vice versa. There also would be a courtyard between the two buildings.
Capacity for the event space probably would be 100 patrons, and the cigar shop would max out seating around 80, he said.
Nick Chretien, a member of the committee, expressed concerns about the aesthetic details presented for the buildings, which would be framed with wood and have metal roofing and sidings, as not matching the aesthetics of the surrounding buildings, which have more of a mix of brick, glass and steel.
“It looks more like it’s in a residential neighborhood, not in an industrial area,” committee member Jonathan Imler said. Even the roof line looks more like it belongs to a house or shed.
Neighboring properties include former industrial spaces, including the buildings now used by Youngstown Flea and Penguin City Brewing Co., and MS Consultants’ building, which has a brick façade with glass windows.
“I’m excited to see someone looking at potential investment in terms of the façade treatment, the finishes and materials. I think we just need a little bit of clarity,” Chretien said. There also are height requirements depending on what zoning usage is being used.
“I think the cart’s before the horse a bit, and I think there’s a lot more things that have to happen before you can get to this committee,” said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works. “Everything in development … starts with zoning, but this is part of the zoning process. But the zoning is where projects die if you don’t get it right.”
Councilman Julius Oliver, 1st Ward, told committee members he has been working with the Thompsons since they came up with their concept.
“This is needed on the East End, to have somebody to bridge the gap between the two organizations that already exist,” making that area “the place to go to for events,” he said.
Angelilli Industrial applied for a $20,000 façade grant to support a $43,725 renovation of its building at 107 N. Hine St., which the company purchased about eight years ago. The proposed improvements include repairing and replacing the building’s six garage doors; fixing exterior damage to the siding; and painting parts of the building as needed.
Though the building is in good shape, it has suffered some vandalism over the years, principal Brian Angelilli said.
“I redid the whole building when I bought it, and then what we’ll do is just be consistent with the colors that I put on it when I painted the siding and stuff on the other repaired areas,” he said. The replacement garage doors will be white, and the new siding will match the existing color of the building.
Angelilli was asked to supply the committee with a cut sheet for the materials he is using, which he said he would be able to provide by Thursday.
Following the meeting, Oliver said he wants to see more businesses downtown and questioned those raising concerns on social media about the project. Hearing the term “event center” might have “made some people feel threatened, because that’s what they do,” he said. He noted that the project is not receiving city funds, contrary to online misinformation.
“What I would like to do is get together with these business owners to try to bridge the gap,” he said. He also questioned why the opening of the Apollo Event Centre in recent months didn’t spur the same kind of outcry.
Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki, co-owner of Penguin City, said when Penguin City purchased its building five years ago, both she and Youngstown Flea owner Derrick McDowell inquired about acquiring the city-owned property but was told nothing could go there. Two years later, the city entered into an agreement with the Junior League of the Mahoning Valley for a pocket park there.
She added that Penguin City has Thompsons’s cigar truck at Penguin City.
“For someone that is heavily invested in the East End, I just don’t understand why I wasn’t just brought into the conversation about development going into that area,” she said. From what she saw when she watched the meeting virtually, there appeared to be questions about whether the site would be zoned correctly for a cigar shop.
“There’s definitely concern. I mean, it was apparent that even the design review had concerns and questions about what this proposal is,” she said.
She also questioned why other potential interested parties weren’t invited to submit proposals, especially since she had expressed interest earlier.
“It just seems like there should have been a process,” she said.
Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick, a JLMV member who is part of the committee working on the pocket park, said she learned only in late February or early March that the city was ending the MOU for the park.
Per the agreement that the city’s board of control entered into April 15, 2022, “notice of termination shall be sent by regular mail to the attention of” the JLMV president and Youngstown’s mayor. Dellick said the league did not receive such notification.
Dellick attributed delays on moving forward with the project to various roadblocks related to soil samples, a redesign that required going back to Design Review and other projects that she got tied up with. Additional soil that was needed for the project was delivered to the site late last year.
Her organization instead will move forward with its project elsewhere and is working with Shasho and his department on other locations, including one by Penguin City, she said.
Pictured at top: A proposal calls for building an events center and a retail building on this grassy property on East Boardman Street in downtown Youngstown.