Building Amphitheater, Park Cost City Just Over $8M

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The city will end up paying just over $8 million for the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre and the Raymond John Wean Foundation Park.

On Thursday, the city’s Board of Control approved the sixth and final modification to its contract with Brock Builders Inc. of North Lima, adding $62,262 to the contract. The various additions and deductions for nonperformance of work brings the total for the contract to $8,013,311.

In April 2018, the city accepted Brock’s base bid of $7,018,000 for the general contract and alternate bid packages totaling $988,721, or $8,006,721.

“Overall we’re within 1% of the contract, which is ridiculous on a project like this,” said Chuck Shasho, deputy director of public works for the city.

Other items on the board’s agenda included an addendum to the professional service agreement with GPD Group, Youngstown, for removal of two dams along the Mahoning River and a development agreement with the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley.

The $20,333 addendum to the contract is to provide additional services not included in the original agreement that are required to finalize the preliminary engineering study. The adjustment brings the total contract to $103,447.

The city is using about $3 million in LTV Settlement funds as matching funds to secure the rest of the total $9 million to remove two of the three dams in the city portion of the Mahoning River at Crescent Street and Marshall Street.

“We want to get started in 2020 with that. It’ll be a design-build contract,” Shasho said. “We didn’t feel there was enough funding there to do all three dams.”

Under the development agreement, the Rescue Mission purchased 27 parcels totaling 4.35 acres on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for $6,480. The organization plans to build a $5.5 million building where it will provide rescue mission work, as well as food and lodging to those in need, according to the agreement.

A completion date of September 2020 is anticipated for the project.

The Rescue Mission also will be required to maintain its existing property at 962 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and update the city on its efforts to secure another end user for the building.

Should that effort not succeed, the organization must secure an estimate for demolition that includes establishing a demolition fund and schedule of contributions to pay for demolishing the structure.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.