YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – In Youngstown, 72 new downtown apartments should be available to rent by spring 2026. The units will be in the former Mahoning Bank building, one of two downtown residential apartment projects being worked on by architect Annissa Neider.
In Warren, a long-discussed plan to transform the former downtown YMCA building into residential space is advancing, with work expected to get underway by spring.
And in Sharon, Pa., JCL Development is converting a building into a 40-bed apartment complex that will cater to students attending Penn State University at Shenango. It’s expected to be available for August.
These efforts are part of a national wave of repurposing commercial and industrial spaces to meet the growing demand for housing in downtown areas.
Nationally, a resurgence in conversions of buildings into apartments resulted in the creation of more than 12,700 apartments in 2023, a 17.6% increase from the previous year, according to the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. That trend is expected to continue, with an estimated 151,000 rental apartments in the process of being converted, including more than a third from former office spaces.
Here, developers are repurposing office towers, industrial buildings and other properties for people coming to the Mahoning and Shenango valleys for jobs or who are interested in a downtown-based lifestyle.
‘A Jigsaw Puzzle’
Youngstown is the focus of much of the repurposing activity in the region.
“It’s like a little jigsaw puzzle, trying to get these apartments to work in these structures that were obviously built as office buildings,” Neider says. She is the architect for the renovations of both the Mahoning Bank (now Huntington) building at 26 Market St., which will have 65 apartments, and Central Tower at 1 E. Federal St.
Older buildings such as Central Tower – which was built in 1929 – “are a good bit more adaptable than later office buildings,” according to Patrick Ciccone, a consultant working for FNB Youngstown LLC, which acquired Central Tower in 2023.
“We believe there is a market for housing in downtown Youngstown,” he says. Such environments appeal to people who want to live in a walkable urban location, and Central Tower is “a beautiful art deco building” comparable to ones in larger, more well-known downtowns.
Contractors spent about nine months on interior demolition at the former Mahoning building, which is owned by 22 Market Street Ohio LLC of New York. The project is “well underway in the construction phase,” Neider reports.
Full floor architecture and engineering design on Central Tower have yet to begin as final financing is being arranged. Each project was awarded $2 million in state historic preservation tax credits.
Once completed, the renovation projects will each offer a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, which will increase downtown residential inventory by about 30%, Neider says.
Mahoning will have “a bit more of a commercial mix,” with four floors of commercial space in addition to the nine floors of residential, Neider says. Central Tower will have 14 floors of residential space.
Central Tower is the tallest building downtown and a “fun project to work on because of its historic nature,” she says.
“I love historic architecture and the historic nature of [Central Tower] is stunning,” she says. “It’s a 1929 art deco building and there’s a lot of features still left in the building: nice marble corridors, marble and terrazzo flooring, a beautiful, intricate elevator lobby. It still has a lot of the historic character intact.”
John Angelilli, property manager at the Gallagher building on North Hazel Street, has experience with demand for downtown housing. About 18 months after opening the renovated building, occupancy is above 90%, he says. At least half of the building’s tenants are from outside the area and are contract workers, including some at area medical centers, Ultium Cells and Northeast Ohio Correctional Center.
“We started out with 21 of the 41 rooms for Airbnb units,” Angelilli says. “That went well but we have so much demand from traditional tenants we are no longer doing Airbnb.”
Rooms in the renovated building feature exposed brick, where available, and include in-room washers and dryers, utilities and internet access. Fully furnished options also are available.
“This area can handle hundreds of new apartments,” says Brian Angelilli, principal of YO Properties 23 LLC, which owns The Gallagher.
Brian Angelilli also is principal of YO Properties 47, which owned the Realty Tower.
Its demolition following the natural gas explosion last spring left the tenants of its 23 apartments searching for new residences. He says he is in the “process of conceptual design” for a new building at that site. He wants to have renderings to show to the community by spring or summer for feedback.
“We intend to move forward with some type of development on that site. We’re not sure exactly what yet,” says Dominic Marchionda, principal at Live Youngstown Property Management, which managed the building. The mixed-use building will have some residential element, although whether that’s condominiums or apartments is yet to be determined, as well as ground-floor retail and potentially a banquet center on the second floor.
Another Angelilli-owned property, the Legal Arts Centre at Wick Avenue and Boardman Street, has been discussed as a potential boutique hotel. “Really, the highest and best use is for apartments or condos,” John Angelilli says.
Residential development also is part of the mix being considered for the 20 Federal Place building. In December, the city of Youngstown, which owns the former Strouss’ Department Store building, entered into a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with Bluelofts Inc. Bluelofts submitted a plan that includes converting the former downtown office building into 100 student, multifamily and penthouse apartments.
“It’s a big step for downtown Youngstown and the city,” says Doug Rasmussen, CEO and managing partner of Steadfast City Economic & Community Partners, the city’s consultant on the project. “We still have work to do over the next 10 months, but it’s an important step to advance a very important project and a very important building at a time when we can take advantage of the historic tax credits and other aspects of the project that have already been completed.”
Projects in Warren
Mike Keys, Warren community development director, is working on two downtown projects that will involve residential development, but he is unable to go into detail on either.
Housing also is expected to be an element of a long-discussed $100 million development project by Dayton-based Dillin Corp., including the property referred to as the “peninsula” near downtown.
“I don’t know how close they are. I know they’re still doing some gathering of properties,” Keys says.
Among the other downtown residential developments in the works is conversion of the former Warren YMCA.
Tom Chema, a consultant with Gateway Consulting Group and one of the partners in 210 High Street Partners, says work on completing financing is underway. Having secured about $4 million in state and federal historic tax credits, the group also is exploring new market tax credits and has begun talking with lenders about a senior loan.
“We are hoping by late March to get moving on it,” Chema says. “We’ve got design up to the construction document stage. We don’t want to do those construction documents until we get our financing in place.”
The results of two market research studies the group had conducted were “very positive,” Chema says. Demand is being driven by new jobs in the electric battery business, Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s plans for its property near downtown Warren and another project his partnership has in mind for the former Warren depot site.
“We think there will be demand for downtown living – not high end, but affordable,” and the types of residential offerings that will appeal to young professionals and technology workers, Chema says.
The project calls for converting the 1920 portion of the structure into 34 apartment units and building six new townhouses east of the building. Discussions are underway about potential retail tenants in the new construction portion of the project.
“We probably have three to four months more design work and then it’s probably a year for actual construction,” he says. “If we got in the ground in August, we would expect to be bringing in tenants in the following September,” he says.
Athletics Boost Demand
Angie Urban, executive director of Sharon Community Development Corp., points to a couple factors driving interest in downtown living in Sharon, Pa. One is general lifestyle trends.
“Young professionals are looking for downtown living,” she says. People are seeking walkable downtown communities where they can easily get to nearby amenities, and Sharon is putting features in place such as the riverwalk trail to make downtown more walkable and livable.
Another factor is the expansion of athletics programs at the Penn State Shenango campus, she says.
JCL Development has been working on meeting that demand. Developer Jim Landino “has already experimented with some apartments that filled up pretty quickly,” Urban says.
JCL has five apartments in the Armory building, eight in the Forker building and a few more in the Chestnut block, Landino says. His company also is in the process of converting the former Jolley Industrial Supply building, near Penn State Shenango, into apartments.
Every new campus sport adds roughly 20 students, but the lack of quality housing near campus is “probably very concerning to a mom and dad,” Landino says.
“This gives us a chance to have 40 beds next to the campus,” he says. “If all goes well, half of those beds will be available by Aug. 1. That’s the goal,” he says. Rent in the two-bedroom units probably would be in the $650 to $700 per bed range, including utilities.
In addition, Landino says he is looking at creating another 20 apartments at two buildings near the Corinthian Banquet Center in the next year or so.