YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The architect working on the renovations of two downtown Youngstown towers is shooting for one project to be complete within eight months and construction to begin on the other building by year’s end.
Annissa Neider, principal of A Neider Architecture LLC in Canfield, is attached to the renovations of both the Mahoning National Bank Building and its neighbor, Central Tower. Both buildings are being repurposed as mixed-use properties, with what had been office space for decades being converted to apartments to meet what is seen as growing demand for downtown residential units.
Work on the 13-story Mahoning tower – which was purchased by 22 Market Street Ohio LLC, a New York-based investment group, in 2022 – is closer to completion. Contractors are in the midst of framing, mechanical, electrical and plumbing work on the supper levels, and drywall is being delivered, Neider reports.
The building’s ground floor is largely occupied by Huntington National Bank, one of the successor financial institutions to Mahoning. Huntington had closed its downtown branch in the building in 2021 then reopened it in 2024 following a renovation.
“We’re moving along pretty well,” Neider says. “We’re hoping to expedite the project and get it moving along, and hopefully finish up here within the next six to eight months.”
Central Tower
Drawings are mostly complete and financing is being finalized for the 17-story Central Tower, Neider says.
FNB Youngstown LLC, a Tenafly, N.J.-based investment group, purchased Central Tower in 2023. Similar to the Mahoning project, the repurposed building will include a mix of apartments, office space and retail. It will retain the eastern Ohio headquarters of First National Bank of Pennsylvania, which now occupies the ground floor of the building.
“I expect that to start construction hopefully in the near future, and then that will come online,” she says. She would like to see work get underway by the end of this calendar year or during the first quarter of 2027 – “the sooner the better.”
About 70 apartments are envisioned for Central Tower, Patrick Ciccone, a development consultant working on the project, says. “This is probably going to be a 14- to 16-month construction process,” he says.
Each of the buildings presents its own challenges, Neider says. Unlike Mahoning, which has a similar floor plate the entire way up, Central Tower’s floor plates are different as they ascend. As the tallest building in downtown, it offers different vantage points on the upper levels, “taking on a different character as you go up,” she says.
“The top floors are laid out a bit differently with larger units” and “nicer apartments,” Ciccone says. “As the tallest and, in my eyes, most beautiful building in downtown Youngstown, it will make sense to be a destination address for people, when they live at the very top of the city.”
Demand
The buildings won’t come close to filling demand, Neider predicts.
“People aren’t necessarily buying homes,” she remarks. There is a “huge demand for housing” but a lack of inventory, increasing interest in renting.
Interest in downtown apartments has been consistent, DeMaine Kitchen, Youngstown’s director of community planning and economic development, says. He points to several factors driving that demand, including the cost of owning a house, empty nesters and young professionals who aren’t quite ready to take the leap into home ownership.
“They like the amenities and the offerings of being downtown,” he continues. “It’s been a trend for some time now. People want to be close to the arts and entertainment, and their jobs.”
Demand for such units is being driven in part by development in the region – not just the continued growth of YBI downtown but companies like Ultium Cells in Lordstown and other large regional projects bringing in hundreds of jobs, Neider says.
Neider, Kitchen and Ciccone point to various factors that blunted momentum for downtown residential development – the Covid-19 pandemic, lengthy downtown road construction and the May 2024 natural gas explosion at Realty Tower, which led to that building’s demolition and the displacement of the residents of its 23 units.
“There is excitement in downtown again,” Neider says.
Assistance
Both tower projects have benefited from government assistance.
Central Tower was awarded a $2 million tax credit from Ohio’s Transformational Mixed-Use Development Program in July, just a week after a $2 million tax credit it had been awarded in December 2024 from the state’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit program was increased to $4.25 million.
Incentives awarded to the $15 million Mahoning tower project include a $2 million historic preservation tax credit, a $1 million state Vibrant Communities Grant; a $1.39 million TMUD tax credit; a 15-year, 100% tax abatement on the building’s new valuation once the project is completed; and an assessment through the Youngstown Energy Special Improvement District to support energy-related building improvements.
In addition, city council approved a $500,000 site grant for that project in March.
The state awards were “instrumental” in bringing the $20.2 million Central Tower renovation “toward being able to present as something that could be done,” Ciccone remarks. Finding even local lenders that believe in Youngstown “is not necessarily the easiest thing to do.
“We’re still looking to close a gap,” he continues. “We would like to see some sort of abatement from the city school board that’s complementary to whatever is approved for the neighboring project.”
Construction will get underway after financing is finalized, according to Ciccone. The idea is to lease in 2028, but what part of the year that begins depends on when construction can start.
“I believe they’re looking to do something before the year is out,” Kitchen affirms.
Now that the Mahoning Bank Building project is underway and closer to completion, other developers might be more comfortable taking the risk, he adds.
Building Interest
The quicker the Mahoning units are leased, the more it will benefit subsequent projects. “We want to jump into the market as soon as we can,” Neider affirms.
“We can’t forget about the people who have already been down here all this time,” Kitchen says. Other downtown residential properties including the Wells, Erie Terminal and Federal buildings, and Wick Tower, he points out.
“We want to bring back that vibrancy that we had at one point until we lost all of that momentum with the construction and other setbacks,” Kitchen says. “It’s not lost on us that there is a population down there already, and we’re trying to grow it and sustain it and expand it.”
Neider also points to the strong interest that developers have in taking on these properties. People can see the work that has been done on downtown buildings over the past decade-plus and how those projects activated downtown.
“These buildings still have character,” Neider says. “They’re beautiful structures.”
Pictured at top: Architect Annissa Neider in front of the Mahoning Bank Building and Central Tower in downtown Youngstown.
