YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Renovations of two prominent downtown Youngstown towers are moving forward, with the architect working on both projects shooting for one 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 upper 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.”
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 under way 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.”
Read the full story in the September issue of The Business Journal.
Pictured at top: Architect Annissa Neider in front of the Mahoning Bank Building and Central Tower in downtown Youngstown.