Glenwood Apartment Building is YNDC’s Latest Revitalization Effort

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Once covered in vines and left to deteriorate, a four-unit apartment building at 3711 Glenwood Ave. is the latest renovation project of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.

The organization purchased the nearly century-old property for $109,000 and added nearly $200,000 in work to return it as viable housing for the historic Glenwood community.

Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, said the building had been vacant for some time, but over the past year has been transformed by the dedicated team through YNDC, paired with money invested in the community by PNC Bank.

“We were fortunate to be able to purchase it in the winter of 2022, just about a year ago,” Beniston said. “Over the course of this past year we were able to renovate it. … This is another step in our continued efforts along the Glenwood Avenue Corridor.”

Built in 1926, the home still features woodwork and restored hardwood floors, denoting the quality craftsmanship of an older home. Yet the YNDC made extensive renovations, updating the windows, replacing the roof, furnace, air conditioning and hot water tanks. The bathrooms have been renovated. The old refrigerator under the kitchen cabinet was removed and replaced with new appliances that still fit the period of the apartment.

After cutting the ribbon, Marguerite Douglas, president of the YNDC board, walked through the house with Juan Santiago, the board’s vice president. They were taking in all the attention to detail and the size of the one-bedroom apartments, which stretch from the front to the back of the building.

“You have a lot of room in here for one person,” Douglas said. “It’s like your own house. It doesn’t seem like an apartment.”

Each unit has a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. In the basement, renters share storage space and a coin-operated washer and dryer.

“It’s really, really come together,” Douglas said. “They put in a lot of work and a lot of time, and it is not open to the public until everything is in place. You can count on a good place if you get it through YNDC.”

Keeping the apartments affordable at $600 per month plus gas and electric, the project was about the commitment of investing in and protecting the neighborhood for future generations.

Beside renovating a nearby plaza and attracting tenants to improve the quality of life for residents in the area, Beniston said the YNDC owns the small building on the corner. It once was a gas station and then a barbershop, but it currently houses a small sweets shop where home-based bakers are starting to sell their treats. YNDC also owns another nearby house from the 1840s, which will be another project in the organization’s continuing efforts to revitalize the corridor.

“If you just look at the corridor surrounding Mill Creek Park, you can’t replace this,” said Ted Schmidt, regional president at PNC Bank. “The beauty of it, the structure, the style – [Beniston has] done a great job with a couple facilities all around Glenwood, restoring them with our dollars, obviously, and just keeping the people in the community here, and that means a lot.”

Schmidt said YNDC’s projects fit with nicely with the commitment that PNC has made toward community development.

“We’re very proud, first of all, to be working with Ian [Beniston] and his team,” Schmidt said. “We’ve had a longtime relationship with YNDC and the stuff that he has done throughout the community. He presented us the opportunity to help finance this beautiful building, four units, affordable housing. It fits perfectly within PNC’s community development plan, which is an $88 billion commitment to do this in all of our communities here in Youngstown.”

According to Beniston, there is already interest in renting the apartments, so anyone considering it should go to YNDC.org for more information on how to apply.

Pictured at top: Ted Schmidt, PNC Bank regional president; Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation; and David Eddy, PNC Bank community development banking relationship manager, stand in front of 3711 Glenwood Avenue, a newly renovated apartment property.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.