YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The announcement Feb. 20 that the city of Warren has entered into an agreement with Dillin Corp. of Dayton to redevelop the riverfront area known as the Peninsula came as very good news.
The project envisioned by city officials and the developer includes a hotel, food hall, 400 residential units, a parking deck and more than 100,000 square feet of Class A office space. Plans would also put a portion of West Market Street on a “road diet” to add on-street parking.
“It’s a transformational project that will obviously change the conversation about what Warren has to offer in terms of creating a whole new dynamic neighborhood that offers everything from retail space to residential living, office space and entertainment,” Mayor Doug Franklin says.
Dillin Corp. CEO Larry Dillin first was approached 18 years ago by city officials about developing the Peninsula site but was dissuaded by the disinvestment and lack of new investment that he saw.
When city officials again reached out to Dillin a few years ago, he was encouraged by organic growth in retail and restaurants downtown, efforts to redevelop and repurpose downtown buildings, as well as what he heard from community and business leaders. Now he wants to move forward.
“We’re very excited about this project because we believe it has the capability of … reversing that decline,” Dillin told The Business Journal.
Redevelopment of the Peninsula property – a project expected to cost upward of $160 million in private investment and take as long as five years – represents a huge piece in ongoing efforts to capitalize on the Mahoning River as an asset.
Warren has made much progress along its riverfront, which now boasts a wine bar. The city is in the design and planning stage for a pedestrian bridge, funded by a $4.3 million Appalachian Community Grant, that would connect the Peninsula to Perkins Park and the Warren Community Amphitheatre.
Our next edition, published March 18, will feature the Mahoning River Roundtable, the first this year in our quarterly discussion series. Readers will learn how decades of planning and action have achieved a cleaner Mahoning River and created economic and recreational opportunities. There is more good news to report and much more work that must be done.