VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Ohio – The Western Reserve Port Authority wants to buy two downtown Youngstown properties owned by the former Eastern Gateway Community College for $800,000.

WRPA’s board of directors, which met Wednesday morning at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, authorized its executive director, Anthony Trevena, to negotiate the acquisition of the buildings at 101 E. Boardman St. and 39 S. Champion St. and to execute a purchase agreement for the properties.

Port authority representatives have been in discussions with Eastern Gateway’s state conservator regarding the acquisition of the two buildings, which are just south of City Centre One and the Commerce Building, which the port authority purchased last year.

“The state of Ohio, through Eastern Gateway, has been trying to liquidate those assets. They’ve identified the port authority as a potential proper entity to utilize that space to put it back into productive use again,” Trevena said.

The port authority previously owned the former Harshman Building at 101 E. Boardman, which it bought in 2017. After renovating the building, the port authority sold it to Eastern Gateway.

The 39 S. Champion property, a parking garage with retail and office space on the ground floor, occupies the entire block south of City Centre One and is adjacent to the Commerce Building. An engineering report shows the parking garage is unusable because of the condition of its ramps, though the ground floor pedestrian space, where Mocha House Youngstown has operated a restaurant since February 2020, is usable, Trevena said.     

State officials have verbally expressed they would accept an offer for the properties based on the appraised value of the two buildings, Trevena said. WRPA has appraisals in hand that Harshman, with no current productive leases, has an appraised value of $800,000.

“There is negative value in the parking garage because it needs about $18 million to repair those decks,” he said.

That $18 million would only cover half of the total fixes needed for the structure, said Randy Partika, WRPA project manager and development engineer. Another $18 million would be required five to 10 years down the road.

If the port authority’s offer for the properties is accepted, it would seek funds to demolish the parking garage, Trevena said. Ownership of 101 E. Boardman would give an option for Mocha House to relocate.

“We’ve already begun that discussion and looked at an architectural rendering of what that potentially could look like,” Trevena said.

Board member Kathleen Kennedy called the potential for the former Harshman Building “fantastic.” She also voiced optimism about the opportunity presented by ownership of the parking deck building, known as Thomas Humphries Hall. 

“They’re not making more land, as we always say,” she remarked.

CDL Programs

During the meeting, which lasted roughly half an hour, WRPA board members heard from Youngtown State University President Bill Johnson to call attention to a June 27 ribbon cutting and open house at the airport for the pilot and commercial driver’s license – or CDL – programs YSU and the port authority have launched.

The aviation and trucking industries “are two of the industries that have been hit the hardest with workforce issues,” Johnson said. “So it’s our effort to join the fight to fill the workforce gaps that exist here in our region and hopefully across our state.”

Johnson praised the work done by YSU Provost Jennifer Pintar, who started “from scratch putting together the academic programs that are necessary” for the aviation and CDL programs. He also commended the port authority, which was formed by Mahoning and Trumbull counties, as a model of cooperation.

“It shows what synergy can do, when all the resources of two counties come together to do the good things for the Valley,” he remarked. If other agencies and communities developed a similar perspective, the Mahoning Valley “would be a lot further down the road in solving many of our issues, workforce being among them,” he said.  

Other Business

In other business, the port authority board voted to petition for inclusion of 79.54 acres of the former BDM Steel property into the Warren-Howland-Warren Joint Economic Development District being created around Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s planned plant on more than 500 acres it purchased from the port authority in late 2023.

The port authority is seeking to incorporate the property as part of the JEDD now as opposed to petitioning to amend the JEDD agreement down the road to include it, said Nick Chretien, WRPA planning and regional development manager.

Warren City Council voted last week to approve the JEDD agreement, but approval by Howland and Warren townships is on hold while Kimberly-Clark representatives review language particular to the townships.

The port authority would be a vehicle for financing infrastructure improvements at the property, Trevena said. The port authority secured $17.2 million from the All Ohio Future Fund for site preparation and construction of regional transportation improvements, and to remediate brownfield environmental conditions at the BDM property.

In addition, the port authority board authorized purchasing a half-acre site at 535 N. Garland Ave., near the former McGuffey Mall property, from the Mahoning County Land Bank for $250.

WRPA acquired the 20-plus-acre former mall property site in 2022, and the land bank informs the port authority when an adjacent property becomes available.  

“We add that to our assembly just to make it a little bit more competitive as it grows larger, because that is beneficial to a potential end user,” Trevena said. “The land bank will continue to work with us as land becomes available to make this site larger.”

Pictured at top: The parking garage with retail and office space at 39 S. Champion St.