Realty Tower Demolition Begins

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The demolition of a 100-year-old piece of the city’s history started at the cornice of the building’s northeast corner.

With each whack of the wrecking ball Friday afternoon, pieces of the historic Realty Tower fell to East Federal Street below. It’s a slow process.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said an emotional Dominic Marchionda. “I never would have imagined.” 

He watched the demolition get underway with his cousin, Deanna Rossi, and businessman Tim Huber. Marchionda owns Live Youngstown Property Management, which managed Realty. His former company, NYO Property Group, previously owned the building and Rossi had been a tenant for the past 11 years.

Marchionda said the building had “a lot of sentimental value” to him. He recalled going with his father and brother to get haircuts in the building as a youth.

The building suffered extensive damage during a May 28 explosion that killed an employee of the Chase Bank branch on the first floor, injured several others and displaced the residents of Realty’s 23 apartments.

The owner, YO Properties 47 LLC, decided to demolish the building after engineers determined that even if it were stabilized, its longevity couldn’t be guaranteed or insured.

YO Properties 47 and Live Youngstown issued a statement Friday afternoon:

“This is not what we imagined for Realty Tower,” the statement said. “When you restore buildings as we do, it is with the intent to create life and restore vibrancy. It is why we exhausted every possibility of saving this building. This isn’t what we want, and this isn’t the easy solution but we must do it to provide a path forward.”

It said they mourn the loss of Akil Drake, the man killed in the explosion, as well as the loss of residents’ homes.

“We will always mourn, but we will cherish Realty Tower’s legacy by gathering the pieces of this rubble to create something new,” the statement said. “The soul of Youngstown isn’t being demolished today, it remains as does our commitment to it, the people of Youngstown.”

The statement didn’t indicate the companies’ plans for the site.

Beginning late Friday morning, passersby stopped to watch as crews performed preparations for the demolition work. Moderalli Excavating Inc. of Poland is the demolition contractor.

By late afternoon, groups of people gathered near the building to watch the demolition.

Bill Balash and Patrick Marzula, both of Youngstown, were among them.

“Just the whole story — It’s a strange story,” Balash said. “I mean the way everything went down. The guy cutting the gas pipe which was strange.”

Crews working in the basement to relocate utilities, cut a gas line that although abandoned, was pressurized. That led to the explosion.

For Marzula, watching the demolition was about history.

“You’re not going to have another building like that again, not any time soon,” he said. “If they had left that thing alone, it would still be here 100 years from now.”

The demolition is expected to take until Aug. 31, according to paperwork filed with the Mahoning County Building Inspection Department. According to city officials though, enough of the work is expected to be done by Aug. 2 to allow surrounding buildings to reopen.

The Stambaugh Building, across Federal from Realty, has been closed since the explosion. It houses the DoubleTree by Hilton and Bistro 1907.

International Towers, next to Realty, was evacuated in mid-June. Both buildings are within the 210-foot radius of the collapse zone, so declared after an engineer hired by the city determined Realty was in imminent danger of collapse without modification.

The razing follows efforts by individuals and community groups who advocated the building be saved. They cited the historic significance of the building as well as its importance to downtown. 

State Rep. Lauren McNally issued a news release Friday providing guidance for downtown businesses experiencing difficulty filing taxes due to limited computer, information or file access following the explosion.

“I am very aware of the current and long term needs of our neighbors and am making myself as available as possible to the residents, businesses, safety responders, investigators and government officials,” McNally said in the news release. “This guidance is helpful and necessary but should not be the final step of the process. We have a duty to ease fear and move forward as best we can and that is a job that I’m committed to doing well.”

Businesses directly and indirectly impacted by the explosion should contact the Ohio Department of Taxation as soon as possible, the release said. 

George Nelson contributed to this story.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.