YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A new roadway that would connect U.S. Route 62 with North Garland Avenue could get underway later this year and be completed in 2027, a city official predicted.
At its June 8 meeting, the State Controlling Board will consider a request by the Ohio Department of Development to approve a $1.28 million Roadwork Development Grant to the city of Youngstown to construct approximately 950 linear feet of roadway. The connector would begin at the intersection of the state route and continue northeast to North Garland, according to state documents.
The grant, if approved by the controlling board, would cover slightly more than half of the estimated $2.5 million cost of the project. Once complete, it would improve truck access to a 32-acre site owned by the Western Reserve Port Authority that includes the former McGuffey Mall property, which the port authority acquired in 2022.
“This investment builds on years of dedicated planning and collaboration with the city of Youngstown and City Council, the Mahoning County Land Bank, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments and East Side neighborhood groups,” said Anthony Trevena, WRPA executive director. “By creating direct access routes, we are unlocking the McGuffey/Garland site for development while ensuring future traffic increases stay off residential streets.”
The port authority spent $1.18 million for property acquisition and remediation at the property. That included $560,963 in cleanup funds from the state of Ohio, $160,817 for Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments and $250,000 from the city of Youngstown’s American Rescue Plan allocation for the 2nd Ward.
DeMaine Kitchen, director of community planning and economic development for the city, could not give a definitive time frame on the project but said he hoped to get it designed and a construction schedule perhaps this fall.
“It really opens up that property,” he said. The only way to access it now is from McGuffey Road, which is difficult to navigate for heavier truck traffic and equipment.
“We think it’s a home run for that track of land,” said Jim Kinnick, executive director of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
Eastgate commissioned a study a few years ago to look at the feasibility of constructing a roadway connecting Route 62 to North Garland.
“What we were looking at is just opportunities for vacant sites that developers may be interested in,” he said. Providing the connecting roadway would be more advantageous for developers, he affirmed.
The connection makes the property “all the more attractive” for manufacturing, warehousing and other development because traffic can go directly to and from the highway without having to cut through the neighborhood, Kitchen said. Potentially, a developer could be secured for the property as the roadwork is underway, with both projects taking place concurrently.
“We’re already marketing that property, but this allows us to add a layer to that marketing,” he said. “It puts us in competition with other sites across the state.”
Pictured at top: The site of the former McGuffey Mall property is seen in this image captured from video. (Western Reserve Port Authority)