Work Begins on Candy Store Downtown

YOUNGSTOWN – Work began this week to transform a long-shuttered downtown building into a candy store.

Construction workers had already removed the storefront glass display areas for the building at 107 W. Federal St., next to Prima Cucina restaurant. The interior has been gutted to the brick walls.

The building will become the new location of Touch the Moon Candy Saloon, which specializes in unusual and vintage candy.

The city’s design review committee in December approved plans by architects representing The Purple Cat, which offers day programs for adults with developmental disabilities, to renovate the building.

Jack Rabbit LLC, a real estate entity affiliated with Purple Cat and Iron and Strong Life Enhancement Inc., acquired the building in 2011 from Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. for $30,000.

The building had a traditional storefront with a its entrance recessed and flanked on both sides by window display cases. After the renovation, the entrance door will be closer to the street.

Purple Cat plans to run day activities for clients on the ground floor space, Jill Perencevic, director and co-owner, said. It will also reopen the now-shuttered Touch the Moon Candy Saloon.

The candy store, once located around the corner at 8 S. Phelps St., closed in early 2020 during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened. It has since become a practice space for ISLE’s Feral Cats singing program.

Perencevic said a small breakfast and lunch counter is also being considered for the Federal Street building.  There are no set plans for the second floor, but apartment space is one possibility.

Pictured at top: Workers begin renovations to a building at 107 W. Federal St. in downtown Youngstown.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.