Youngstown Officials Plan Downtown ‘Relaunch’
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – City officials are planning a “relaunch” of downtown, followed by the potential establishment of a designated outdoor refreshment area by winter.
The “great relaunch” for downtown is being planned for the middle of October, “once everything is clear,” according to Nikki Posterli, chief of staff to Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and director of community planning and economic development. The relaunch is intended “to kick off some other things that we have planned,” including the DORA.
Creation of the DORA, which members of City Council are expected to take up at a special meeting Aug. 28, and the proposed relaunch, which would take place once ongoing roadwork projects and demolition of the Realty Tower are completed, were among the items discussed Tuesday during a meeting of the council’s community planning and economic development committee.
The city received three submissions in response to a request for proposals for strategic planning and marketing for downtown, according to Posterli. She and members of a downtown advisory group the city has assembled reviewed the proposals and found two that stood out.
The strategic plan will be paid for using a portion of the funds the city allocated to the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber Foundation for downtown relief.
“We kind of want to move on this quickly, so we reviewed them as a team. And there were two that kind of stood out to us,” Posterli said. “We’re meeting on Thursday with both parties to see if we can have a joint strategic plan that we think will have an immediate impact. We’re looking for some deliverables within this strategic plan we can do within the next six months that can be impactful for the businesses.”
City officials have been discussing a DORA since 2019, but planning got derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic, road construction and other factors, Posterli said.
A DORA permits participating licensed liquor establishments to sell alcoholic beverages for outdoor consumption during set days of the week and hours of the day. The beverages must be consumed in designated cups and cannot be taken into another restaurant or bar, and patrons must wear special wristbands provided by the establishments at the time of purchase.
“It’s very regulated and controlled. We have to receive a designation from the state,” Posterli said.
According to a draft of the DORA distributed to those attending the meeting, the parameters of the proposed Youngstown district encompass the area beginning at the intersection of North Hazel and Commerce streets, extend to the Wick Avenue and Commerce Street intersection, and include the vicinity around the Stambaugh Building on east Federal Street, where the DoubleTree by Hilton Youngstown Downtown hotel and Bistro 1907 operated before the May 28 gas explosion at the Realty Tower. The boundary continues south on Hazel to Market Street, then follows Phelps, West Front and Emily streets, concluding at the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre.
The proposed DORA would be 34 acres, said Nick Chretien, executive director of the Economic Action Group. EAG works with the city on economic and community development and has been assisting with the district.
The city is looking at the hours of 4 to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, though for football games at Youngstown State University, it could begin at noon for tailgate parties. Instituting a year-round DORA also is possible under existing state law.
The city of Columbiana began looking at instating its DORA in 2018, following a change in state law the year before, city Manager Lance Willard said. Officials there worked with Birdfish Brewing Co. and adopted its DORA in 2019.
“We had nine open storefronts in 2019. We really wanted to move the needle and try to do something in our downtown that could fill those,” Willard said. Now when a business leaves the downtown, the vacancy is filled quickly, which he also attributes to developing relationships with building owners, engaging youths and encouraging the participation of food trucks.
Since the DORA was put in place, Birdfish has quadrupled the amount of drinks served on a typical Friday night, said Josh Dunn, co-owner of the brewery.
Members of the CPED committee agreed to sponsor the legislation for consideration at the Aug. 28 meeting. Consideration at the state level takes 45 days, so ideally the district would be in place in time for the annual downtown holiday parade and celebration.
Also at the next council meeting, there will be legislation to hire a consultant to design bid documents to complete downtown roadway work delayed by the Realty demolition, said Chuck Shasho, deputy director of public works. Much of the work that had been completed as part of the $27.65 million Smart2 Network downtown road reconstruction project near the building had to be removed or was damaged by the explosion, and Commerce Street remains unfinished.
“We want to try to get bid documents out at the beginning of September so that when the demolition is complete, we can move right into the roadway rebuild,” he said.
Joseph Fritz, senior assistant law director, reported to the committee that the city already received two responses to a request for proposals issued Aug. 1 seeking a partner to purchase and redevelop the city-owned 20 Federal Place. Following the original RFP, the city entered into an agreement with Desmone, a Pittsburgh architectural firm, to serve as the developer of the building, which has been undergoing environmental remediation for the past two years.
Work on the building is “99.999% complete” except for a few punch list items, according to Shasho. “The building is fine to go from a developer standpoint,” he said.
Desmone secured state and federal historic preservation tax credits for the building late last year and has updated the architectural drawings but can’t complete the project, Fritz said. To retain the tax credits, which were secured by Desmone, the agreement contains a provision that any new developer would have to work with Desmone and its architectural drawings.
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