Youngstown Plans RFP for Downtown Building, Establishes Homeownership Program
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The city plans to put out a new request for proposals in the next few weeks to identify a developer for the 20 Federal Place building.
Legislation to put out the RFP request is expected to be among the items that City Council will consider at a special meeting July 29, Finance Director Kyle Miasek said following Thursday’s Board of Control meeting.
“It’s a totally different building now than it was when we tried this a couple years ago,” Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said.
The board approved paying Desmone, the Pittsburgh architectural firm the city has been working with on the building since 2021, $9,340 to update the Revit model for the building. A Rivet model is a software-based unified model that trades and disciplines can use to complete work on a building.
Desmone updated the Rivet model using old, original drawings of the building that had been discovered during environmental remediation and demolition work done at the building using a $6.9 million state brownfield remediation grant the city and Mahoning County Land Bank received in 2022.
“They are going back and modifying the blueprints based on some of those renderings and some of the things that were changed as part of the construction. So we’re going to get, in essence, an updated blueprint of the building,” Miasek said.
Estimates to redevelop the building have soared to more than $82 million over the past couple of years. In late 2023, the project was awarded $24 million in state and federal historic preservation tax credits, which city officials said could encourage potential developers.
HOUSING INITIATIVE
During the meeting, board members approved two items related to At Home in Youngstown, a $5 million initiative to encourage homeownership in the city that is expected to launch Monday, according to John Noga, city housing director.
The focus of the program is to improve housing across the city, Brown said.
One item authorizes the city to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Catholic Charities in Youngstown to provide intake services for and administer the At Home in Youngstown program. The other authorizes entering into a professional services agreement to administer the $5 million fund, which is being established using American Rescue Plan Act funds.
“This is a program to incentivize people buying a house in Youngstown,” Noga said.
The program will provide deferrable loans of up to $10,000 to cover downpayment and closing costs to people buying houses in the city, and deferrable loans of up to $15,000 to be used for energy efficiency upgrades, such as furnaces, windows, insulation, doors and water heaters, he said. If the homeowner stays in the house they purchased or upgraded using the funds for at least five years, the loans do not need to be repaid.
“The cool thing is there are no income guidelines,” he said.
Pictured at top: The 20 Federal Place building in downtown Youngstown.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
