Youngstown Works on ‘Holistic’ Development Plan

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The focus of a new economic development strategy in the works will be creating an environment that encourages businesses already in the city to stay and grow as a way of encouraging new businesses to come to the city, development officials said.

This spring, the city hired Montrose Group LLC, a Columbus-based consulting firm, to draft the citywide economic development action plan. The firm got started in May and is scheduled to conclude its work in September under the $50,000 contract.

Though the city has had various plans focusing on different aspects such as downtown and the city’s major corridors, it has never had a strategic economic development plan to “help us get a baseline of what our assets are, what our needs are, what our land values are, – a complete, total analysis of those things,” said Nikki Posterli, chief of staff to Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and director of the city’s department of community planning and economic development.

“Rather than taking the administrative approach of what the mayor’s initiatives are, it made more sense to understand, again, what our city core resources and our values are, and how do we use that to increase population, homeownership, workforce development, education, business attraction and entertainment,” she said.

Business retention and expansion are key areas of emphasis with Montrose Group’s work, said Stephanie Gilchrist,economic development director. Stabilizing those businesses, which already contribute to the city’s wealth by paying income and property taxes, will help in efforts to attract other businesses.

“We definitely want to attract outside businesses to come and see us and say they’re welcome,” Gilchrist said. “But right now, if your businesses that you have currently aren’t happy, then why would someone else want to be in a relationship with us?”

The goal is to craft not just a business plan but “a holistic, citywide plan,” Posterli said.

The planning process began with the Learn Phase and is now in the Listen Phase, Gilchrist said. The Learn Phase involved researching census data, past plans done by the city, census data and information from partners such as Eastgate Regional Council of Government.

“The learning phase brought me a lot of data as far as what our city looks like demographically and industry sector-wise,” Gilchrist said. There also has been a conversation about what housing looks like in the city, what has been done and where the city is looking to go with it.

One of the data points Montrose has identified as a positive is a decline in the rate of population loss, with the city’s population in recent years remaining around nearly 60,000. “The question is, how do we keep those people that we do have and bring other people into our community?”  

The Listen Phase involves meeting with community stakeholders, including groups like Thrive Youngstown, real estate agencies that handle downtown properties, the newly formed Like to River Economic Development and other strategic partners, she said. Additionally, the consultants are looking at what is happening in cities such as Detroit and Cleveland, as well as cities closer in size to Youngstown such as Akron, Canton and others to learn about best practices.  

The final phase of the plan, the Do Phase, will outline goals and the strategy for achieving them.

“I’m looking forward to the action items,” Gilchrist said. Workforce development and housing are expected to be “huge” components of that. “If I’m going to retain this talent, where do they go?”

The city simultaneously is looking at proposals for doing a separate strategic plan specifically for downtown and to provide marking support for downtown businesses.

Downton businesses have suffered from a sequence of events over the past several years, including the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused several businesses to leave downtown, including at 20 Federal Place, and which hurt the hospitality industry; the ongoing downtown road construction work; and the initiation of environmental remediation and demolition work at 20 Federal, which forced the relocation of the remaining businesses there.

Most recently, the May 28 natural gas explosion at the Realty Tower led to the evacuation of that building and dislocation of its tenants, as well as the loss of the Chase Bank located on the building’s ground floor. The explosion also forced the closing of the Stambaugh Building’s tenants, including the DoubleTree by Hilton Youngstown Downtown hotel and Bistro 1907, because of safety concerns posed by the damaged Realty Tower. Because Youngstown’s downtown is so compact, if there is construction or something else that disrupts the normal flow of traffic, there are alternative routes to take, Posterli said.  

“That one event is a trickle down,” she remarked. 

Additionally, downtown is facing the loss of Eastern Gateway Community College. The college owns two downtown buildings, including Thomas Humphries Hall, which contains a largely shuttered, multilevel parking deck.  

Posterli acknowledged the city could have contracted with Montrose to perform that work but didn’t want to take away from the initial reason the city contracted with the consulting firm.

“I didn’t want the rest of the city to not get the benefit of what we wanted to achieve from that plan,” she said.

“I see downtown kind of as your core, and then your other parts of town are your spokes to the wheel, you know,” she continued. “We have got to make sure that core is strong.”

The redevelopment of 20 Federal is a project Gilchrist said is “near and dear” to her heart. The remediation needed to be done, regardless, but it was sad to see the businesses feel slighted and that they weren’t handled properly, she said.

“We have to make sure that we bring it back to a beautiful state where we can offer space again to local vendors and entrepreneurs,” she said. She also was hopeful about efforts to redevelop the 26 Market St. building, which would add some 70 apartments downtown. Plans have not been disclosed by the owners of the First National Bank building, but she believes they might be developing a similar number of residential units.

“So we still have those hopes,” she said.  

“We have to make sure that we are intentional about all of the efforts and the resources to lift our downtown back up, to help the businesses, to help the residents living down here … [and] making sure that there is a constant emphasis and initiative on continual movement,” Posterli said. “We can’t just plant something here and walk away and think it’s going to blossom. We have to feed it; we have to seed it; we have to water it.”

Pictured at top: Stephanie Gilchrist, the city of Youngstown’s economic development director.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.