CVS store survives beefs over its design

Further discussions cleared up issues with the North Side construction project.

By DAVID SKOLNICK CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — The possibility of building a CVS store on vacant land looked remote after a city committee refused to approve the company’s construction plans.

But further discussion after the meeting cleared up the issues, and the store’s construction looks promising.

The objections from the seven-member design review committee at its meeting Tuesday were the locations of the proposed store’s loading docks and garbage storage area as well as its exterior colors and texture.

“We’re a little bit shocked,” said Ken Hrabar of Orion Development of Weirton, W.Va., the project’s developer, when it became obvious Tuesday that the committee wasn’t going to approve the store’s construction proposal for vacant property bounded by Fifth, Park, and Ford avenues and Westbound Service Road on the city’s North Side.

Orion and CVS were willing to discuss the colors and texture, but Hrabar said they weren’t going to reconfigure the proposed 11,945-square-foot store.

“It would have jeopardized the deal,” he said.

CVS wants the building to be dark brown and beige. The committee wants more light and neutral colors. CVS wants to use split-face masonry, made of concrete, on its exterior because it’s less expensive than brick. The committee wants brick.

When asked the cost of the CVS proposal, Hrabar said only that it was a “multimillion-dollar project.”

After the meeting, Hrabar contacted Bill D’Avignon, who heads the city’s planning department, and the issues were resolved.

The issue “was just a misunderstanding” between the developer and the committee, and the city will work with CVS and Orion to make sure the store is built, D’Avignon and Mayor Jay Williams said.

“We’re not going to lose this project,” Williams said. “Everyone [including review committee members] is 100 percent in favor of the project.”

The biggest objection raised by design review committee was the location of the proposed store’s loading docks and garbage storage, which would face Park Avenue, next to Stambaugh Auditorium and the auditorium’s gardens.

“We took somewhat of a hard line with CVS,” said Phil Kidd, a design review member, who added that the committee is only interested in what’s best for the city.

CVS and Orion have three options to remedy the garbage and loading dock issues, Williams said.

The companies could landscape the area to obstruct the view of the docks and in particular the garbage area, move them farther west on Park Avenue so they would be farther away from the gardens, or move them to Ford Avenue. The first option appears to be the most likely.

“We will work with the city to accommodate the request they have,” Hrabar said hours after the meeting. “I’m glad we don’t have to change the site plan. We’re excited and we’ll work to get this under way. We appreciate the city working with us.”

The committee, which oversees exterior work to buildings downtown and in surrounding areas, will hold a special meeting shortly to vote on the CVS construction project.

If all goes well, construction would begin in the spring or summer and the store would open in the fall, Hrabar said.

This is Orion’s first proposed project in the Mahoning Valley.

Orion has a purchase contract to buy the 3-acre parcel. CVS’s building and parking would take up about half of that site.

The location has raised previous controversy.

Select Medical Corp., which purchased the property for about $1.1 million in September 2006, was going to build a 56-bed, long-term, acute-care facility there. But St. Elizabeth Health Center opened a medical campus in Boardman and the Select Medical instead built there.

Houses on that property remained boarded up and empty for more than two years.

A company scrapped its plans to build a $17 million housing facility there in September. That project faced opposition from Youngstown State University and Stambaugh Auditorium.

Select Medical paid to demolish seven houses on the property in November.

skolnick@vindy.com