Longtime Elm Road site to be transformed
Property served area’s telephone industry
HOWLAND — Look for another space on the menu of fast-food choices to park along Elm Road, between North River Road and state Route 82.
Starting with Pizza Hut, one can perform an empty-belly crawl to KFC, Dunkin’, Panera, Wendy’s and Perkins. On the outskirts are Sheetz, McDonald’s, Chipotle, Five Guys and Starbucks.
When a longtime telecommunication site at 3801 Elm Road sold for $1,015,000 on Dec. 31, the development choice was obvious.
“The company that bought it is going to take that big, old lawn out front and offer it for lease to a quick-serve restaurant,” agent Dan Crouse of The Platz Realty Group said. “We have inquiries from quick-serve restaurants that want to be in that general location.”
Crouse spoke on behalf of the new owner THG Real Estate Inc., which recently purchased the former Burger King property in the township. That site is being transformed into Taco Bell.
Local businessman and entertainment promoter Ken Haidaris spearheads THG Real Estate Inc. In addition to operating Sunrise Inn of Warren, Haidaris is president of Sunrise Entertainment.
Recent years have witnessed the development of Elm Road as a retail and commercial destination. However, the 4-acre location itself played a long-serving support role as operations center for United Telephone Co., the former property owner.
“All of the technicians and engineers and warehousing was done out of that building,” said Thomas Humphries, a telecommunications expert and retired president and CEO of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber.
United Telephone Co. experienced a number of ownership and brand changes – Sprint and CenturyLink among them. Its last incarnation is Brightspeed, which Crouse said will maintain a minimal presence at the Elm Road facility, which covers 22,500 square feet.
“Brightspeed doesn’t need all of that space,” Crouse said. “They’re just pulling all of those guys back into downtown Warren.”
According to the Trumbull County auditor’s site, the new owner will be assessed $22,290.30 in property taxes.
Dating his involvement with the property to the 1970s, Humphries said 225 people worked at the site during the 1970s and 1980s. That number shrunk from 100 to 150 in the 1980s. In the last 25 years, Humphries said that the workforce dwindled to 25.
“It’s a valuable asset that’s underutilized,” he said.
Crouse said that before the construction of the state Route 5 bypass or state Route 11, telephone workers were dispatched from the Elm Road facility.
“They couldn’t house a lot of that stuff – telephone poles and all of that – in downtown Warren,” he said. “That gave them access on Route 5 to the northern end of the state.
“Route 11 came to being in the early ’70s. And the bypass around Warren came in the mid-’70s.
That building predates that. I can tell you by the way the interior is built, it looks like 1960s’ concrete block tile.”
The original Elm Road parcel had been split earlier, Humphries said. Menards and a storage facility operate in those slots.
With the front of the property slated for restaurant development, the building and property lot are expected to attract interest for light manufacturing or distribution, Crause said.
But first, there’s food to be served.