YOUNGSTOWN — The third property owner in about six years is attempting to develop the long-vacant Gallagher Building, which used to house Cedar’s Lounge, into retail and residential space.

YO Properties 23 LLC, owned by developer Brian Angelilli, wants to do extensive improvements to the building, located at 23 N. Hazel St. and 131 W. Commerce St., according to documents filed with the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department.

Attempts Friday to reach Angelilli for comment were unsuccessful. But an application — subject to approval by the city’s Design Review Commission — list some of Angelilli’s improvement plans:

l Renovations and improvements to the main building’s brick exterior.

l The addition of an exit stairwell and elevator shaft.

l The potential addition of a sunroom.

The design plans list work to all four floors, its basement and roof. But plans don’t indicate what Angelilli specifically plans to do with the property.

The Design Review Commission was scheduled to meet Tuesday to hear the proposal, but canceled because of a lack of a quorum. The commission — which oversees exterior improvement proposals to downtown and other parts of the city — is supposed to have seven members, but has only four. With one unable to attend Tuesday, there aren’t enough members to hold the meeting. Mayor Jamael Tito Brown makes appointments to the commission.

SITE HISTORY

Angelilli purchased the Gallagher Building Jan. 24, 2019, with no price for the sale listed on the Mahoning County auditor’s website.

It was previously owned by 131 Commerce LLC, operated by Ryan Sheridan, who bought it Jan. 10, 2017, for $280,000. Sheridan was sentenced last month to seven and a half years in federal prison on 60 convictions in a $24.5 million insurance-fraud scheme at his now-closed Braking Point Recovery Center.

Before that, the Gatta Co. — owned by Dominic L. Gatta Jr. and Dominic L. Gatta III — bought the property for $192,500 on Sept. 17, 2012.

After buying the property, the Gattas evicted Cedar’s Lounge from the building.

The Gattas announced plans in 2014 to spend about $6 million to turn the building into a brew-pub on the first floor with office and apartments on the upper three floors. They received a $1.3 million state historic tax credit for the work, but the project never commenced. Instead, the building deteriorated with broken windows and structural problems leading the city to issue numerous code violations.

When Sheridan took ownership of the building, he said he wanted to spend about $4 million for a restaurant, retail space and apartments. That project too went nowhere.

The Gallagher building was built in 1904 and was used by the John Gallagher Co. as a liquor wholesale business until 1920, when it was closed because of Prohibition.

TRANSACTIONS

Angelilli founded GreenHeart Companies in Boardman, which does housing and commercial construction as well as property management.

Angelilli-owned companies have purchased two other downtown Youngstown buildings in less than two years from businesses operated by Dominic Marchionda.

YO Properties 47 LLC bought the occupied Realty Tower Apartments, 47 Central Federal St., on June 1, 2018, for $2 million.

YO Properties 101 LLC purchased the vacant Legal Arts Building, 101 Market St., on Oct. 10, 2019, for $400,000. That building has been vacant for nearly 16 years. Marchionda’s Legal Arts Properties LLC bought the building on March 13, 2012, for $175,000.

Marchionda’s companies have sold two other downtown buildings since July 2018: the former Harshman Building at 103 S. Champion St. for $675,000, and the former St. Vincent De Paul thrift store on the corner of Rayen and Wick avenues for $512,000.

Marchionda is interested in selling the Flats at Wick student-housing complex as well as the Wick Tower and Erie Terminal Place apartment complexes.

There is talk that businessman Herb Washington — head of H.L.W. Fast Track Inc., which owns several area McDonalds — is considering buying the Flats at Wick. The land also includes the former Fire Station No. 7 at 141 Madison Ave. on the North Side that the city closed in December.

Washington declined to say if he was going to purchase the property.

His only comments were: “I’m always interested in good real-estate opportunities,” and “I want to help the city as it relates to the fire station.”

Marchionda and 10 of his affiliated companies — along with former Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone and ex-city Finance Director David Bozanich — were indicted Aug. .30, 2018, on 101 counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery, aggravated theft and tampering with records. They’ve all pleaded not guilty.

Marchionda is accused in the indictment of improperly spending at least $600,000 from city funds on personal items and of misusing an undetermined amount of money obtained from state and federal governments on the Flats at Wick, Erie Terminal and Wick Towers projects.