Staff photo / David Skolnick The Gallagher Building, located at 23. N. Hazel St. and 131 W. Commerce St., could be turned into a mix of apartments and a ground-floor restaurant.

YOUNGSTOWN — The owner of the long-vacant downtown Gallagher Building plans to turn the upper three floors into apartments with the hope of putting a restaurant on the ground floor.

Brian Angelilli, owner of YO Properties 23 LLC, which owns the building that once housed Cedar’s Lounge, told the city’s Design Review Committee on Tuesday that he expects to build about 37 apartments.

He said he’s had discussions with two businesses that wanted to put restaurants in the building but neither plan materialized. Angelilli said he is still looking for a restaurant but isn’t in a rush.

“We want to bring the building back to life,” he said.

The work on the apartments would begin later this year, Angelilli said.

Angelilli is the building’s third owner in about six years who has attempted to develop the building, located at 23 N. Hazel St. and 131 W. Commerce St.

The committee Tuesday approved Angelilli’s requests to make renovations and improvements to the main building’s brick interior, the addition of an exit stairwell and elevator shaft, and the addition of a sunroom.

“This looks great,” said Nick Chretien, a committee member. “I know there have been a lot of plans” for the building.

The committee oversees improvement proposals to downtown and other parts of the city.

Angelilli’s company obtained the building Jan. 24, 2019, for paying property taxes owed by the previous owner, according to the Mahoning County auditor’s office.

It was previously owned by 131 Commerce LLC, operated by Ryan Sheridan, who bought it Jan. 10, 2017, for $280,000. Sheridan was sentenced in January 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.

Prior to 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 purchasing the property, the Gattas evicted Cedar’s Lounge, a longtime tenant, from the building. It’s been empty ever since.

The Gattas said in 2014 they planned to spend about $6 million to turn the building into a brew-pub on the first floor with offices and apartments on the upper three floors. They received a $1.3 million state historic tax credit for the work, but the project never materialized with the building’s condition deteriorating.

Sheridan said after purchasing the structure that he would spend about $4 million for a restaurant, retail space and apartments. That also didn’t happen.

Angelilli said Tuesday he was not going to seek those state historic tax credits but may look at another tax credit program.

The structure 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.

Other companies owned by Angelilli have purchased two other downtown buildings in the last two years.

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 empty for 16 years.