Legal Arts owner plans to reopen long-closed downtown building
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YOUNGSTOWN -- The owner of the Legal Arts Building is making exterior improvements to the downtown structure with plans to reopen it.
Brian Angelilli, who purchased the building in October 2019, said Tuesday that he wants to get the parking deck open by next month, and to put a breakfast-lunch business on the ground floor.
He mentioned Dunkin' Donuts or a "mom-and-pop" restaurant at the site as there's "a lot of foot traffic" at the downtown location at 101 Market St. that makes it a good spot for such a business.
As for the rest of the building, Angelilli said he was looking for a "large tenant user or residential" space or a boutique hotel with a restaurant or bar possibly on the roof.
"We're going to sit back and let things happen," he said during a city Design Review Committee meeting.
At that meeting, the committee approved requests from Angelilli to make various exterior improvements to the building including painting, masonry repairs, improvements to the parking deck and lighting replacements.
Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, said to Angelilli: "The entire city will appreciate (you) putting another building back into use in downtown."
Angelilli's YO Properties 101 LLC purchased the building for $400,000 in October 2019 from NYO Property Group, operated by Dominic Marchionda.
NYO bought the building in March 2012 for $175,000. While Marchionda discussed plans for a boutique hotel with office space there, nothing ever materialized and the building saw deterioration.
The building used to house The Hub, a diner on the ground floor that closed in early 2004. An explosion in June 2004 of an acetylene tank used at a jewelry repair shop caused damage to the structure. When repair work wasn't done, the few tenants at the building left.
The Legal Arts Building was constructed in 1965 for $2 million for legal offices at the site of the former Sears Roebuck building.
Angelilli owns GreenHeart Companies of Boardman, which does housing and commercial construction as well as property management.
In the past few years, Angelilli also has concentrated on buying buildings in downtown Youngstown.
In addition to Legal Arts, he purchased the occupied Realty Tower Apartments, 47 Central Federal St., in June 2018 for $2 million and the vacant Gallagher Building, located at 23 N. Hazel St. and 131 W. Commerce St., in January 2019 for paying property taxes owed by the previous owner.
Gallagher was owned by 131 Commerce LLC, operated by Ryan Sheridan. That company bought it in January 2017 for $280,000. Sheridan was sentenced in January 2020 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.
Also Tuesday, the design review committee approved expansion plans for Valley Foods, 335 E. Boardman St.
The food service company is adding a metal building to its existing location to be used for factory space as well as extra cooler and freezer space, said David Roose, project manager for Strollo Architects, which designed the expansion.
The project will start in the spring, he said.