YOUNGSTOWN – A firm hired by the city envisions a $34.5 million overhaul of 20 Federal Place with apartments mixed with office space on four floors and a bowling alley, bar and malt shop in the basement.

But it wouldn’t be the city, which has owned the downtown building for more than 16 years, making the improvements.

Instead, Steadfast City, the St. Louis firm hired to create the vision, would search for developers interested in the building starting April 1 and with one expected to be selected by mid-October, said Doug Rasmussen, the company’s president.

The city purchased the building at 20 W. Federal St. in November 2004 after Phar-Mor, a once prominent national retail store company, went out of business. Before it was the Phar-Mor Centre, the company’s corporate headquarters, it was the flagship location of Strouss’ department store for many decades.

The city has tried unsuccessfully a few times since it purchased the building to sell it.

“The hard work begins with engaging the business community,” said Hunter Morrison, the city’s planning consultant. “We’re looking to do a robust engagement of the business community. There are no guarantees, but this is a very promising approach.”

The building has 269,294 square feet with 203,857 square feet of leasable space. Of that leasable space, 68 percent is occupied by VXI Global Solutions, a telemarketing company, by far its largest tenant.

The Appalachian Regional Commission last year awarded a contract to Steadfast of up to $40,000 for technical and marketing assistance for 20 Federal Place with the city providing at least $5,000 in in-kind services, Morrison said.

“The commission has identified 1,700 interested parties,” Morrison said. “We expect a good response. We’ve cast a wide net.”

Federal and state financial assistance programs aren’t open to the city, but are to private developers to help offset large amounts of the expense of improving the 95-year-old building, Rasmussen said.

That includes the federal opportunity zone tax incentive program, new market tax credits as well as federal and state historic tax credits, he said.

The presentation was made Tuesday at the city’s design review committee meeting.

The proposal included using the basement for a six-lane bowling alley, a bar and a malt shop.

The first-floor food court would see improvements. The second and third floors would focus on technology firms, small businesses and meeting spaces.

The fourth through seventh floors would be a mix of offices and residential units.

“This is the most comprehensive effort to identify the challenges and determine the financial streams for the building,” Morrison said. “It’s a more sophisticated analysis for potential uses of the building.”

In the next few weeks, the city will have a “final prospectus to developers to interest them in working with us to turn the building into a profitable enterprise,” Morrison said. “There will be a strategy of going to market to sell and develop the building.”

The proposal is a “starting point for developers,” he said. “They’ll come up with their own ideas. This is a predevelopment analysis of what can be done with the building.”

The building hasn’t been profitable for the city, but has generated income tax money from those who work at businesses there, Morrison said. Also, if the city had let the building close, it would have left a large vacant structure in the heart of downtown, he said.

“This is a special building,” Morrison said. “It’s an important place. People want to see it brought back.”

OTHER BUSINESS

Meanwhile, the committee approved a multiple story addition to the Butler Institute of American Art that would add storage space for some of the museum’s larger pieces of art.

The expansion at the Wick Avenue museum would be in front of the Beecher Center and include a large second-floor window to allow people to see some of the art without going inside. The addition actually would be two floors above ground and two below, on existing green space facing Wick. The committee did not discuss a project cost.

The building construction would start shortly and take six to eight months to complete.

The committee also voted Tuesday in favor of allowing an exterior metal patio outside the Rhine Haus Bier Hall and Suzie’s Dogs and Drafts on North Phelps Street.

A 3-foot-high fence would be up in March until the weather changes, said Christian Rinehart, who owns both businesses.

The city closed the section of North Phelps Street between West Federal and West Commerce streets, where both businesses are located, to vehicular traffic in October to create a pedestrian mall.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com