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City sets deadline for 20 Federal Place plans

Firm has 60 days to submit agreement

YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s board of control signed a memorandum of understanding with a Pittsburgh architectural firm giving it an exclusive 60-day period to finalize an agreement on how to redevelop the 20 Federal Place downtown building.

The 60 days began Thursday, the same day the board approved the agreement with Desmone Architects. City council voted Wednesday to authorize the board of control to approve it.

In addition to finalizing the agreement, the memorandum calls for Desmone Architects to provide “funding sources, continue dialogue with two interested tenants, evaluate existing tenant relocation strategies and conditions to transfer 20 Federal Place.”

After that is done, the next step would be to give Desmone the exclusive right for a year to “pursue commitments from tenants, private capital providers, lenders and other public funding resources.”

Jim Ambrose, Desmone’s director of business development, told city council members at a Nov. 18 meeting that the company’s plan includes demolishing the three-story mezzanine on the Commerce Street side of the building, where the food court is located; placing a skylight in the roof that would create natural light all the way down to the ground floor; a parking lot in the basement; and a place to buy baked goods, produce and other foods on the ground floor.

The firm’s proposal also calls for the restoration of the archways on the Federal Street entrance and remove the canopy; improvements to the Phelps Street entrance; a rooftop restaurant as well as an observation deck on the roof; one-bed, one-bathroom apartments; and space for innovative businesses.

Desmone is an architectural firm that collaborates with other companies to redevelop buildings.

The city purchased the building in November 2004 after Phar-Mor, a national retail store company, went out of business. The property was the Phar-Mor Centre, the company’s corporate headquarters. Before that, it was the flagship location of Strouss’ department stores for several decades.

The city has unsuccessfully tried to sell the 332,000-square-foot building in the past.

The city lost about $300,000 last year operating 20 Federal Place.

Desmone would seek various tax credits and grants, both federal and state, to help pay for the work and is talking with tenants and investors.

The city will work with the Mahoning County Land Bank to seek as much as $8 million from the Ohio Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Fund to cover 75 percent of the demolition and asbestos abatement costs.

Also, the city is working with the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber to find new locations in the city for the building’s tenants as the demolition work will take months and force 20 Federal Place to be closed during that time.

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