Kim Mitchell of New Castle, Pa., owner of Two Guy's Clothing store, talks about moving her store from 20 Federal Place to Union Square Plaza...by R. Michael Semple

YOUNGSTOWN — Kim Mitchell, who had to move her business from 20 Federal Place after the city evicted all of the tenants for a renovation project, said she’s happy in her new location but is still upset about the decision to kick everyone out of the building.

“The city didn’t treat us right,” said Mitchell, who owns Two Guys Clothing. “They did nothing for us. We were there for 13 years, and they gave us a few months to get out. It was terrible what they did.”

Mitchell found a new home in the Union Square Plaza on Gypsy Lane after hearing about a vacancy at the North Side location.

“It was a heck of a job moving into here and putting so much money into this place,” she said. “But it’s a better place than downtown. I pay more in rent, but we have more traffic here than downtown and a nice parking lot. There are no more hassles for my customers to find parking.”

Two Guys sells men’s clothing and shoes and has expanded to offer Atony skin and personal care products.

Two Guys is among a number of the tenants evicted from 20 Federal Place by the city to find space elsewhere.

WHY THEY’RE OUT

The city received a $6.96 million Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program grant, announced June 18, 2022, for remediation and partial demolition of 20 Federal Place. The city is providing $2.32 million in funding for work at the building at 20 W. Federal St.

The remediation and partial demolition need to be finished by June 30 under the conditions of the state grant.

The work hasn’t started yet; project bids will be opened Jan. 20.

The city sent 60-day eviction notices to the 19 tenants at 20 Federal Place last July 1, less than two weeks after it received the state grant.

With the project delayed, the city extended leases with some of the tenants though most of them were gone by October.

City officials say because rent was kept so low at the building for years — and tenants at the food court weren’t charged rent for most of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic — the city lost about $600,000 in 2022 operating the building.

Among those forced to leave was Top Notch Meals, which serves breakfast and lunch and provides catering. The business found a new home at 2838 Mahoning Ave. two months ago.

Vershanda Black, its owner, said she was rushed out of her location at the downtown building by the city. While Black isn’t pleased with how the situation was handled, she said her business is now doing much better.

“The city did what it had to do,” she said.

Black said her new location “is way bigger, and we can extend our hours and offer more to our customers. It turned out to be a blessing. We’ve been so busy. The volume of customers has increased so much since we moved.”

GONE REMOTE

VXI Global Solutions, a call center that was at the city-owned building, has gone “completely remote,” said Sarah Schribner, project manager for Steadfast City Economic & Community Partners, the St. Louis firm hired by the city to oversee the redevelopment project at 20 Federal Place and work to find new locations for tenants interested in moving.

At about 70,000 square feet and on two floors, VXI was by far the largest tenant at 20 Federal Place.

Schribner said the eviction notice was a “sudden surprise” to many tenants. “It became a bit of a shock, but they were given extensions. Some found new locations in downtown or elsewhere. Others retired. Everyone had different needs, and we tried to accommodate them. Overall, it went smoothly, but the shock value and the city not being able to provide financial assistance were challenges.”

The Mahoning County Land Bank, which assisted the city in getting the state grant, also had to find a new home. It moved to the downtown City Centre One building at 100 E. Federal St.

“It has worked out extremely well,” said Debora Flora, its executive director. “The building more than meets our needs. We were one of the lucky ones. We knew what could be coming (with the grant), but we didn’t know officially until mid-June. It was abrupt.”

The land bank needed to remain downtown, she said, because several of its partners are located there. The land bank is sharing the same building as some of those partners, including the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, Western Reserve Port Authority and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.

“It’s slightly larger,” Flora said of the new location. “We didn’t need more space, but it’s the best space available.”

TEMPORARY SPACES

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office started renting office space at 20 Federal Place in 2007 when then-Attorney General Marc Dann, who lived in nearby Liberty at the time, wanted locations outside of the Columbus area. The Youngstown office, which includes space for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation — which is part of the AG’s office — had about 21,000 square feet at the city-owned building.

It was permitted by the city to stay in the downtown building until mid-December.

Since then, the office is temporarily located in two spaces, said Steve Irwin, an AG spokesman. BCI’s cyber unit is housed at the Mahoning County jail in downtown Youngstown and the rest of the office workers are at the Boardman Police Department, he said.

The office will permanently move to a new location in Boardman in late spring or early summer, Irwin said.

“We’re going through a leasing process,” he said. “We want to maintain a presence in the area.”

REMAINING TENANTS

Three tenants remain at 20 Federal Place.

The city is involved in litigation with the Subway restaurant on the ground floor, seeking to evict it for the past four months.

Carrier Services Group is storing some equipment there and “may stay with minimal or nonexistent impact on the project,” said city Law Director Jeff Limbian.

Plaza Optometrists, which has been on the ground floor for the past 14 years, is leaving at the end of the month, said Dr. Martin Ellis, its co-owner.

The business is moving Feb. 1 to the Garden Square Plaza on Belmont Avenue in Liberty, he said.

The business was going to move across the street to 25 W. Federal St., but that location wasn’t going to be ready in time for the move, Ellis said.

“We were surprised we had to go, but when you don’t own the building there’s the probability of that happening,” he said. “The city has treated us well. They’ve been lenient with us. We were supposed to be out Jan. 1, and they gave us another month.”

The city suggested a number of other locations, including those in Boardman and Niles, but in the end, Ellis said he found the new place.

“We wanted to stay in the area, but unfortunately had to leave the city,” he said. “The city treated us well during the process. I know some (tenants) were upset initially, but the city did the best they could. They couldn’t pass up the grant they received” for the work at 20 Federal Place.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

While the remediation and partial demolition work has to be finished by June 30, the future of 20 Federal Place remains uncertain.

The estimated cost of redeveloping the downtown 20 Federal Place building has increased to $96.2 million with Limbian and Mayor Jamael Tito Brown questioning how that money can be raised and if a project of that expense is feasible.

A memorandum of understanding the city has for 20 Federal Place LLC — a business created by Desmone Architects with National Real Estate Development’s Philadelphia address listed — to have a “master lease” on the building expired Dec. 31.

Desmone, a Pittsburgh firm, is handling the building’s planned redevelopment. National Real Estate, with a portfolio of $1 billion in properties, has expressed “interest in pursuing an investment” in 20 Federal Place but hasn’t made any commitments.

A master lease is needed to apply for state Transformational Mixed-Use Development Program tax credits or state and federal historical preservation credits. That was why the agreement when the LLC was created.

Desmone applied for those credits last year, but the applications were rejected by the state.

The mixed-use credits were for $7.4 million and the historical tax credits were worth about $22 million.

dskolnick@vindy.com