YOUNGSTOWN — The Ward Bakery building, home to numerous artists for decades, could be in danger of closing its doors if its owners are required to make costly upgrades to its fire sprinkler system.

The city fire department found 29 issues during an inspection of the building at 1024 Mahoning Ave.

The most expensive repair is the sprinkler system, which includes switching up every pipe in the building from 3/4 of an inch to 1 inch.

Tamara Deeley, who co-owns Ward Riverworks LLC, the building’s parent company, with her husband, Jamie, said Tuesday that one estimate for the work is $212,000. Another company is going to provide an estimate, but it is expected to be even higher than that, she said.

“If the sprinkler system is totally insane in terms of cost, there may be just another big building in the city that’s empty,” said John McNally III, Ward Riverworks attorney. “That is not our intent.”

Ward Riverworks was in front of the city’s board of zoning appeals Tuesday to respond to May 30 notice of violation from the code enforcement division that it improperly was allowing people to live in the building. The property is zoned industrial green, and tenants are not permitted to live there.

McNally explained that the building is rented by various artists and no one lives there.

He said a former disgruntled tenant likely called the city to complain, but the residency claim isn’t true.

The board voted 6-0 to dismiss Ward Riverworks’ violation notice.

FIRE INSPECTION

But that unfounded residency complaint led to a May 26 inspection of the building by the fire department that turned up 29 violations.

Those issues included not only the need to replace sprinklers, but electrical wiring violations, exposed wiring and other “hazardous electrical conditions,” improper installation of fire extinguishers, obstructed exits, lack of a certificate of occupancy, lack of signs for exits and other”unsafe conditions,” according to a report from Jackson Lambert, a fire inspector.

That fire inspection was the first one at the building since the Deeleys purchased it seven years ago, McNally said.

The fire department was going to do a follow-up inspection June 29, but canceled it because the chief fire inspector was on a medical leave, McNally said.

The Deeleys have made some improvements, such as illuminating exit signs, but most of the major work hasn’t been done, McNally said.

He asked for his clients to have more time to explore options for the work to be done — “if it’s economically feasible to do the sprinkler system upgrade.”

Tamara Deeley said she and her husband purchased the building “as is” seven years ago.

“Shame on us for not doing more due diligence,” she said. “But you don’t know what you don’t know. My husband had been a tenant in that building for 33 years at that point. He knew the previous owner. When the previous owner told him, ‘Everything’s good. Here’s the tags because I had it inspected. We thought it was good.'”

NO COMMITMENTS

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, a zoning board member, was sympathetic, but didn’t make any commitments or address McNally’s request for American Rescue Plan dollars for the improvement expenses.

“That’s unfortunate for the buyer-seller,” Brown said. “The (sprinkler) number is really unfortunate to hear.”

The 100-year-old building with about 90,000-square feet of space, originally was the Ward Bakery. For about the past 50 years, it has been used as rental space for various artists and opens up a few times a year to the public for artists to sell their wares.

Hunter Morrison, the city’s planning consultant, called the structure “an iconic building” during Tuesday’s meeting.