YOUNGSTOWN — City council will be asked at its July 29 meeting to authorize the board of control to seek requests for proposals from redevelopers for 20 Federal Place.

The administration will request city council give permission to obtain proposals for the city-owned downtown building, said Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

The city received two proposals to buy and redevelop the building in June 2021 with Downtown Development Group in Warren, the only company that submitted a timely proposal, withdrawing from consideration a month later after expressing concern about too many unknowns and management of the building.

That left Desmone Architects, a Pittsburgh firm that is still involved in planning for 20 Federal Place. Desmone was given an extension by the city to submit a proposal.

A Desmone umbrella organization, 20 Federal Place LLC, has a 40-year lease on the building, but there are benchmarks that must be achieved or the city can rescind the lease.

Also, Desmone has been looking for potential redevelopers for a partnership with one undisclosed company taking a tour of the building a few months ago.

The city’s board of control Thursday agreed to pay $9,340 to Desmone to update architectural renderings of the city-owned building.

The $7.6 million asbestos remediation and partial demolition project at the downtown building is just about done, Miasek said.

The city received a $6.9 million state grant, announced in June 2022, for the work.

During the project, Daniel A. Terreri & Sons, the Youngstown company doing the work, found a large metal container that included the original architectural renderings of 20 Federal Place, Miasek said.

Desmone, which did the rendering based on photos and measurements taken before the project commenced, updated those drawings based on the originals found, Miasek said.

The project was repeatedly delayed and didn’t start until April 2023.

The project is about 98% done with Terreri going through a checklist to determine if anything else is needed, Miasek said.

Desmone obtained a $10 million state historic preservation tax credit for 20 Federal Place, announced Dec. 21, without the city’s knowledge. The credit also comes with $14 million in federal historic preservation tax credits.

Desmone’s application to the state lists an $82.1 million project planned for 20 Federal Place though no project has been finalized.

The city purchased the downtown building at 20 W. Federal St. 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, the 332,000-square-foot building was the flagship location of Strouss’ department store for many decades.

There were 19 tenants, taking up about 20% of the building, before eviction notices were sent in July 2022. Some of the tenants received extensions.

REALTY ENGINEERING

The board of control also Thursday increased the payment to Barber & Hoffman Consulting Engineers of Cleveland by $993 to a total of $8,493. The board hired the firm for $7,500 on June 6.

Barber & Hoffman conducted a structural engineering study of Realty Tower, released June 10, that stated the downtown building heavily damaged in a May 28 gas explosion was in imminent danger of collapse.

That led the city to evacuate the nearby International Towers, which has more than 170 tenants, on June 14. Also, the Stambaugh Building, which houses the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel and is near Realty Tower, has been closed since the explosion.

The demolition of Realty Tower started July 12 and is expected to take four to six weeks, though the process has been slow, hampered by delays and issues.

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