YOUNGSTOWN — A New Albany company is proposing construction of a 120-unit apartment complex for low-income residents at the former site of Woodside Receiving Hospital.

Wallick Communities, through a newly created affiliated entity, Homestead Crossing Apartments LLC, is proposing the project that would include five residential apartment buildings, according to a letter sent to city council by Jimmy McCune, Wallick’s vice president of development.

The rental units at what would be called Homestead Crossing include 30 one-bedroom apartments, 72 two-bedroom apartments and 18 three-bedroom apartments with an on-site clubhouse. The rentals would be to “income-restricted households earning up to 60% of the Area Median Income,” according to McCune’s letter.

Youngstown’s median income is about $35,000.

Nikki Fields, the mayor’s chief of staff and director of the community planning and economic development department, said, “They’re in the application process. Right now, we’re doing our due diligence to make sure it’s the right location for them and the right thing for the city and the residents.”

Fields added: “It’s very early, very preliminary. We’re having meetings like we do with any other developer just to make sure it’s the right fit for the community.”

Wallick is meeting today with city officials to discuss the next steps needed for the proposal.

Wallick has affordable housing projects in 200 communities in the Midwest, including managing 15,000 apartment units, according to its website.

The city’s board of control on Thursday voted to accept a real estate option agreement with Wallick to permit application for federal grants.

In McCune’s letter, he wrote, “The proposed development will be financed with equity from the sale of 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from (the Ohio Housing Finance Agency), equity from the sale of Ohio Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Housing Development Bridge Loan from OHFA, a tax-exempt construction / permanent loan, a GP (general partner) capital contribution, construction period income and deferred developer fee.”

The project would be built at 800 E. Indianola Ave. on the city’s South Side.

It was the site of the former Woodside Receiving Hospital, which opened in the early 1940s and closed in 1996 as a state-run psychiatric hospital because of the state’s reduced funding for such facilities. It then became Lincoln Behavioral Center, a privately owned residential facility for counseling of those between the ages of 8 and 20 sent there by juvenile justice courts and children services agencies. Lincoln closed in 2008.

After that, the structure deteriorated, becoming an eyesore, and was demolished in late 2014.

The owner of the demolition contractor was charged and subsequently convicted in Youngstown Municipal Court on a misdemeanor of not following demolition and removal procedures for failing to haul away debris. The case lasted nearly two years and the municipal court judge’s conviction was upheld by the 7th District Court of Appeals.

The Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board and New Housing Ohio announced plans in April 2024 for an apartment complex for those with mental illnesses at the site. The project did not materialize.