YOUNGSTOWN — The owner of the former Italian American War Veterans Post 3 building is suing Youngstown for demolishing the structure in September without notice.

Armadillo Development LLC of Lisbon acquired the 113 S. Meridian Road property April 29, 2021, from the Mahoning County Land Bank and spent more than $200,000 toward improving the site into a planned commercial space, according to the lawsuit.

The county auditor’s website shows the land bank obtained ownership of the property on April 2, 2021. The post shut down in 2011.

Fire Chief Barry Finley sent an emergency demolition order Aug. 22 to James Pierce, the city’s street department construction foreman, stating: “This structure is vacant and structurally unsound. This building is a danger to firefighters who may enter in the event of a fire. I am advising that this structure presents an actual and immediate danger of failure and / or collapse in the event of a fire. This is an immediate emergency situation and it creates an imminent threat to the public health and safety according to Youngstown codes.”

The lawsuit, filed by attorney Douglas Ross of Warren on behalf of Armadillo, contends from the time the company acquired the property until the Sept. 16 demolition, the business “did not receive any correspondence, notices, letters, violations or complaints from the fire chief, the code enforcement office or any other representative of (the city) alleging the property or the improvement was in violation of defendant’s codified ordinances or the improvement was structurally unsound, a danger to firefighters, presented an actual and immediate danger of failure, and / or collapse in the event of fire.”

Ross wrote: “The allegations in the order were meritless” as Armadillo spent more than $200,000 in improvements, which “were structurally sound, secure and watertight. With this order signed by the fire chief, the defendant falsely, pretextually or unreasonably asserted that an emergency existed.”

Ross added the city waited 25 days from Finley’s emergency order to demolish, which “further demonstrates that no real or actual emergency existed.”

Adam Buente, the city’s deputy law director, said: “We have referred the matter to our insurance counsel and don’t have any further comment on the currently pending litigation at this time.”

The Solon-based law firm of Mazanec, Raskin & Ryder Co. is representing the city.

The lawsuit contends the demolition violated Armadillo’s federal 4th Amendment rights to protect it from an unreasonable search and seizure by the government and its 14th Amendment rights to due process and equal protection.

Ross filed the lawsuit Nov. 3 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court with it being assigned to Judge R. Scott Krichbaum.

On Wednesday, John Pinzone, an attorney with Mazanec, Raskin & Ryder Co., had it transferred to federal court because it involves a claim “over which this court has original jurisdiction and involving a claim or right arising under the Constitution.”

The case was assigned to Judge Benita Y. Pearson of the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Ohio.

In the lawsuit, Ross states the city has “improperly used the ordinance and so-called emergency demolition orders to unlawfully demolish numerous properties in the city of Youngstown without notice to the property owner.”

Among the cases is the August 2020 demolition of the former Anthony’s on the River building, 15 Oak Hill Ave. The city settled the case in June 2024 settlement for $80,000 and other financial considerations to the building’s owner.

The other considerations were removing a $48,000 demolition assessment, $10,675 in interest on that assessment and the payment of about $10,000 in delinquent tax balance on the property. The city’s insurance covered $25,000 of the total settlement costs.

The city paid $110,937 in December 2023 after losing a case in which items were improperly removed and destroyed by a city-hired contractor from 905 South Ave. in November 2020. In that case, Finley also declared an emergency demolition.