YOUNGSTOWN — City council agreed to let the board of control seek proposals for the long-vacant former Bottom Dollar grocery store for potential development.

The 7-0 vote Wednesday permits the board to seek requests for proposals for the empty building, evaluate the offers and negotiate with what it considers the best offer. The legislation requires any sale by the city be subject to council’s approval.

The city wants sealed offers by Aug. 12 to the community planning and economic development department. But it isn’t known how long it will take to determine the best offer, if multiple ones are submitted.

The Mahoning County Board of Elections says it wants the building to relocate its warehouse and voting equipment – and eventually its early-voting center.

But there haven’t been formal negotiations between the city and the board or the Western Reserve Port Authority, which could buy the building and lease it to the elections board.

At a Monday council committee meeting, DeMaine Kitchen, community planning and economic development director, said: “There’s interest from several parties, not just the ones that have been the loudest (the board of elections). There’s been several folks interested. No matter who ends up there, the only way they can end up there is if we utilize the process that we have that allows the folks that are interested to submit their proposals.”

The board of elections voted 4-0 on July 7 to move ahead with relocating its warehouse from Oakhill Renaissance Place, a former hospital on the city’s South Side where it’s been located, to the former Bottom Dollar location.

Kitchen has said a number of times that formal requests were needed before the city would do anything.

The city used $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan funds in 2024 to renovate the 18,285-square-foot former Bottom Dollar building with plans for the Village of Healing to operate an infant mortality clinic as the main tenant.

Plans for the Village of Healing to go there are dead.

The Bottom Dollar store has been vacant since January 2015, when the grocery store chain was sold to Aldi Inc., which closed it and all of its stores.

WASTEWATER WORK

Council voted 7-0 to permit the board of control to purchase property and easements for an estimated $170 million wastewater improvement project that is to commence in the fall.

The work is for an 80-million-gallon-per-day wet weather facility. The structures in the facility would treat excess combined sewage during heaving rainstorms and then release the water.

Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works, said: “The city of Youngstown is about to undertake one of our largest projects – probably one of the largest ones since the (wastewater) plant was expanded back in the ’80s.”

The buildings will be on the west side of Gibson Street by the Poland Avenue intersection, Shasho said.

“We need to acquire property in order to build the project,” Shasho said.

It is the third part of work, costing more than $300 million when done, by the city to improve its wastewater system as mandated by the federal government.

Council voted to allow the board of control to spend up to $250,000 to acquire about 35 parcels and allow the board of control to enter into agreements for temporary access and permanent easements.

The other ordinance is to permit the board of control to spend up to $12,500 to buy 530 Gibson St., the clubhouse of the Afro Dogs Motorcycle Club.

The parcels the club owns will be used for the “grit and screening” building – one of six contracts for the wet weather facility project, which is expected to cost about $170 million, Shasho said.

“The Afro Dogs property is a key piece of property because its on an occupied structure and it’s in the middle of the development,” Shasho said.

The project includes multiple buildings, pump stations and tunnels.

The wet weather project will start this fall with early preparation work, such as grading work, Shasho said.

The project must be finished by 2030 under the federal consent decree.

The board of control in December approved $13.52 million in contracts – $7.63 million to MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown and $5.89 million to Arcadis U.S. Inc., a national company – for final design and construction administration of the work.

Also, Arcadis will handle the construction administration phase of the work at a cost of about $17 million, Shasho said.

Both companies did preliminary design work on the wet weather facility in addition to numerous other projects for the city over the years.