Big plans for Erie Terminal building
by Denise Dick from the Youngstown Vindicator Web Site.
December 7, 2006 8:08 pm
YOUNGSTOWN — The city will enter negotiations with a Cleveland company that wants to convert the Erie Terminal building into student apartments and retail space.
The city's board of control approved the request at a meeting Thursday.
After advertising for request for proposals in July, the city received responses from three companies.
David Bozanich, city finance director and the board of control's secretary, said the Frangos Group's proposal was deemed the best for what the city was looking for.
It proposes to buy the six-floor Commerce Street building for $375,000 and to invest at least $3 million in renovating it into a mix of residential and retail space.
The first floor would house retail with the remaining five floors converted to 35 apartment units.
That's good news, and fits into the plans long talked about. I recall back in ancient history when there was talk about such a complex where the Bankruptcy Court now resides in all it's splendor. Unfortunately it never got beyond the talking stage, but the Vindicator squeezed a few stories out of it.
Whenever I see grand plans trumpeted in the Vindicator I tend to take it with a grain of salt. Too many times they got our hopes up with pie in the sky projects that never happened ... Blimp Factories ... Brewery projects ... Airplane plants ... Steel Mills run by the employees ... High Speed computer lines.
I won't dismiss this plan, but neither will I breathlessly tout it until the students move in and the commercial places hang out their signs "OPEN FOR BUSINESS".