Staff photo / David Skolnick Standing in front of the site of the former McGuffey Plaza on Youngstown’s East Side, city officials and others announced a $250,000 investment to a project to help clean up the site and make it shovel ready. Participating in Monday’s announcement, from left, were Shea MacMillan, vice president of economic development for the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber; Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward; Anthony Trevena, executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority; Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward; and Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward.

YOUNGSTOWN — During its heyday, the McGuffey Plaza was a thriving indoor shopping center on the city’s East Side.

But the shopping center, built in 1954, fell on hard times. It lost tenants until it was vacant and deteriorating by 2007. It was demolished in 2014.

The Western Reserve Port Authority purchased the property last year for $162,000 with the expectation that it would eventually be redeveloped.

While all the buildings are gone, large concrete pads cover the location near the intersection of McGuffey Road and North Garland Avenue.

Councilman Jimmy Hughes, who has the property in his ward and grew up near the plaza, said Monday that he would sponsor legislation to have city council vote to spend $250,000 in federal American Rescue Plan funds toward cleanup of the site as well as to make it “shovel ready” for potential developers.

“We’re excited,” Hughes said. “Once it’s complete, we can open it up for developers.”

He added: “It was extremely important to the East Side.” Redeveloping the site is “the No. 1 concern I hear for all of the East Side.”

Hughes, D-2nd Ward, was joined Monday by two council members, Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, and Anita Davis, D-6th Ward, as well as Anthony Trevena, WRPA’s executive director, and Shea MacMillan, vice president of economic development for the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, in making the announcement at the former plaza’s location.

Hughes plans to introduce the legislation as soon as May 17, council’s next meeting.

WRPA has been working on site readiness for the property, Trevena said.

“We have to look at what it’s going to cost to clean it up and get it ready for shovel readiness,” he said. “It’s one thing to own property, but once we get it ready” it can be marketed.

During its time operating, there were dry cleaners and a gas station at the plaza site, which means soil remediation, which can be costly, needs to be done, Trevena said.

Trevena expects the property improvement work, using the ARP money, will take about a year.

The chamber has a property database for Mahoning and Trumbull counties, MacMillan said.

“We’ve been submitting this site specifically in Youngstown to site selectors” without any luck, he said. “The unknowns of the environmentals and the lack of investment in the site up until now has really pushed developers away,” MacMillan said. “So this is a fantastic step in the right direction in getting the site back to use.”

Making the site shovel ready is key to attracting developers, he said.

Oliver said, “This is a great day for the East Side. It can be like Glenwood (Avenue) or downtown. Once you get an anchor project off the ground it brings more development. I’m looking forward to more development coming whether it be grocery stores or what have you from this particular investment that Councilman Hughes is putting in.”

The plaza, also called the McGuffey Mall, was one of the earliest developments built in 1954 by the Cafaro Co., done in partnership with Boardman developer Edward DeBartolo Sr. It was converted into an indoor center in 1972 and featured a bowling alley, department stores, supermarkets, banks, a bakery and a hardware store.

Businesses started leaving in the late 1990s and by the mid-2000s, the plaza was empty.

The Cafaro Co. sold the property in October 2013 for $150,000 to D&E Holdings LLC, which demolished the buildings.

Trevena pointed out concrete pads cover the property that have to be removed.

“You can’t build on big, thick concrete pads,” he said. “This plaza, they took down the walls and the roof, but they didn’t take down the pads.”

WRPA purchased the property for $162,200 in April 2022.

dskolnick@vindy.com