Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown speaks during a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the Covelli Centre in downtown Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mayor Jamael Tito Brown told reporters Tuesday he is not willing to entertain “what ifs” regarding whether the Realty Tower can be saved from demolition. He wants the owners of the building to take steps to fix or demolish the building by July 5 or the city will take legal action.

The actions he seeks are discussed in a June 5 adjudication order from Jeff Urseva of the Mahoning County Building Department. It orders the building’s owners to apply for a building permit to rebuild, stabilize or demolish affected areas of the structure.

He said the reason he is focused on the July 5 deadline is that YO Properties 47, owner of the building, and its insurance companyare bickering and not taking any of the steps they should be taking.

“We are being held hostage because the insurance company, Cincinnati Insurance, and YO Properties 47 are bickering about a bottom line, a cost,” Brown said. “The citizens of Youngstown deserve better.”

The building on East Federal Street downtown sustained devastating damage in a May 28 explosion in the basement and first floor areas, destroying much of the first floor, which was a Chase Bank branch. One worker was killed, and six other Chase employees were injured.

The mayor said several engineering studies of the building indicate it can be saved from demolition, but that is where the “what ifs” come in.

Those engineering reports “say sure you can stay in the building, but the reality is that’s too long-term. That’s too far down the road and too costly. Nobody can give you the cost,” he told reporters at a press conference at the Covelli Centre.

“We are not going to continue to stand around and wait for these two entities to figure it out,” he said. “Our job is to continue to keep it safe downtown.”

He said his focus is on three things — the safety of downtown, the 173 residents who were evacuated from the International Towers next door to the Realty Tower and getting the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel on the other side of East Federal Street from the Realty Tower back open.

The Realty Tower and the Stambaugh Building that houses the DoubleTree hotel have been closed since the explosion.

International Towers residents returned to the building the night of the explosion, but an engineering report paid for by the city said the Realty Tower was in imminent danger of collapsing, and the city gave its residents several days to relocate with help from the American Red Cross and their allied organizations. The last residents left June 14.

As for saving the Realty Tower from demolition, the mayor said “At the end of the day, it’s up to the owner and their insurance company.” He added, “Do I want a historic building downtown demolished? No. Do I look at that building as the epicenter, the face of your downtown? Yes, but the reality is we can’t do the what ifs. What if we bought the building for this number? What if this happened? What if that happened?”

The one “what if” he does want to focus on is “What if we can get these people back into their residence in a timely manner to get back to some normalcy in their life? That’s the main focus. What if we can get people downtown again for the economy to make sure people feel safe no matter where they are in the downtown?”

Saving the Realty Tower could be explored “if we had an opportunity where this building didn’t affect the economy, didn’t affect 173 residents, did not affect anyone else,” he said.

“But right now the reality is we have to get our downtown and our residents back downtown. At this point, demolition seems like the only clear, precise way to do that.”

The Mahoning County Building Department issued an adjudication order for the building June 5, giving the building owners 30 days — until July 5 — to apply for a building permit to rebuild, stabilize or demolish affected areas of the structure.

Once the building permit is approved, the owner must obtain all required inspections for a Certificate of Occupancy to reoccupy the structure, according to the adjudication order.

If the owner fails to act in accordance with the order or appeal the order, the chief building official, Jeff Ureseva, “shall take the necessary steps” to turn the violation over to the prosecutor “for prosecution of the owner for violation of the State of Ohio Administrative Code and Ohio Revised Code,” the order states.

At earlier press conferences regarding the Realty explosion, the mayor was joined at the microphone by fire Chief Barry Finley and Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works, but Brown spoke and answered questions alone Tuesday. He did consult with both men during the press conference.

When asked how long it would take to demolish the Realty Tower, he said different contractors have said different amounts of time. One said three weeks. He said there was discussion of removing the top floors of the building and leaving the bottom four floors, which would allow the city to “start opening the streets” and downgrade to a “construction zone” instead of a “collapse zone” of 210 feet from the radius of the Realty Tower.

Brown did not specifically discuss the most recent structural-engineering evaluation by the Cincinnati-based firm Structural Systems Repair Group, which Councilman Julius Oliver said showed that the Realty Tower could be “easily” stabilized. The mayor only said all of the reports indicate that the building could be saved from demolition but not “in reality.”

Cleveland-based structural engineering firm Barber & Hoffman was the company that said the building was in imminent danger of collapse.

The building’s owners said June 16 that they planned to demolish the building after they met with several engineers who expressed significant concerns regarding the ability to safely stabilize the building.

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