YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s board of control is expected next week to award a contract for $277,900 to demolish the Parkway Tower, a former luxury eight-story apartment building on the North Side.

ProQuality Demolition of Youngstown submitted the apparent lowest proposal for the project from the 12 companies seeking the demolition job. The next lowest proposal was $281,049 from C&J Contractors of Cleveland.

The city opened the proposals Friday.

The highest proposal was $723,888. The engineer’s estimate for the work was $509,000 with six of the 12 proposals under that amount.

Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works, said he expects the board of control to approve the contract at its next meeting, Nov. 21.

The ProQuality bid is being reviewed with Shasho saying, “Unless they left something out of their bid, it’s not going to be an issue.”

The work includes asbestos abatement, demolition, backfill, seeding and mulching the property, and the disposal of hazardous waste. Each bidder included a $45,000 fee for the disposal costs.

The demolition work is the most expensive part of the job.

The abatement work should start in December and the demolition early next year, said Michael Durkin, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent.

The project should take about 60 days to complete.

“It’s been an eyesore there,” Durkin said. “It’s past its usable point. It’s collapsed twice. We can’t take any more chances.”

The money for this project, as well as $39,586 awarded Sept. 26 to MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown for design work, comes from the city’s American Rescue Plan funding.

City council allocated $3 million from its ARP fund to take down vacant structures in Youngstown. This will use the last of the ARP set-aside money for demolition.

Simcha Vashulem LLC, a property investment company based in Brooklyn, New York, purchased the 25,000-square-foot, 95-year-old structure at 291 Park Ave. in October 2007. The building is located across the street from Wick Park and is near Stambaugh Auditorium.

Simcha Vashulem had cellphone antennas and related equipment placed on top of the building and collected a rental fee for them of about $25,000 annually.

Simcha Vashulem hasn’t paid its property taxes in years and owes $33,166 to Mahoning County in delinquent taxes, according to the county auditor’s website.

County Treasurer Daniel R. Yemma’s office filed a foreclosure lawsuit April 3, 2023, against the company. Judge Anthony Donofrio of common pleas court on March 4 ruled that the treasurer’s office could foreclose on the property after Simcha Vashulem failed to respond to the lawsuit.

Also, Landmark Infrastructure Operating Co. of El Segundo, California, which leased Parkway Tower for cellphone antennas since 2017 sued Simcha Vashulem on May 6 for a breach of contract. After Simcha Vashulem failed to respond to the lawsuit, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of common pleas court ruled Sept. 4 in favor of Landmark.

The lawsuit said the lease could be broken because the building’s owner had neglected the structure and didn’t pay property taxes in violation of the agreement.

Landmark is relocating its cellphone antennas to another building shortly, Durkin said.

Attempts to reach officials with Simcha Vashulem on Monday were unsuccessful.

City officials said company officials haven’t responded to them for years to repair the building.

The city has issued property code violations on Parkway Tower for the past eight years.

Part of the building’s upper facade fell off the building in March 2023. Fire Chief Barry Finley ordered a fence around the building after that and has since declared an emergency demolition for the structure.

Parkway Tower, built in 1929, used to be a high-end apartment complex with 38 units.

It hasn’t been used for anything but cellphone antennas in at least 20 years.