YOUNGSTOWN — A $1.5 million study will determine the location, size, cost and much of the design of a proposed city safety campus initially discussed almost two years ago.

One highly likely feature is the proposed building will cost less than the $45 million projected in an initial preliminary study by Strollo Architects and made public in December 2023. Strollo is also doing the $1.5 million study.

The city is using American Rescue Plan funds to pay for this latest study.

In the first proposal, the city administration requested city council spend up to $15 million in ARP funds for a $45 million, 138,000-square-foot safety building.

The initial proposed safety campus — a combined police department and main fire station — was to be on Wick Avenue on the North Side on city-owned property at what was known as the Wick Six site, a group of new car dealerships that left in the 1980s and early 1990s as the area deteriorated.

“I’m expecting the final product will be smaller than” the original proposal, said Gregg Strollo, principal and president of Strollo Architects in Youngstown. “It will be up to us and the city to take sort of a belt-tightening approach to this.”

The only ARP funds for the project is for the study, said Mayor Jamael Tito Brown.

That came after city council members refused to spend $3 million on a study — agreeing in March to pay $1.5 million for it — and to allocate ARP funds for the construction. Council members were concerned about the cost and the location.

After the negative feedback from council, Brown said the cost could be reduced to $20 million.

The cost and the location will be determined by the study, Brown said, and the structure may only be for the police department.

Strollo is “looking at sites; we’ll do site evaluations and options,” Brown said. “We have to determine the size and the specs of the building. Are we looking for a large building or are there ways to reduce it? We look at a certain price, and what is the price per square foot. We know our police department needs an upgrade. It’s a matter of where and how much and when I say, ‘how much,’ it’s not just the cost, but how much is the square footage as we work on this.”

Without ARP funding, the city will seek federal and state grants and likely borrow money to pay for construction, Brown said.

ARP “wasn’t going to pay for the entire campus,” Brown said. “It was probably going to be a kickoff to get it started. This study is going to help us establish the project so we can find that federal and state money.”

Brown said the city is “committed to a new police station. If a safety campus works, we’ll work on that as well.”

Strollo said of it being solely a police station, “There is a chance of that too; no question. I have no doubt that throughout this process we are going to have a brass ring and that brass ring is going to be a dollar sign, and we’re going to have to design for that.”

The board of control hired Strollo Architects in February 2023 through two $24,000 contracts to do predesign, site planning and budget projections to construct the building on Wick Avenue for the police department and main fire station, which are both located downtown.

That preliminary study, discussed publicly in December 2023, is a year old.

Strollo said: “Things change. We’ll verify all of those prior assumptions and meet with each department (and their top leaders) to determine if our initial programming remains valid. Part of our charge is to see if we can make it any smaller. Size and dollars have a direct relationship so if we can reduce the square footage, it will be a benefit to the budget. We’re going to do that as long as we can maintain the integrity of the program and the operational needs of each department.”

That will happen concurrent to site selection, Strollo said.

The “site is not yet determined” even though the city administration prefers that it be at the former Wick Six location, Strollo said.

“There are other sites that deserve to get looked at very thoroughly,” he said. “If one of them pops up as being better, then it should be the site. I’ve heard of three or four sites, and we’re not afraid to look at them.”

The city purchased much of the 12 acres on Wick Avenue in 2015 and spent at least $750,000, most of it from grants, to clean up the area for development.

There will be kickoff meetings in January, and it will take nine months to pick a site and size of the building along with about 60% of the design work done, Strollo said.

“It’s certainly enough for them to get an idea of what the financial impact will be,” he said.

If the city moves forward, architectural designs for competitive bidding would then occur, Strollo said.

“After our work under this phase is done, it would be probably another four months to be ready for construction so it would be ready for the spring of 2026,” he said.

Construction is likely to take 14 to 18 months, Strollo said.