YOUNGSTOWN — With a $100,000 study underway to help the city’s downtown recover from a number of issues, Youngstown secured another $100,000 to start implementing the plan when it is finished.

It was nearly five years ago that the COVID-19 pandemic closed down much of Ohio. After that, downtown underwent extensive street improvements that closed vehicular access to businesses. Then a May 28 gas explosion at the former Realty Tower and its subsequent demolition caused additional accessibility problems for downtown businesses.

“The whole downtown vibe was a lot of low morale” because of the issues, said Stephanie Gilchrist, the city’s economic development director. “All of that impacted our downtown businesses and because of that, a lot of people reached out to see how they could help because they want to see our downtown succeed. We’ve come so far in the past 20 years.”

In an effort to reboot downtown, JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development corporation, and the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber Foundation in November each provided $50,000 for a downtown revitalization effort.

The JobsOhio grant was the largest awarded by it for downtown revitalization.

The city selected the Economic Action Group to conduct the study, which began in December, Gilchrist said.

“Right now, they’re doing a lot of listening to local businesses and stakeholders to get an idea of what they want to see happen, create a plan around that, and then we’ll come together to make things happen,” Gilchrist said.

The problem is what to do with the plan once it is finished, she said.

“We do a lot of plans, and then there’s no money to pay for action after we get a great plan,” she said.

Enter the Youngstown Foundation, which provided a $100,000 grant to the city to support downtown business recovery.

“EAG is going to work with the city’s economic development (department) to come up with how these dollars are going to be used,” said city Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

The Youngstown Foundation grant will be used for downtown events and improved signage, among other uses, Gilchrist said.

“We are unable to give the exact events at this time because we’re still working on the plan,” she said.

The study should be finished around May, Gilchrist said.

POSSIBLE USES

Possible uses for the funding are events similar to The Open. The Oct. 19 event included numerous bands performing with all food and beverages sold by downtown businesses.

“With The Open, a lot of businesses were ecstatic because they hadn’t seen revenue numbers like that in a long time,” Gilchrist said. “We want to continue that momentum and keep people coming downtown. If you come downtown, you have to travel through the city, and we’ll be able to support other parts of the city too.”

The city installed new wayfinding signs about six years ago.

But Gilchrist said, “We need bigger and better wayfinding to help people find parking. We’re trying to make it easier for folks to come downtown and enjoy themselves and support businesses.”

The $100,000 from the Youngstown Foundation, Gilchrist said, “is a great start. How far it will take us, I don’t know. We know we at least have something to kick off efforts and hopefully other sponsors will participate.”

EAG will help the city determine how to spend the $100,000 grant from the Youngstown Foundation to enhance downtown, Gilchrist said.

While the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many, businesses in the city’s downtown had further trouble recovering because of a $28.5 million improvement project to several main downtown streets that followed. As the work was ongoing, streets were closed for many months, adversely impacting downtown businesses.

While that was getting close to being finished, a May 28 gas explosion at the downtown Realty Tower occurred, killing one and injuring nine. It also severely damaged Realty, one of the main buildings in the heart of downtown and led to its demolition. Also, because of the Realty explosion, the nearby Stambaugh Building – which houses the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel – and International Towers – where about 170 residents live – were evacuated and empty for nearly three months.

The Realty Tower demolition, which forced the closure of downtown streets near the site, finished Sept. 25. It wasn’t until street improvement work was done in December before all roads near the site were reopened.