Staff photos / R. Michael Semple As Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, left, speaks, construction continues on Phase 2 of the Bernard Street revitalization project. Tiffany Sokol, center, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. housing director, holds a photograph of Bernard Street before Phase 1 of the revitalization project began. They were among many who attended a groundbreaking for the project Wednesday.

YOUNGSTOWN — What was recently a desolate, debris-strewn, deserted and neglected two-block street closed to traffic now represents what city leaders and many other stakeholders hope will be symbolic of the city’s continued regrowth and rebirth.

“I’m never getting tired of this — never, never,” Deb Flora, the Mahoning County Land Bank’s executive director, said. “This is the result of tenacity, the spirit of collaboration and hope.”

Flora was referring to the completion of the first phase and start of the second phase of the Bernard Street revitalization project, for which an outdoor news conference and groundbreaking ceremony took place Wednesday morning on the South Side road (recently renamed Cliff View Street) off Glenwood Avenue on the South Side.

The land bank, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and other project partners gathered to celebrate the completion of three homes on Cliff View Avenue and the start of three more to be constructed, all of which will be on the same side and have an elevated, bird’s-eye view of downtown Youngstown and beyond.

The initial phase included assembling the property on the street, along with clearing more than 500 cubic yards of debris; installing new curbs and sidewalks, as well as street paving, and other infrastructure; finishing home repairs for existing property owners; building, then selling, the three finished residences and preparing lots for the three new homes about to be built.

The project, estimated at $2 million, is similar to the ongoing construction of six homes on Mineral Springs Avenue, also off Glenwood Avenue and flanking Mill Creek Park. Those residences should be ready in a few months, Ian Beniston, YNDC’s executive director, said.

The three, two-story residences on Cliff View Avenue are occupied and cost between $195,000 and $200,000 each, Beniston noted. He added that the other three homes about to be under construction should be finished by July.

Much of the funding is courtesy of the city of Youngstown, including the HOME Investment Partnership and 1st Ward American Rescue Plan dollars. In addition, PNC Bank and Premier Bank provided construction financing for the project’s first and second phases, respectively, Beniston said, adding that the revitalization also will benefit the Glenwood Avenue corridor and the entire city.

To prepare for the work, the Youngstown Property Code Enforcement & Demolition Department razed several blighted structures, including a four-plex apartment building and a few derelict houses. In addition, Green Youngstown assisted in cleaning discarded debris that had been dumped on some of the land. Beniston added that the street had been closed for a few years, after no one lived there.

Also, breathing new life into sections of the South Side “proves that nothing in Youngstown is dead and can’t be brought back,” Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, said.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused considerable harm and disruption to many people, but in one sense, it also provided a blessing, via making possible the ARP money that went into the project, he added.

The work on Cliff View Avenue is invaluable also because it can serve as a template for others to see what is going on in Youngstown through “new eyes,” while encouraging more residents to care for their properties and do their parts for the city’s betterment, he continued.

Echoing Oliver’s perspective was Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, who said the project’s precursors were the triad of “plan, develop and execute,” and that the work serves as another shining example of efforts to improve the city.

It also highlights ways city leaders are doing what is needed to move Youngstown forward for the next generation, Brown added.

The county land bank acquired then assembled the vacant lots. Other partners are Joe Koch Construction Inc. of Youngstown, the builder for both of the project’s phases, along with the Raymond J. Wean Foundation, the city of Youngstown and the Glenwood Neighbors Business Association, all of which provided additional support.