Amphitheatre plan for Youngstown is unveiled
Ground is being moved in Downtown Youngstown to make way for a new amphitheater. MKS out of Columbus is the design consultant and landscape architect hired to create the city's vision for the project.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Ground is being moved in Downtown Youngstown to make way for a new amphitheater.
MKSK out of Columbus is the design consultant and landscape architect hired to create the city's vision for the project.
A meeting was held where the design consultants laid out their three phase plan.
The first phase of the plan would be to create an amphitheater design with more than 3200 seats on the old Wean United Site near the Market Street bridge in downtown Youngstown.
It would include a restroom facility, an expanded concessions area, a V.I.P. building, a ticket box, terraced seating and an expanded canopy.
Future phases of the amphitheater project would include a possible water park facility, a water feature, a dog park, what would be called Riverfront Park, a children's garden and play area, a community garden space, an athletics area to include basketball and bocci courts.
It could also include a river overlook deck, a trail, a re-purposed area under the Market Street bridge and event spaces for community festivals.
"I think it transforms the entire city," said Brian Kinzelman with MKSK. "It happens to be in the downtown and it works very well for downtown residents and workers but it's also everybody's backyard. People from all over Youngstown and the region can find themselves coming here to go to events in the amphitheater, to play in the interactive fountain, the children's play area, the community garden, sporting events that might happen, court games, neighborhood activities, Fourth of July fireworks, whatever the community has need for good, sound civic open space for, we can provide it here," he said.
Mayor John McNally says the whole idea is to create an appealing front door of sorts to the downtown area, since the project will be located near the Market Street bridge, a major thoroughfare to the city.
This will be transformational for Youngstown Mayor McNally says, "We also want to link it up with the Covelli Centre by including a promenade or what would be a 10 to 15 foot walkway or pathway from the amphitheater site over to the Covelli Centre that way it will allow us over time to move some of our smaller street festivals and smaller civic events that may tie up downtown Youngstown."
Finance Director Dave Bozanich says, "We think this is going to have just as strong of an impact as the Covelli Centre."
The Board of Control for the city has already approved hiring a consultant to help design a sewer line for the property. That's likely to be a $5-million project.
The cost of the amphitheater itself could cost around $6-million dollars.
Mayor McNally says some people are really ambitious and are pushing for the first phase to be built by July 4th of 2017.
