YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - City officials celebrated the reconstruction of Fifth Avenue and the completion of phase one of Youngstown's Smart2 Corridor Project, with a ribbon cutting.

One of the city's goals is to polish downtown Youngstown and make it more livable. Research was conducted on beautifying the area to make that happen.

"When Dr. Sweet was here, I brought back a million and a half dollars to do a study on how we re-do the campus," said U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan. "That was probably 15 years ago, shows you how long some of this stuff takes, and then slowly but surely we keep building it out and then when we landed this grant for 10 million of a 20 million dollar project, you know, shovels went into the ground and now you're starting to see it," he said.

With phase one wrapping up, phase two is already well underway with construction on Phelps Street, as well as construction on Commerce, Front and Federal Streets and Rayen and Park Avenues.

"You'll see updates on streets, you'll see road diets and that's just where you kind of take a larger street and make it smaller," said Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown. "But you make boulevards where you'll see more aesthetics, better street lighting, greenery. So you'll see a lot of those pieces that are happening that'll be coming together in downtown now," he said.

This project is to attract more students to Youngstown State University, as well as tech workers to the city and global investments.

Though the project is not fully complete, city leaders tell 21 News they're excited about their progress thus far and the progress that is to come.