The impact of the Realty Building explosion and subsequent demolition has been immeasurable, especially for those who live and work in the area.

It's not the first hurdle downtown restaurants and businesses have had to deal with over the past few years. Youngstown Director of economic development, Stephanie Gilchrist tells 21 News the city's in rough shape.

"They've dealt with construction, COVID, construction and then the explosion," Gilchrist said. "So they have had some really hard times when it comes to getting folks and patrons to come downtown and support their businesses," she said.

The explosion also led to the cancellation of the Y Live concert. It's an event that brings thousands downtown each year and really helps the local businesses in the process. Gilchrist said downtown's economy took a hit as a result of that and there are concerns over loss of revenue.

"That's when a lot of the business owners really just kind of...you could see their hearts break," Gilchrist said. "It was like we were looking forward to it because this is like one event that will bring us a good amount of customers and revenue," she said.

The city is urging business owners not to give up, saying help is on the way and that they're planning a relaunch celebration in October as a way to celebrate the completion of the demolition process and the end of road construction along Federal Street.

"We are working on right now fund raising so that we can do another application, grant application, to open up to everyone downtown so that they can have some assistance in addition to creating plans to make them sustainable," Gilchrist said.

Gilchrist tells 21 News that this time, it'll be more than $200,000 like the city gave during the first round of relief.