Reboot project focuses on the future of downtown Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN - A reboot plan is focusing on reshaping downtown Youngstown.
JobsOhio gave a $50,000 grant to initiate the plan. The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber is matching those funds. But results could still be years away.
Downtown business owners tell 21 News they are happy to hear they could be getting assistance from the project, but worry that without immediate assistance, help may arrive too late.
After the Reality Building explosion, and years of construction, valley stakeholders are looking at how to secure downtown Youngstown's future.
JobsOhio maintains that they don't give money directly to businesses like restaurants and hotels
Alexa Sweeney Blackann, Interim CEO of The Lake to River Economic Development,, said the grant will help start a long term plan.
“This funding is a project planning grant, and they are for small and medium sized communities that are looking for resources to help with that strategic planning process, so this was a perfect fit, and we were happy to advocate for it,” said Blackann.
The Economic Action Group is working on creating a two step plan. Step one focuses on planning.
“The very first step is talking to all of those downtown businesses, downtown stakeholders, all of those local government stakeholders that are downtown and identifying what those needs are,” said Daniel Bancroft, operations manager of the Economic Action Group.
Step two is the re-envision plan, which puts everything in action.
So how will this help these downtown businesses now? Guy Coviello, President and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber said the short term goal is to increase the traffic downtown. He mentioned focusing on parking and creating events.
But the project still mostly focuses on long term strategies.
“One of the things that we heard from the businesses and one of the things we heard from our downtown committee was they did not want to wait. So even though probably the bulk of this plan is long term strategies, there are immediate implementation steps we can take here,” said Coviello.
Planning is only expected to take a few months, but the plan could take three to four years to be fully implemented.
The downtown grant towards the Youngstown revitalization plan is the largest of its kind to have been awarded since JobsOhio launched the program in 2019.
