Owner of Realty Building: Demolition is ‘correct’ and ‘final’ decision

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Despite the efforts of the community to save the Realty Building in Youngstown after the explosion, the building’s owners said Wednesday afternoon that demolition is final.

In a statement released from Youngstown Property Management and YO Properties 47, they said they are moving forward with demolition plans in accordance with Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown’s July 5 deadline to address the many complexities of a safe demolition.

“Subsequently, restoration engineering firms will not be permitted to explore the site any further as we proceed with the arduous plans of demolition,” management stated.

They said they share the desire to save the Realty Tower but the decision is governed by experts and authorities.

“Demolition was a very hard decision but it is the correct decision and final decision,” the owner’s statement continued.

Councilman Julius Oliver said Tuesday that the Structural Systems Repair Group hired by city council would return Thursday with seismic GPS equipment if allowed entry by the building owner.

There have been plenty of opinions over the fate of the building , which lost much of the first floor and basement to a gas explosion that killed one man and hurt a half-dozen others.

Earlier Wednesday morning, some in the city were still talking about their efforts to save the building.

“The building can be saved. That it, structurally, can be deemed safe,” said Scott Schulick, chairman of the board for Youngstown CityScape.

Schulick and others, including newly sworn-in Congressman Michael Rulli, say they fully support taking every effort to save the structure.

“This is coming down to political will of the city, leaders coming together to do the right thing and right now, the only one that wants to seem to tear the building down is the owner,” Schulick said.

Rulli says he’s confident state and federal dollars would be available to make that happen.

Last Friday, Schulick urged all the parties involved to work toward saving the Realty Tower. After hearing the mayor, owner and managers endorse demolition, he issued a strongly-worded statement that he said was the truth:

The real villains in this process are the building owner, whose sole motivation is to take the insurance money and run with disregard for downtown, and city leadership lacking the fortitude to do the right thing. These individuals will have the long legacy as the destroyers of downtown’s future.

In the 24 hours since Mayor Brown announced that the fastest way to reopen the downtown area may be to demolish the Realty Building , some of its residents say the last four weeks have been similar to the grieving process.

“I think that everyone is going through their different stages of grief, whether that’s anger or disbelief, and some of us are getting to that point of acceptance and that information allows you to say, ‘OK, at this point, we need to accept that there is no hope for the building to continue to stand,'” Deanna Rossi said.

Residents are hoping to get at least one last chance to retrieve some of their possessions.

“Our hope is if there is a safe way for us to be able to salvage a memento of our past lives during the demolition, we’d love to have that,” Rossi said. “It’s all about the safety of our community. We don’t want to see anyone else hurt.”

The owners of the building said their chief priority, like Mayor Brown’s, is to reopen downtown.

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