Owner of Realty building sounds off

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — The Valley’s new member of Congress is now weighing in on the future of the explosion-damaged Realty Building in Youngstown while property management issued a statement Friday condemning any further discussion of saving the building.

Rep. Michael Rulli, 6th District, joined others in the community who criticize how the owners have been handling the situation and believe there should be a concerted effort to save the Realty Building — to which the owners, Live Youngstown Property Management and YO 47 LLC, responded Friday afternoon.

In the concluding statement of the three-page response, they wrote:

We are not interested in engaging in political rhetoric, suppositions, or impulsive ideas, but will no longer allow feckless commentary, reckless suggestions, and insulting statements to be circulated unconfronted. Our core mission is providing the solace of solution to the actual stakeholders of this situation; the people directly impacted by this tragic event, our residents, our neighbors, our employees and tenants.

Live Youngstown Property Management and YO 47, LLC

Their response came after many community members had spoken out on the issue.

“I would hope that the mayor would slow this down, and let’s secure the building immediately,” Rulli said.

But that goes against statements from the building’s owner this week that they intend to demolish it.

They’re looking for the easy way out,” Rulli said. “This is not good for the benefit of the order of the people of Youngstown.”

Rulli and others argue the structure has to be stabilized before any other work can be done.

Last week, local architect Paul Hagman inspected the damage with experts from the Cincinnati engineering firm SSRG.

“And the team was able to get right up to the building to make some initial observations,” Hagman said.

The results gave those wanting to save the building hope .

“The team was very positive about the potential to create a solution here,” Hagman said. “They could stabilize the building with the public safety in mind.”

However, owners have refused to let the team back in since then, a move Hagman calls “shocking” and “disappointing.” For his part, Rulli argues money to stabilize the building could be obtained quickly from Columbus and Washington, and the city could put up some of its unspent ARPA funding.

“The property owner must allow us to use all resources to see that this building is actually salvageable,” Rulli said.

But at this point, owners haven’t given any signs they’re willing to change their minds. They discussed their company’s legacy, their engineer’s report, “special interest groups” and the investigation in their statement below.

“I mean they’ll forever be known as the people that helped to destroy the future of downtown Youngstown; that’s what this is about,” Scott Shulick, of Youngstown said. “So if that’s the reputation they wanna have, so be it.”

Owners have until next Friday to submit their plans to the county Building Department.

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