When driving down Fifth Avenue, it is hard to miss Parkway Towers, the now-abandoned eight story apartment building that was once one of Youngstown's most elegant residential buildings. I recently had a chance to photograph the exterior of this 1929 apartment complex which prompted me to do some research to learn more about the history of this mysterious building and what steps could be taken in order to restore the structure to its former glory. PAST When the Parkway Towers were first opened in the late 1920's, the property served as Youngstown's model high-income apartment complex. Unlike previous multi-family residential units, Parkways Towers catered to the city's wealthy residents who preferred not to own a single-family home. The building is located directly across the street from Wick Park, which was the centerpiece of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods during the early twentieth century. Residents enjoyed their close proximity to the park, Stambaugh Auditorium, Youngstown State University, and the many stately mansions along Fifth Avenue. Parkway Towers contained 44 luxury apartment units which ranged in size from one to two bedrooms each. Furthermore, the building distinguished itself from other residential buildings of the time by having a steel frame. Due to this, the building was even dubbed as Youngstown's "first modern fire-proof apartments." Parkway Towers' luxury amenities did not end there. Residents and visitors entering the building would be greeted by a well-dressed doorman which added to the property's prestige. After walking through the front doors, they would find a small convenience store on the first floor which sold various necessities to the building's elite residents. An electric elevator operated at the end of the hall and allowed tenants to travel to their apartment units with ease. Another feature residents enjoyed was the oak wood-plank flooring found within each unit. Due to its luxury appeal, Parkway Towers was home to many prominent Youngstowners over the years such as world-famous filmmaker Jack Warner. Unfortunately, like so many other historically significant structures in Youngstown, Parkway Towers has been abandoned and left to rot over the past few decades. As white flight took its toll on the City of Youngstown, Wick Park's wealthy residents slowly began to filter out into the newly prosperous suburbs of Boardman, Canfield, Liberty, and Poland. As a result, Parkway Towers could no longer operate under its original luxury apartment model. In the coming decades, Parkway Towers was run by various property management companies. The building slowly transitioned from luxury apartments to middle class apartments and finally to poorly managed low-income apartments. Parkway Towers was still mostly occupied until the dawn of the twenty-first century. For incredibly cheap prices, residents could rent out a grand and spacious apartment unit on the upper floors that had incredible views of Wick Park and Downtown. However, the pros of renting a unit here during the 1990's were vastly outweighed by the cons. The building was operated by a management firm that could best be described as "slumlords." The entire property was severely outdated and had not received nearly any updates since the 1950's. This left most units and common spaces within the tower to crumble. Furthermore, the decline and neglect of the building led to even cheaper rent prices which unfortunately attracted some problematic renters. Eventually, the building became too unsafe to live in and too unprofitable to renovate which led to its abandonment in the 2000's. PRESENT Today, Parkway Towers is owned and operated by Simcha Vashulem LLC, a New York City based investment firm. The company has left the historic structure to rot and have shown little to no interest in maintaining it. Currently, the building is being operated as a makeshift cell tower. If you look at the top of the building, you will notice an array of antennas which make the building even more of an eyesore. Simcha Vashulem LLC is doing the bare minimum to keep the building maintained in order to profit off of it as a cell tower. In other words, they are only making sure it does not collapse. When I posted a photo of Parkway Towers on the Youngstown Subreddit, I was shocked to see how many individuals have had personal experiences with this building. In particular, a user that goes by the screen-name "Iwannawearyourskin" shared a story about his work on the building over the past six years and the current state of the interior. According to him, there is severe roof damage which has led to intense water leaks into the interior. He went on to describe an experience he had inside the building during a thunderstorm; "My coworker and I made it inside the building to witness water pouring like a waterfall from the roof through the top apartment ceiling , that wood floor is water damaged and the water pours into the next apartment and makes its way into the elevator shaft. When you get to the basement the water floods the shaft and the boiler room." He believes that there is "nothing left of value" inside the building; the damage is simply too extensive. To make matters worse, the investment firm owes thousands of dollars in back taxes to the City of Youngstown. Believe it or not, tax evasion from out of state "investors" is a huge problem all over the city which often goes unchecked. However, it usually occurs with single family homes, not an eight story apartment tower. Therefore, Parkway Towers' situation has drawn unique attention from both the city and community improvement organizations. FUTURE Fortunately, the City of Youngstown has recently established a team dedicated to fighting blight. The team will be based out of Youngstown Law Director Jeff Limbian's office and will assign an attorney to work on taking back various blighted properties from incompetent owners. When asked to comment on the new program for a WYTV report, Limbian stated; "We are going to try to work with people to remedy blighted commercial properties. If they don’t do it then we are going to work in eminent domain issues, assessing tax statements and ultimately see if we can have those become city properties." Predictably, one of the main properties this new anti-blight effort is targeting is Parkway Towers. But even if the City manages to reclaim this historic structure, what could it even be used for? Though the Wick Park neighborhood is constantly improving, it is still unlikely that there is much of a demand for 44 luxury apartment units today. One intriguing idea for Parkway Towers that has floated around in recent years is to turn it into a boutique hotel. Though the location may seem a bit undesirable for a hotel at first, once you think about it more, it becomes apparent that such a plan could actually work. Parkway Towers is only one block away from the highway (Madison Avenue Expressway), two blocks from Stambaugh Stadium, three blocks from Youngstown State University, and directly across the street from the spacious Wick Park and elegant Stambaugh Auditorium. Obviously, the hotel route is one of the most ambitious ideas for Parkway Towers, but if the right investor came along, it could work. A more realistic approach would be to find a way to incorporate it into Youngstown State University. The university already has many of its residence halls in the Wick Park neighborhood such as the Cafaro and Lyden Houses. In addition to these halls, there is a privately owned student apartment complex (Flats at Wick) and hundreds of students live in various rental properties around the neighborhood. With the recent announcement of the university's new Cafaro Field along Madison Avenue, it is clear that YSU is interested in expanding into the Wick Park area. Parkway Towers could be utilized by them in a variety of ways. One possibility would be to convert it into a residence hall. The units inside Parkway Tower are larger than the average college dorm, but they could either be subdivided or made into large premium dorms for students who prefer apartment-style living. It's hard to tell exactly what the future has in store for this historic gem of Youngstown. It could either be renovated or continue to decay until it is demolished. But one thing is for sure; Youngstown has already lost enough of it's historically significant structures to blights over the past several decades. It's time to rally together as a community to stop the neglect of Parkway Towers and the countless other buildings just like it. That is the only way in which we will be able to see the renaissance of Parkway Towers and to witness Youngstown's blight problem finally begin to improve.
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