Enclave Student Apartments Opens:
The Enclave Student Apartments has recently opened and students have moved in for the fall semester! The MercyHealth Student Health Center portion of the development is still not complete. I believe there is still a possibility for retail space along Lincoln Avenue, but I'm not sure.
Here are some photos of the completed building from their Instagram page:
New $1.5 Million YSU Intramural Sports Complex:
The Cafaro Family has donated $1.5 million to Youngstown State University to build a new intramural sports complex on the north side of the campus. It will be located on the corner of Madison Avenue and Bryson Street in the Wick Park neighborhood. It is located in the parking lot behind the Flats at Wick Apartments and across the street from Ursuline High School. (
Street View Link) The "Cafaro Family Field" will consist of a large sports field for lacrosse, soccer, rugby, and football. It will help serve YSU's eight intramural sports leagues. It'll be nice to see YSU continue to spread into Wick Park - it's a neighborhood with a lot of potential and a big student population, but it is very underutilized. Luckily, some businesses are beginning to move in on the neighborhood's business district (I'll cover this later in this post) so hopefully Wick Park is on the upswing finally.
A rendering of Cafaro Family Field:
New Businesses Coming to Wick Park's Elm Street Business District:
Wick Park Historic District was once the city's first "millionaire row" but is now a shell of what it once was. The neighborhood has experienced heavy blight which has led to the loss of countless historic houses and mansions. Sadly most of the remaining ones are in bad shape and run by slumlords. The neighborhood should be ripe for gentrification due to it being home to so many university students and its beautiful old houses surrounding a park - but no one has really gotten the ball rolling on the neighborhood yet. That being said, it's been gradually improving each year despite the continued loss of historic homes.
Elm Street's 800 and 900 block serves as the neighborhood's business district. Thanks to some recent investment, this struggling yet quaint business district has begun to pick up some momentum. This is mostly thanks to Commonwealth Kitchen Incubator who took over a building in the neighborhood a few years ago. They began buying up other buildings and have been gradually renovating them. A popular business on the road is "Cultivate Co-Op Cafe" which is known for its unique menu and locally sourced foods.
A new coffee shop is coming to
818 Elm Street soon - Culturehouse Coffee Roasters. They have been in business for a while now, but this will be their first brick and mortar store. I'm really excited for this and I think it will help out the neighborhood a lot. YSU has a lot of student housing right next to Elm Street, but students rarely venture up into Elm Street - hopefully new businesses like this will gradually change that! They should open sometime this fall.
The future home of Culturehouse Coffee Roasters:
Unfortunately, Dorian Books, a popular business on Elm Street, is closing soon. The good news is that the owners of the building are going to put it to good use. The building will be transformed into a 100 seat singer's cabaret and event center, building on the success of their past Music on Madison events.
The Shagrin Building, which houses Dorian Books:
Elsewhere in Wick Park, a few houses are being bought up by Housing Authority and are being fixed up and subdivided into apartments for homeless veterans. It won't just be a shelter - the plan is to eventually have them transition into leasing the apartments permanently after completing job training programs and securing a steady income. I'm glad that they are going to use some of these vacant houses which would have been torn down otherwise.
One of the houses they will renovate (This is an older photo, it's been boarded up in recent years):
