The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Fligner’s Market buys part of center
Purchase includes Building C at St. Joseph Community Center
A company affiliated with Fligner’s Market has purchased part of the St. Joseph Community Center.
Smoked Meats LLC, of 1824 Broadway, bought nine parcels that make up part of the former hospital complex.
The purchase includes Building C at the north end of the center at 1800 Livingston Ave., roughly across Livingston Avenue from Great Lakes Smoked Meats, 1824 Broadway, which the Fligner family started in 2009, and Fligner’s Market, 1854 Broadway.
Ben Fligner, the fourth-generation co-owner of the market, said he anticipates a “pretty substantial” investment to renovate the 23,000-squarefoot building.
It could be used to make a new product line that “goes hand-in-hand with what we’re doing,” Fligner said, although he declined to reveal more details.
If all goes well, the company could add 15 to 20 jobs there, he said.
“We’re taking advantage of a building that wasn’t going to have anything done with it,” Fligner said.
The Fligner family is excited to show others it is a good time to invest in central Lorain, he said.
“It’s a really nice building,” Fligner said. “We feel like Lorain’s coming back, and we want to continue to be a part of it.”
The project will start Aug. 30, he said.
The building sold for $70,000, according to records from the Lorain County Auditor’s Office.
Previously, the land and building were valued at more than $1.46 million, according to the auditor’s records.
The sale price was lower based on the market and the fact the St. Joe Center buildings have been vacant for a long time, said Jim Janasko, president of Janasko Insurance Agency Inc., 562 Broadway in Lorain.
Janasko last served as secretary-treasurer for the board of the South Shore Development Corp. and has agreed to oversee the property until it can be sold.
“Because of that, extensive renovations are needed,” he said. “That’s what drives down the price.
“It’s nice that the property is going to be utilized instead of sitting there as an eyesore.”
The South Shore Community Development Corp. still owns the main building and parking garage of the former hospital.
When he left office, former mayor Chase Ritenauer announced a possible deal in the works to develop senior housing at the site.
Janasko confirmed that possibility and said a deal still is pending.
In the past, when the St. Joseph Community Center first was developed, federal grants were used for renovations, Janasko said.
When that happened, the federal Department of Health and Human Services was added as a mortgagee, he said.
The people who worked on that deal are gone, Janasko said.
Mayor Joe Koziura and Ritenauer have been helpful in making contacts for the Department of Health and Human Services, he said.
“We’re trying to get clean title so we found those mortgages and are trying to get rid of those,” Janasko said.
He declined to say who the future developer could be because the deal is not yet final.
“We are still actively working on it,” Janasko said.