Ground Broken for Enclave Housing Complex at YSU

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – At Friday’s ceremony marking the start of construction on Youngstown State University’s newest student housing complex, Jim Tressel confessed dissatisfaction.

“Full disclosure, I’m a little bit disappointed it’s not done,” he said as contractors, just yards away, continued to prepare the site at the intersection of Wick and Lincoln avenues.

“But I’ll give you another six months,” he joked.

LRC Realty Inc. and its subsidiary, Youngstown Campus Associates, have targeted an August 2018 completion date — in time for the start of next year’s fall semester — for completion of The Enclave, which will offer 194 student beds and 11,000 square feet of retail space.

“It’s surreal, it’s humbling and it’s a real honor and a privilege to work with President Tressel and Youngstown State to create a project here that will continue to transform the landscape of our campus,” said Frank Licata, president and CEO of LCR Realty, and a 1999 YSU graduate.

The business case for the project had a lot to do with the university’s trajectory and the path it’s on under Tressel, “which shows a lot of opportunity” with potential growth of the student body, Licata said, and activity in downtown Youngstown.

“We believe that the university and downtown work together and we wanted to create a project that connected the university with downtown,” he said.