COMMUNITY, RETAIL, FINANCIAL SERVICES
PROGRESS II — SECTION A
MONDAY, FEB. 8, 2016
Please Drink Responsibly
740-598-4121
2680 Commercial Ave., Mingo Jct., OH
The Inn at Franciscan Square
Contributed
The main entrance to Franciscan Square will be across the street from the main entrance to Franciscan University.
New hotel, other hospitality services to transform University Boulevard corridor
A drive along University Boulevard in Steubenville reveals a transformation under way. By late summer it will significantly alter the first impression the city makes upon visitors and longtime residents. What had been 13 acres of unused land and mostly shuttered buildings along the former Green Strip, today is being turned into the first large-scale commercial complex Steubenville has seen in more than 20 years. Christened “Franciscan Square,” the hospitality complex will feature a new hotel flanked by two restaurants and a community green space, with the potential for phasedin construction of multi-use buildings that will cater to office and retail establishments. Evan Scurti, executive director of economic development with the Jefferson Coun-
ty Port Authority, sees Franciscan Square as a building block to large-scale job creation. “The new hotel and the retail and office options in the later phases of Franciscan Square are seen as pluses by large industrial companies. They want to have access to those services. They see them as signs of progress in a community, so this development builds up the whole economy.” Scurti calls the new enterprise “an important factor in the long-range viability” of Steubenville and surrounding communities.
Phase I—A New Hotel Construction on Franciscan Square commenced with the May 6, groundbreaking ceremony. With as many as 40 construction workers from various building trades on the job site on a typical day,
Phase I of the undertaking — the construction of the new hotel—is well under way. The first priority was to provide a solid foundation to support the new buildings, and so 18,000 cubic yards of soil were transported to the site, raising the ground as much as 8 feet in some areas. After the foundation for the hotel was poured, work began on the shafts for the stairwells and elevators, which were the first visible vertical structures. Flanking the hotel, pads are being readied with electrical, water and gas lines and other infrastructure necessary to support the restaurants. Posi-
tive discussions continue with a developer for this phase of the project. A massive retaining wall was built to hold back the hillside. The 17,600-square-foot minor marvel of engineering is a soil-nail type retaining wall. It is anchored by strategically engineered holes drilled into the hillside, some as deep as 50 feet. Each hole then was filled with a reinforcing bar and grout and further supported by the structural concrete facing. See SQUARE Page 2A ➪