NILES – By the time the work taking shape at the Eastwood Mall Complex is done, guests lodging at the Residence Inn will be able to walk the corridor stretching from the inside of the hotel to the mall without having to step outside.

“I think that’s one of the benefits, a nice feature, people staying at the hotel will like,” said Richard Shontz, Cafaro Co. project manager.

An added bonus for Cafaro Co. employees, along with the additional space, is the amount of natural light at the company’s new headquarters at the Eastwood Mall Complex in Niles, said Joe Bell, Cafaro spokesman.

“It has a really nice feel to it, open and light, a good working environment,” Bell said.

On Wednesday, Bell led news reporters on a tour of the new offices as crews from DeSalvo Construction in Hubbard worked to ready the three-story space for Cafaro’s approximately 200 employees to move the company’s operations from Youngstown to Niles next week.

Bell said everything is on track for the transition to begin on Tuesday.

“It’s exciting,” Bell said. “I think we’re all looking forward to being here in Niles, at the mall complex.”

The company’s new headquarters can be accessed near Dillard’s through the mall concourse, which also provides access to the 25,000-square-foot Eastwood Event Centre expected to open within the next two years, or from outside the building. Each entrance leads to the atrium, a large circular reception area.

Paul Mirage, project manager with B&B Contractors and Developers Inc. of Youngstown, said an element that sets the space apart from other buildings is the metal staircase that spirals down the center of the atrium from the top level to the first floor.

In October 2014, the company made official its plans to move its headquarters to the Eastwood Mall after operating at its Belmont Avenue location for nearly 50 years.

At the time, the company said it also would build a Hampton Inn & Suites hotel at the complex as part of its three-fold, $30 million construction project.

The hotel, scheduled to open later this year, is going up on the mall site previously occupied by the Eastwood Expo Center that was torn down.

The Cafaro Co. was founded in 1949 in Youngstown, and has maintained its corporate offices in that city throughout its history. The company has said that the decision to move was based on an evaluation of the company’s ongoing needs, the limitations of the current office design and plans for future growth.

The total value of the current phase of the multi-part project – office building, conference center and Hampton Inn & Suites – has been estimated to be at least $30 million.

Phillips/Sekanick Architects of Warren helped design the new offices. The space provides, among other features, conference rooms and collaboration areas; electronic touch screens used to determine whether an area is scheduled to be used for meetings or conferences; a private room for nursing mothers; and adjustable desks that allow employees to stand or sit as they work. Although Anthony Cafaro Sr. announced his retirement several years ago, handing the reigns over to his sons, Anthony Jr. and William, he will maintain an office at the new headquarters that leads to a balcony shared by Anthony Jr.’s office.

Bell said work will proceed on the Eastwood Event Centre once an operator is named. He said the site provides space for trade shows, exhibits, business conferences and social events such as weddings or other gatherings. It will contain movable walls to help with mixed uses, he added. Construction of the new enclosed hallway from the Residence Inn to the main mall is included in the first phase of the event center construction project, Shontz said. It will replace a temporary walkway hotel lodgers now use.

“But it doesn’t extend the entire way, so they have to leave the building, step outside for a few minutes to get to it,” he said. “With the new one, they don’t have to go outside at all.”

vshank@tribtoday.com