Staff photo / R. Michael Semple With a constant spray of water to keep the dust down, workers from ProQuality Demolition of Youngstown started the demolition of the historic Reeves Building, 295 W. Market St., Warren, on Monday. ProQuality was awarded the contract May 14 after it bid $522,000 for the work.

WARREN — Demolition of the historic Reeves Building in the peninsula area of downtown began Monday despite a Poland company’s request to stop it while a lawsuit over the awarding of the contract is pending.

Workers from ProQuality Demolition of Youngstown were at the site at 295 W. Market St. and could be seen spraying water on the apartment complex to keep the dust down. ProQuality was awarded the contract May 14 after it bid $522,000 for the work.

However, Modarelli Excavating has filed a lawsuit over the contract, claiming it bid $387,000 for the demolition project April 29. The suit names Trumbull County Land Reutilization Corporation, Trumbull County Land Bank and Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership as defendants.

The demolition is being funded by a nearly $6.3 million state grant awarded to Trumbull County in September that will be used to eventually tear down 168 properties. The Ohio Department of Development announced the funding through its Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program.

Five counties were awarded a total of $33.1 million through the state program with Summit getting the largest allocation, $22,738,673. Trumbull received the second most money.

Of the 168 properties to be demolished in Trumbull County, 34 of them are in the city of Warren, TNP Executive Director Matt Martin said at the time.

To be eligible for the funding, a 25% local match was required.

Warren City Council agreed to provide that match for the properties in the city through its American Rescue Plan allocation while the county commissioners used ARP dollars for the rest of the sites in Trumbull, Martin said.

The demolition of the 98-year-old Reeves Building is a major part of the planned Peninsula Project, said Martin and Anthony Trevena, executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority, which purchased the property on the peninsula in March 2024 for $525,000.

“Reeves is the last building to be demolished on the peninsula to make it viable,” Martin said. “It’s the final piece of the puzzle.”

After the grant award was announced, Trevena said: “The Reeves Building is a significantly blighted structure that poses a danger to the community. It’s been deemed unsafe and uninhabitable. We can now clear the property for future development. We can put the property back into productive use. It’s been the city’s wish to get that building down so the peninsula can be developed.”

The application for the funding states Reeves, “a vacant commercial property located in our historic downtown, is both an eyesore and a health and safety risk. It represents the last remaining of a series of blighted commercial properties to be demolished by the Trumbull County Land Bank on the area known as the peninsula in downtown Warren. Over the last 10 years, downtown Warren has seen over $30 million invested jointly by public and private projects and recently the city of Warren was awarded $4.3 million from the state Appalachia grant to further our endeavors in the development along the peninsula specifically. The demolition of this building will complement these investments and will also play a significant role in clearing the way for a potential $140 million development along the peninsula.”

Before the grant funding was announced, Cindee Mines, a member of the Trumbull County Historical Society and other local societies, said in July 2024 that she submitted the six-story 1920s apartment building for consideration to the Ohio History Connection to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mines said at the time she had wanted to see something done to the building since 2015, and it should be fixed up and restored, not torn down.