Warren City Council has committed up to $2 million to a proposed downtown boutique hotel.

But it took several steps to get there.

Council worked through those steps during a special meeting held on Monday night.

At issue is a proposal to convert the second floor of the former Loranger building and the current site of, among other entities, Allegheny Outfitters and Bent Run Brewing, into a boutique hotel. The state Keystone Communities program awarded $250,000 to HIY, Inc., the building’s owner, earlier this month.

Council first discontinued a state Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program sub-grantee agreement with HIY, Inc.

The next step was entering into an agreement with the Northwest Commission for $1.5 million in RACP funds that had been awarded to the WCCBI for a project – relocating Truck-Lite’s headquarters here – that didn’t come to fruition.

WCCBI President/CEO Jim Decker said his board wanted to “collectively find a way to support the boutique hotel.” That project, he said, was the stimulus to roll those funds over to the city.

Council in turn then entered into a new sub-grantee agreement with HIY, Inc.

City Planner Vince DeJoy said Ruzhdi Bakalli, HIY, Inc.’s president and CEO “has shovel ready plans for a boutique hotel” and made the request for up to $2 million in RACP funding.

This funding stream requires a $1 to $1 match whether in cash or in equity in the property.

DeJoy said the agreement with Bakalli carries a clause to require completion of the project within 24 months of the date of signing unless council extends it.

Councilman John Wortman called it an “excellent project” that would have a “substantial” economic impact on the downtown.

Decker explained that Bakalli has had preliminary conversations with commercial banks with the possibility of funding the rest of the project via commercial mortgage.

The various awards in this funding stream come with their own termination dates and Decker said that the proposal Monday is a “matter of using the oldest dollars first” so the city isn’t “bucking up” against those termination dates. The funds from the state are also only actually distributed as reimbursement for funding already spent.

“We are basically up against the clock here,” DeJoy said.

City Manager Nancy Freenock said the filing dates for the 2020 RACP awards is December with deadlines for the prior years in November.

Councilman Phil Gilbert asked if the city should be confident that Bakalli will bring the project to fruition.

Decker, citing equity in the building and support from the state, speculated there is a “better than average chance he’ll be able to pull this thing together… I don’t think there’s any reason we should doubt him.”

“I think he’ll build it out and it’ll be a very nice project,” Freenock added.