MANSFIELD – John Fernyak has devoted nearly half of his life to helping breathe new life into downtown Mansfield.
His presence is palpable throughout the downtown, including the Richland Carrousel Park, an attraction and economic driver he helped launch and bring to fruition more than three decades ago.
Now 92 years old, Fernyak and his wife, Mimi, want to help ensure the same downtown they worked so hard to save and develop is secured for generations to come.
The couple is making an “extraordinary gift” of their downtown properties through Engwiller Properties to the Richland County Foundation, one of the single largest and most public gifts in the history of the 81-year-old philanthropic organization.
Engwiller, the largest property management company in the city, was initially developed by Fernyak in the mid 1980s when he still owned and operated MT Business Technologies, a successful office supplier.
First National Bank, a customer of MT, closed its Fourth and Main street branch and then-president Rex Collins suggested that John Fernyak buy the building.
From there, Fernyak began purchasing vacant properties and restoring them one by one, according to a profile done by Downtown Mansfield, Inc.
“We started taking down the boards, putting glass back in the windows, and finding people to move in,” he said.
In time, he accumulated more than 50 buildings, fueling downtown’s revival.
The donation is aimed at triggering a redevelopment of the downtown through a partnership between the foundation and Windsor Companies, an Ohio-based developer that specializes in turning older buildings into a mix of residential, retail and other commercial uses.
“We are thrilled for the partnership with the Richland County Foundation,” John and Mimi Fernyak said in a statement.
“We believe they have the community’s best interest at heart to shepherd downtown development and create opportunities for downtown living,” the couple said.
‘This … is huge for Mansfield’
“This is huge for us and Mansfield, for the foundation to be able to steward that gift and work toward the redevelopment of properties in the downtown,” said Allie Watson, the foundation’s president and CEO.
“John and Mimi saw the value of the foundation and the stability of the foundation as the right place for their gift and for their assets to move the downtown forward.
“We have had extremely generous donors to the foundation in Richland County over the last 80 years. There have been some very large gifts. But this one is going to be extremely visible to a lot of people over a long period of time,” she said.
Maura Teynor, the chief advancement officer for RCF, said she has not seen gifts such as this anywhere else.
“We haven’t seen a community foundation being gifted something like this anywhere else that can just transform the whole community in a big way,” Teynor said.
Watson said, “There is no other comparable project like this that I’ve found.”
The move ensures the buildings, many of them in the heart of downtown, will remain under local control.
No one involved wanted to see downtown commercial buildings go the way of the former West Park Shopping Center on Park Avenue West, which deteriorated during a decade of out-of-state ownership before being purchased by local businessman and entrepreneur Dan Niss in December.
“Local ownership is so important,” Watson said. “That played into the thought process of John and Mimi.”
‘It was a lot of research’
The Fernyaks approached the RCF two years ago about their proposal, which will be a transition of the properties into the foundation’s hands, likely starting with 14 buildings around the Brickyard.
“It was surprising. They just said they wanted to come and talk to us. So Maura and I met with them and we were both shocked,” Watson said.
A foundation policy question had to be resolved even before the plan could move forward.
“We looked at our gift acceptance policy that said we had to sell real estate within three years of receiving it. So we worked with our board over the next several months to change that policy. We can hold property now,” Watson said.
“We also started looking at how other communities have done revitalization projects in their downtowns to see how they have done it and who their partners were. That was a lot of traveling across the state to learn more,” she said.
“It was a lot of research.”
In the summer of 2025, foundation officials met with officials from Windsor Companies, based in Powell, Ohio, in rapidly growing Delaware County.
According to the company website:
“At Windsor, we don’t just develop properties—we create legacies. Based in central Ohio, Windsor is a vertically integrated real estate development company committed to building vibrant communities and lasting value. Guided by integrity, innovation, and vision, we specialize in multifamily residential and commercial real estate, transforming possibilities into thriving spaces where families build futures, business grow, and communities come alive.”
It was a game-changing meeting with a company that has done work in Dayton, Newark, Yellow Springs and Springfield.
“It really changed everything,” Watson said. “Because before we were looking at it as construction projects, revitalization, renovation projects for us alone.
“Windsor is a development company and they are also a property management company.”
Tax credits will be sought
Legislation is expected to come before Mansfield City Council on Tuesday seeking Community Reinvestment Area approval, commonly known as a CRA.
Approval of a CRA shows community support of a redevelopment plan and strengthens the case for approval of historic preservation tax credits. These and other state and federal tax credits will aid in redevelopment of the donated properties, including new residential spaces.
Another of those tax credits being sought will be via the transformational mixed-use development program for “costs incurred during the construction of a project that will be a catalyst for future development in its area.”
According to the Ohio Department of Development website, such a project “includes new construction and/or improvement of vacant buildings that will have a major economic impact on the site and the surrounding area. This development must be a combination of retail, office, residential, recreation, structured parking, and other similar uses into one mixed-use development.”
Approval on those requests may be known as soon as June.
“Hopefully, this summer, we will have more information to share with the public,” Watson said.
There was a meeting Wednesday with current Engwiller tenants to go over the plan.
For now, as the properties come into the care of the RCF, nothing changes for the current commercial or residential tenants. Watson said current leases will be honored and Windsor will take over as property managers.
“From a tenant standpoint, this will be fairly seamless,” Watson said.
There is no hard-and-fast timeline on redevelopment of the properties as they move into RCF ownership.
“I wouldn’t even try to guess. It’s going to be a big undertaking. We are confident in Windsor that they can move quickly, but it’s all relative,” Watson said.
Another step in Mansfield Rising
One of the many elements in the Mansfield Rising plan developed by local residents and leaders in 2018 designated Mansfield “as a place for living.”
The plan called for:
- A strengthened housing market to sustain market-rate living.
- Creation of mixed-use, mixed-income developments to ensure downtown living remains open to all.
- Utilization of the creative community while developing downtown infrastructure projects to integrate the culture of downtown into permanent enhancements.
Current RCF board chair Lee Tasseff, president of Destination Mansfield, was one of the biggest “cheerleaders” for the Mansfield Rising plan.
“It is exciting to see downtown living getting this incredible boost, just as branding came to life, and soon the Main Street improvement project being completed. And much of it fits under the Mansfield Rising vision,” Tasseff said.
“My board said, ‘We believe in what’s going on down there.’
“Now you will see downtown living come to life, as just the branding came to life, and the Main Street improvement project is coming to life … you are seeing it all really fits under that one Mansfield Rising vision,” Tasseff said.
Watson said a recent countywide housing study found a need for 5,800 living units by 2032 for all income levels.
“We are seeing an interest in market rate housing for downtown living,” she said. “Nobody is living in these buildings (being donated). There is no one being pushed out.
“All we are doing is looking for ways to bring people in.”
Teynor said more people living downtown is essential.
“The idea of more people downtown is how we will build on economic development and everything that needs to happen downtown. You need people … you need foot traffic. The current businesses are going to benefit from that,” she said.
“It starts with (this) gift. All of this starts with the generosity of the Fernyaks and their trust in the Richland County Foundation,” Teynor said.
Watson said a recent downtown housing survey done by the RCF showed Mansfield was rated “healthy,” which is a notch below vibrant.
“The company that did the survey said what you need is residential units. You need people living downtown, like Maura said. The foot traffic … people going into businesses, restaurants, bars every day is what creates a vibrant downtown,” Watson said.
“We are so close, and this is a huge step forward.”