The gasps were audible from Farrell council members when Rickey Johnson Sr. announced the scope of the investment he is hoping to attract to Farrell:

"A quarter to a half a billion dollars," he said Monday.

Currently running a restaurant out of the Farrell Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7597, 314 Idaho St., Johnson envisions an eight-story circular tower of commerce right in the middle of Idaho Street.

And while he's looking for council's help with the project, he's not asking for much in the way of taxpayer investment.

"We're depending a whole lot on the private sector for the funding of this," said the 47-year-old Farrell resident.

The private sector support, he hopes, will include some prominent names from sports and entertainment. Johnson said he's hoping to set up a meeting with basketball superstar Michael Jordan.

"It sounds bigger than it is," Todd Perkins of Phitown, a business services company in Masury, said of the project.

Sports stars and entertainers think nothing of plunking down $100 million on a yacht or a home, Perkins said. The challenge for Johnson is to show them they can invest their money in something that will spur community revitalization, he said.

"It has so much in it, it will generate interest," Perkins said of the building, adding that he doesn't have any money to put into the project.

An ordained minister with a background in restaurant management, Johnson wants to achieve his project in phases, starting at Idaho and Broadway, and work his way up the hill to revitalize the area.

The purple-windowed tower, topped by a helicopter pad, likely would not be built all at once, he said.

Johnson's initial request of council is to help him acquire property at Idaho and Broadway to put up a masonry sign that says "Welcome to Idaho Street," and lists businesses along the thoroughfare, which was once a cultural and economic center of town.

The sign would be fronted by a fountain.

He wants to build the tower at Spearman Avenue and Idaho, the site of a plaza owned by Emil Koledin.

Johnson said he has not met with Koledin.

The tower would include the Chef's Kitchen, which has been open for seven months, on the first floor, and Rickey Johnson Ministries Inc., a non-denominational ministry, on the top.

An ordained minister, Johnson said he has worked for 10 years helping people with drug and alcohol problems.

He also wants to open the second floor to entertainment businesses, such as a movie theater, the third for a banquet and convention center, the fourth for retail businesses, and the fifth and sixth for office space.

Phitown would get the seventh floor.

Perkins estimated the building would be 80,000 square feet.

"This is doable," Johnson said. "I believe it's doable."

Johnson said the project is doable because he's willing to put in the time and effort it will require to make it happen.

"You prepare for what you want," he said.

Johnson heads Valley Economic Empowerment Center Inc., and leads brainstorming sessions with local entrepreneurs on ways to improve Idaho through an economic development campaign called "Why Not Idaho?"

"It's quite astounding," Mayor William Morocco said of Johnson's proposal.

Morocco admitted his own hope for the area was much more modest.

"Something as simple as a grocery store I'd be happy with," he said.

Morocco added that he is willing to work with anyone who is trying to change the perception of the city. Council offered to discuss Johnson's projects at any future meetings.