Redesigned Fulton Bank Project Gets Lancaster Board Approval

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A redesigned street-level facade for the planned Fulton Bank expansion won approval and praise from members of Lancaster city’s Historical Commission  this week.

But the eight-story office building project was not greeted as warmly by a dozen members of the public.

“Is there any way to make it look less like an eight-track player?” Marty Hulse, owner of Building Character, asked project architect Rick Beck.

Beck, of the Philadelphia firm Francis Cauffman, explained the contemporary office building draws from the mid-century modern style popular about 60 years ago. Large windows capping the building on the top two floors are a currently popular style of architecture, he said.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/783378_Redesigned-Fulton-Bank-project-gets-city-board-approval.html#ixzz2D41Ji3D1

Lancaster City Seeks $5 Million Mayor’s Challenge Grant

Faced with a decaying neighborhood, Lancaster city officials have few options.

The city can add new trash receptacles, erect streetlights, replace park benches and make other investments in public spaces.

For private property, the city can cite the owners under the property maintenance code.

But for wholesale change, it usually must wait for a property to be so blighted that it can be condemned and seized.

Such actions usually are isolated and limited by funding constraints.

But now Lancaster is considering an approach that is both comprehensive and intensely focused.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/767506_City-seeks–5M-Mayor-s-Challenge-Grant-.html#ixzz2AndTJGBp

Former Steudler Estate Prepped For Development

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As anyone who drives by the property could tell you, changes are happening at a former estate just off Oregon Pike near Lancaster Shopping Center.

A demolition crew recently cleared and leveled the 11-acre property at 1611 Oregon Pike.

Meanwhile, Richmond, Va.-based Patient First has announced it plans to open its new outpatient medical center in early 2013.

The plans for the initial Lancaster County site for Patient First had been disclosed more than a year ago during hearings on the project before Manheim Township officials.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/682711_Former-Steudler-estate-prepped-for-development.html#ixzz1zqrcloH0

Lancaster City Zoners OK Variance, Exception For Wash House

The large commercial building at 420 W. Grant St. has been reinvented in the past two years as the Wash House after the closure of EMJAY Display, a maker of point-of-purchase store displays.

The 14,000-square-foot building has become an incubator of small start-up businesses, including a construction company, two woodworkers and a ballroom dance studio.

Yet one thing was missing in the building’s renewal: city zoning approval.

On Monday, Mitchell Jureckson received a variance of required parking spaces and a special exception for a fitness studio from the Lancaster city Zoning Hearing Board for the Wash House.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/672153_Lancaster-city-zoners-OK-variance–exception-for-Wash-House.html#ixzz1yHLQAJJ7

Rail Yard Rezoning Before Lancaster City Council

More than six years ago Lancaster City Council gave its enthusiastic blessing to a plan to build a “meds & eds” campus on the former Armstrong World Industries site.

Council members voted to rezone 57 acres of the former flooring plant to allow the creation of athletic fields for Franklin & Marshall College and educational facilities for Lancaster General Hospital.

Now they being asked to rezone a long, narrow area that separates two sections of the college and completes the expanded tract for the $46 million project.

On Monday, Lancaster General Hospital formally asked council members to change the zoning designation for 28 acres of Norfolk Southern‘s Dillerville rail yard from “central manufacturing” to “mixed use.”

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/643821_Rail-yard-rezoning-before-Lancaster-City-Council.html#ixzz1uKNeTHe0

America’s Most Livable City, 100 Years In The Making

Editor’s note:  Great article detailing the city of Lancaster’s revitalization!

 

A century ago, downtown Lancaster was the economic and cultural center of Lancaster County. In 1910, the Red Rose City’s population of 47,000 represented 28% of the residents of the entire county, and all trolley lines led to Penn Square. 

 

Then Henry Ford’s Model T made cars affordable for everyone, and by 1938, Lancaster County’s trolleys had stopped running. The suburbs were growing, and Lancaster was beginning to feel the pain of changing demographics. 

 

As early as 1944, an investigation found that many of the city’s housing units were substandard, but that finding didn’t stop the population from peaking in 1950 at more than 63,000. By 1960, however, the number had dropped to 61,000, and two major events in the 1960s did great damage to the economy and to the spirit of downtown Lancaster. 

 

Read more: http://www.keystoneedge.com/features/lancasterinbloom0426.aspx

Lancaster Laboratories May Expand

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lancaster Laboratories is considering a multimillion-dollar expansion here that could create hundreds of jobs.

The company has submitted plans to Upper Leacock Township for a four-story, 77,000-square-foot addition.

The building would be constructed on the south campus of its 2425 New Holland Pike complex, at the corner of Geist Road.

Some 400 new parking spaces would be added, too, according to the Lancaster Labs plans.

Lancaster Labs won four variances for the project from the township Zoning Hearing Board on Monday all by 3-0 votes.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/618182_Lancaster-Laboratories-may-expand.html#ixzz1r8I08y2e

Perdue Reveals Plan For Soybean Plant In Conoy Township

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Representatives of Perdue AgriBusiness gave Conoy supervisors a preview Thursday of a $59 million soybean processing plant the company wants to build in the township.

But official township review of the plant will be less extensive than previous efforts to build on the 57-acre parcel next to the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management’s waste-to-energy plant.

The site along Route 441 has twice been considered for distilleries for corn ethanol fuel, but neither project came to fruition. Those projects were subject to conditional-use hearings, but review of the soybean plant will be less extensive because industrial zoning allows it as a permitted use on the property.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/601598_Company-reveals-plan-for-soybean-plant-in-Conoy.html

Apartments Planned For Former Lancaster City Warehouse

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Landis Communities and a Pittsburgh developer will convert a city warehouse into 36 loft apartments for active adults age 55 and older.

The project, announced Monday, will redevelop the former Radel & Stauffer location at 118 N. Water St., on the corner of West Marion Street.

Costing $8.9 million, Steeple View Lofts is scheduled to open in spring 2013.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/598852_Apartments-planned-for-former-Lancaster-city-warehouse.html#ixzz1oZC0iH3x

Mystery Business To Bring 300 – 400 Jobs To Oregon Pike Spot

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An unidentified out-of-town firm will move into the former Windstream building near Schaum’s Corner, creating 300 to 400 white-collar jobs.

The mystery firm has agreed to lease the 4139 Oregon Pike building from a local real estate firm, Oak Tree Development.

Oak Tree, which bought the building in December for $5.9 million, intends to expand the 80,000-square-foot facility and add parking for the tenant.

Mike O’Brien, Oak Tree president, confirmed the lease Friday but declined to name the tenant, its type of business or its current location.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/597726_Mystery-business-to-bring-300-400-jobs-to-Oregon-Pike-spot.html#ixzz1oBi2Tz47