Project Offers Face-Lifts For Downtown Pittsburgh Facades

From one window, Alan Kashi can watch a 33-story glass skyscraper being built before his eyes. From another, he can drink in the elegant lines of Three PNC Plaza, the 23-story tower that opened a few years ago. He can walk a couple of doors from his property to a former five-and-dime store that harbors apartments, restaurants and retail.

Now it’s his turn to join the Downtown renaissance.

Mr. Kashi is restoring the storefronts, replacing windows and making other improvements to the buildings he manages at 254 and 256 Fifth Avenue and 445 Wood Street as part of a new program to help rejuvenate older buildings Downtown.

“We’re revitalizing Downtown. This is a very major corner, Fifth and Wood. And it’s going to really help a lot to do what is necessary to make Downtown what it should be,” he said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/project-offers-face-lifts-for-downtown-facades-648419/?p=1

Downtown Pittsburgh Stretch Of Penn Avenue Flourishes

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A two-block Downtown stretch of Penn Avenue is undergoing a mini-renaissance.

New stores are opening, at least three developers have plans to build more residential units, and one school just moved in and another is expanding — all in 800 and 900 blocks of Penn.

“It seems like all the little gaps are starting to get filled in now,” said John Valentine, executive director of the Pittsburgh Downtown Community Development Corp.

The two blocks near the David L. Lawrence Convention Center weren’t shabby by any stretch, not with a Courtyard by Marriott hotel, the Penn Garrison and several bars and restaurants anchoring the area.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/new-tenants-fill-gaps-on-penn-avenue-645419/#ixzz21Avqtakl

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

Easton’s Long-Defunct Pomeroy’s Building Rents Apartments, New Restaurant On Way

Skyline of Easton, PA from Lafayette College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For 35 years the hulking, empty Pomeroy’s building symbolized the decline of Easton’s downtown.

Once a flourishing department store, the property was shuttered in 1977 and sat untouched on Northampton Street just a few dozen yards from Centre Square.

But a $4 million rehab that created 22 apartments, retail space and a restaurant has reclaimed what Mayor Sal Panto Jr. called the city’s white elephant. New renters arrive June 1, the building’s first tenets since the original “Star Wars” movie was released.

William Vogt and Mark Mulligan, partners in VM Development and owners of Pomeroy’s, said the project is a risk, but they believe Easton is ripe for their mix of high-end apartments and large retail spaces. Mulligan said six of the apartments, one- and two-bedroom units with granite counters, wood flooring and 14-foot ceilings, have been leased without much marketing.

Read more:http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-pomeroy-building-leasing-apartments-20120511,0,3901989.story

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

Apartments Planned For Former Lancaster City Warehouse

Image via Wikipedia

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

Man Hopes To Establish Miscrodistillery In Lancaster City

Image via Wikipedia

Andrew H. Martin has seen the rise in microbreweries in recent years.

Now he hopes to be a part of the next big wave: microspirits.

Martin, of East Orange Street, plans to convert a former three-story tobacco warehouse into the county’s first distillery since Prohibition.

And, within a year, he hopes to be reintroducing consumers to a product unseen here in nearly a century: locally made rye whiskey.

“It’s something I’ve been interested in for a while. I’ve been reading about it for a while,” said Martin, 34.

“Lancaster seems like a great place. The history of distilling is strong. It was destroyed with Prohibition, but I think it would come back.”

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/594488_Man-hopes-to-establish-microdistillery-in-Lancaster-city.html#ixzz1nbTR1vED

Old Eagles Building Ready For New Life As Arts Center In York

Before any artists could move in, the decades-old paneling and drop ceilings definitely had to go.

“We kind of undid the  ’70s,” Blanda Nace said as he climbed a newly renovated staircase toward a giant rectangular room on the top floor. When the building belonged to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, this was the “ritual room,” Nace said, smiling.

Someday soon, the York County Industrial Development Authority (YCIDA) project manager is hoping the ritual room will be the site of education seminars, wedding receptions and community banquets — the cherry on top of a $2.5 million makeover for the downtown building.

Read more: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/news/ci_19987268

Coatesville RDA Seeking Deal For Train Station

COATESVILLE, PA — The city Redevelopment Authority is going to begin negotiations with Amtrak to obtain the current city train station.

Authority Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Disciullo said the railroad company will likely not sell the current station on Fleetwood Avenue until the new station is completed. The new station is proposed for just up the street from the current station.

The move is required because the current station is situated on a segment of track that is not straight, and straight track is required to build larger platforms that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“We are going to get an opportunity in the future to buy (the current station) for a buck,” Disciullo said at Monday’s authority meeting.

Read more: http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2012/01/18/news/srv0000016872793.txt?viewmode=default

$10 Million Redevelopment Project Slated For York

A $10 million redevelopment plan in York that has a direct link to Reading gained momentum on Wednesday with the purchase of a 47,000-square-foot building by a partnership that includes three members of the rock group Live and real estate developer Bill Hynes.

Think Spot Development of Lancaster, which includes Hynes and Live members Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey, bought the structure at 210-236 York St. in York from Molt LLC, according to Hynes.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=354383