Bethlehem Approves $10 Million To Improve Old Steel Plant

The Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority approved this week a $10 million bond that will help pay for the next round of infrastructure projects for redeveloping Bethlehem Steel property.

The projects include hundreds of new paved parking spots and an elevated walkway on what was once known as the Hoover Mason Trestle. The century-old trestle was used by Steel to move fuel from the ore yard, where the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem sits, to the blast furnaces, which is now the backdrop for indoor and outdoor concerts at SteelStacks.

“We want to make sure the investment we make is both strategic and relevant enough that it will stimulate additional development on the site,” said Tony Hanna, executive director of the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority.

The project totals nearly $16 million worth of improvements and a second bond is expected to be taken out next year.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-bethlehem-tif-bond-approval-20121116,0,7492941.story

Braddock Redevelopment Project To Fill Gaping Hole Left By UPMC Demolition

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Braddock Mayor John Fetterman calls the planned redevelopment of the former UPMC Braddock site “an engine to drive the area forward.”

The $20 million project, announced at a news conference last week, is planned to include office and retail space, 24 units of rental housing, 11 single-family homes and a 20,000-square-foot community park facing Braddock Avenue.

Mr. Fetterman said the stretch of Braddock Avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets, where the hospital used to stand, has been a “giant, empty, gaping wound on the streetscape” for the past two years.

He said the borough currently lacks viable spaces for businesses to move into, but the new building “will go a long way toward solving that.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11363/1199869-56-0.stm#ixzz1idNS2irb

$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

Developer Unveils $50 Million Office Complex In Center City Allentown

A developer on Wednesday unveiled detailed plans for a $50 million office complex that would include a 570-space underground parking garage and could attract more than 700 mostly white-collar office workers to downtown Allentown.

One City Center, to be built by J.B. Reilly on a Seventh Street parking lot south of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, is billed as the first phase of a plan that will bring thousands of new workers and hundreds of new upscale homes and apartments into Allentown’s struggling downtown.

City officials hope it will be followed by a parade of development piggy-backing on a 130-acre Neighborhood Improvement Zone created to finance the downtown hockey arena.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-arena-reilly-20111214,0,1003801.story

Allentown’s $100 Million Hockey Arena Complex

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When Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski looks down Hamilton Street, he envisions thousands of hockey fans pouring out of a $100 million arena and into a downtown entertainment district of sports bars, restaurants and retail shops.

While it may take imagination to visualize such a scene in Allentown’s struggling downtown now, Pawlowski on Tuesday brought some clarity to how the city plans to get there when he released the first designs for the arena, which alone is projected to draw 500,000 people downtown each year.

The first architectural renderings oshow a glass and steel, two-story entrance at Hamilton and Seventh streets, transitioning into a row of new places to eat, drink and shop extending down the 700 block of Hamilton Street. For Pawlowski, the shiny new arena, on track to open in 2013, is a first step toward a much larger development he’s counting on to create a new Allentown.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-pa-arena-plans-20111101,0,2659391.story?page=1

Pennsylvania Brownfield Inventory Redevelopment Site

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Here is a great website for any municipality who has a brownfield(s) to be redeveloped or any developer looking for a project site.  The information on this website is voluntary and supplied by property owners and community redevelopment organizations.  Pennsylvania also has a Brownfields Assistance Program!

For more information, click here: http://brownfields.pasitesearch.com/

Harrisburg’s Market Street Corridor Redevelopment Under Way?

…For a section of Market Street between Harrisburg‘s central business district and Cameron Street, idle could soon turn to active for an area littered with vacant properties.

This month brought the first stirring in the rebirth of the corridor lined with several old commercial and industrial buildings, including the former news and business offices of The Patriot-News Co. and the U.S. Postal Service’s soon-to-be vacated Keystone branch, both in the 800 block. An affiliate of Blue Bell-based developer Equilibrium Equities Inc. announced plans to redevelop the post office‘s 11-acre site…

To read the entire article from the Central Penn Business Journal, click here:  http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/article/20110826/FRONTPAGE/110829904/On-the-mend?

York College Supports Downtown York Revitalization

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This is exactly how revitalization should work.  A community institution, in this case York College, is supporting the City of York’s efforts to revitalize their business district.

The old Fraternal Order of Eagles building in center city York is being rehabilitated.  York College just signed a lease to be the anchor tenant of this new adaptive reuse project.  The building is being transformed into an arts center!

The York County Industrial Development Authority purchased the building for $290,000 and is investing $2.5 MILLION into the project, which is a mix of private funds, the York County Development Authority’s funds and a grant from the Commonwealth Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

One floor of the building will be transformed into gallery and studio space for senior painting students at York College.  We think this is awesome and give all involved parties two Roy’s Rants thumbs up on a job well done AND hold this up as an example of cooperation between multiple entities for the common good of York City!

Pittsburgh North Side Neighborhood To Get Transformation

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A blighted block in the Central North Side neighborhood will be undergoing a much-needed and long-awaited transformation by the end of the summer.  Twelve parcels around the Garden Theater will be turned into retail, office and residential space.  The investment in this project is expected be $17.5 million according to developer Wayne Zukin and his Allegheny City Development Group.  Mr. Zukin is from Philadelphia.

Zukin said his team is also seeking an expansion of the Mexican War Streets historic district in order to benefit from historic tax credits.  Buildings will be demolished and replaced or reused.  The former Masonic Hall, the Garden Theater and the Bradberry Apartment Building are some of the buildings to be transformed by the project.

The Central Northside Neighborhood Council and the Northside Learning Conference are working with the developer to make this project happen.  We applaud this effort to stabilize the neighborhood, which will benefit the entire North Side.

 

Luzerne County Scores $12 Million For Various Projects

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A variety of projects, in numerous locations throughout Luzerne County, were awarded $12 million from the Commonwealth Financing Authority.  The money comes from an account funded by a percentage of money gambled at Mohegan Sun Casino in Plains Township.

Wilkes University and the City of Wilkes-Barre were awarded $2 million to build a new science center.  Wilkes University has been an active partner with the City of Wilkes-Barre for downtown revitalization.  The new science center will help make Wilkes more attractive and competitive.

The City of Wilkes-Barre is also receiving $706,000 toward the stabilization and rehabilitation of the First National Bank Building on Public Square.  The building has been vacant since 1974!  This work will make the building more attractive to developers for adaptive reuse projects.  The building sits in the central business district in Wilkes-Barre and would normally be attractive for development except for cost of the rehabilitation work is prohibitive.  This grant will enable development of the property when the work is completed.

A complete list of funded projects can be found here:

http://media.kjonline.com/documents/LSA+Luzerne+2010.pdf