Tag Archives: economic development
City Of Altoona Accepted Into Act 47 Distressed Municipalities Program
Undetailed map of Altoona, Pennsylvania and some surrounding areas From my talk page: :I drew the map of Altoona in xpaint from a map on the Internet and a Rand-McNally atlas. It’s in the public domain. — Djinn112 04:40, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC) –$ 02:38, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC) Category:Altoona (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Editor’s note: More bad economic news! Altoona joins Reading and Harrisburg as the latest Pennsylvania city to have major financial problems!
The state on Thursday accepted Altoona into its Distressed Municipalities Program.
City officials hope “going distressed” will help avoid insolvency by relaxing restrictions on property and income taxes and by helping adjust operations in a framework that has virtually strangled all third-class cities in Pennsylvania.
“Altoona needs more than a short-term or week-by-week fix from its creditors and obligations,” stated Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary C. Alan Walker in a news release. “It needs a comprehensive recovery plan that will lay the groundwork for long-term financial solvency.”
Walker will have 30 days to appoint an Act 47 coordinator for Altoona, and the coordinator will then have 90 days to propose a recovery plan.
The Three Statistics That Every Downtown Should Live By
Editor’s note: This is phenomenal advice for all downtown shopping districts and their umbrella organizations i.e. Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority.
Lancaster and its James Street Improvement District are prime examples of living by these three simple rules! I suggest a field trip for any struggling downtown merchants or downtown organizations who want to see what is possible!
I call this the 7-8-7 rule because of the three most important statistics that make a downtown a successful and vibrant destination. Think of your favorite destination downtowns. Are they beautiful? Do they feel safe? Are there things to do after 6:00 pm?
Read more: http://www.rogerbrooks.org/2012/04/30/the-three-downtown-statistics/
West Reading Gets Grants For Streets Work
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Big changes will be coming to several West Reading streets this summer, thanks to $300,000 in grants from the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
According to Dean L. Rohrbach, who manages the borough’s Elm Street program, West Reading will be designated as one of the first Keystone Communities Elm Streets in the state, making it eligible for various revitalization grants through the Elm Street program.
“If we’re not among the first, we will be the first,” he said.
The borough has been approved for two grants: one for $250,000 for public improvements and one for $50,000 to help implement various revitalization programs.
Lancaster’s Lemon Street Expands Downtown To The North With Stores, Markets And Apartments
Editor’s note: Lancaster is leading the way as a highly walkable urban community.
Continued development to bring people and businesses downtown is paying big dividends.
Continued development to bring people and businesses downtown is paying big dividends.Fifteen years ago, real estate developer Ed Drogaris sought to breathe life into a mostly moribund block on North Prince Street.
His Prince Street Center project eventually redeveloped two vacant tobacco warehouses and a former car dealership.
They became 130,000 square feet of residential, commercial, retail and restaurant space.
In recent years, his efforts have shifted to the corner of the block.
Lancaster Downtown Investment Group Looks To Future
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Last fall, representatives of Lancaster city’s Downtown Investment District began asking what the organization should be doing to improve the city’s center over the next few years.
Among the recommendations were to consider expanding the district’s boundaries, seek more funding from nonprofit property owners and provide funding for downtown surveillance cameras.
Drafting a plan for those things will take more time than DID has before its charter expires at the end of this year, its officials say.
With that in mind, the organization is proposing a short-term charter renewal that would keep current initiatives in place. New endeavors would wait until the next charter renewal period
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/616728_Downtown-investment-group-looks-to-future.html
After Early Bumps, Reading Mayor And City Council Say They’re InTune
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The relationship between Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer and City Council got off to a rocky start, he and council members admitted Tuesday at a Berks County League of Women Voters breakfast.
But now they’re ready to move on to implementing Spencer’s agenda of making the city safer and cleaner, encouraging economic development and getting the finances in order, they said.
“The impression that the president of council and the mayor hate each other is not true,” Council President Francis G. Acosta said. “All of us on council would like to see the mayor succeed and attain his goals.”
About 20 league members attended the event in Calvary United Church of Christ, 640 Centre Ave.
Thousands Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day In Phoenixville
Editor’s note: Can you say cha-ching for downtown Phoenixville merchants. These kinds of regular events are essential for revitalization. So what happened in downtown Pottstown for St. Patrick’s Day? Were there hundreds of people celebrating, dozens or just the usual suspects loitering at the clock tower watching the crickets and tumbleweeds roll down High Street? You say, “But we don’t have an Irish Pub?” I say, “We could if someone actively recruited more restaurants and stores to fill High Street.” Marketing, marketing, marketing!
PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. — The streets of Phoenixville were filled with the spirit of the Irish Saturday as thousands donned their green in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
The festive mood continued inside of Bridge Street favorite Molly Maguire’s Irish Restaurant & Pub.
General Manager Neil Bonner said his favorite part of St. Patrick’s Day is being surrounded by good people.
“Everyone comes out just to have a good time and they all get to be just a little bit Irish for a day,” he explained.
Bethlehem Mayor Announces $56 Million In Development At Former Bethlehem Steel Site
Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan on Wednesday announced $56 million of economic development for two projects at the former Bethlehem Steel plant — two buildings that could be used for warehousing or light assembly.
Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII is negotiating for a 175,000-square-foot facility along Route 412.
Liberty Property Trust has filed plans for an 800,000-square-foot speculative building, one that would be built without a formal commitment from whoever ends up using it.
While Callahan didn’t have any job estimates on that building, he noted that a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse under way is expected to bring as many as 500 jobs once a tenant is signed.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-bethlehem-state-of-city-callahan-20120314,0,5953407.story
Allentown Jobs: Lehigh Valley Ranks Fourth In Business Development
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Editor’s note: This is great news for Pennsylvania!
The Lehigh Valley ranked fourth in new business development among mid-size metro areas for 2011 in an annual survey published by Site Selection magazine.
The magazine’s readers include economic development officials and key corporate decision-makers who choose new locations for businesses looking to relocate or expand.
Site Selection ranks metro areas by the number of “corporate facility expansion projects” they attract. In the category of metro areas with populations between 200,000 and 1 million, the Lehigh Valley reported 28 such projects in 2011, one more than the Harrisburg-Carlisle region.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-allentown-area-jobs-ranking-20120309,0,7746005.story
GoggleWorks Apartment Project Uses An Unusual Steel Framing Process
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The wraps on the new GoggleWorks apartments on Washington Street in Reading will be long gone by early summer. In the meantime, the $16.7 million building remains swathed in plastic to keep workers warm.
The plastic also has been covering up an unusual construction process based on a metal framing system. Instead of a typical structural steel framework filled in with masonry blocks and wooden planks, it has prefabricated metal framing and walls that stack in place made by ClarkDietrich Building Systems, an Ohio-based provider of steel construction products and services.
Eric Burkey, president of Reading-based Burkey Construction Co., the project’s general contractor, said the walls are set in place and the cold-formed steel joists and metal deck are set before the walls are placed on the floor above. The wall panels literally sit one on top of the other and carry through the overall height of the building.
“This kind of system has been around for a while,” Burkey said. “It just hasn’t been used a lot.”
Lancaster-Based Armstrong World Industries Reports 10-Fold Profit Increase
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Armstrong World Industries today reported a profitable fourth quarter and a ten-fold increase in profits for the full year.
Helping the results were sharply lower restructuring charges, the absence of asset-impairment charges and lower selling, general and administrative expenses.
Lancaster-based Armstrong also announced it will build its first manufacturing plant in Russia, continuing its expansion into what it calls “emerging markets.”
The $100 million mineral-fiber ceiling plant is expected to begin operations in 2015, said Armstrong, although the company did not name the city where the plant will be located.
New PAID Director Relishes Challenge Of Urban Economic Development
Editor’s note: 90 days into a new job and he scores! Color me impressed!
POTTSTOWN, Pa. - When your job is to try to attract businesses to a particular place, having a sense of place is pretty important.
So it´s probably a good thing that Steve Bamford has a boatload of real estate experience to call upon in his role as executive director of the Pottstown Area Industrial Development, also known as PAID Inc.
More than two years ago, the Urban Land Institute recommended, among other things, that economic development be taken out of the hands of the politicians and put into the hands of a professional staff. The result was a re-imagining of the largely moribund PAID organization into an active economic development arm with a responsibility sharing agreement between the borough, the school district and the Montgomery Redevelopment Authority.
Carpenter Buys Former Dana Site
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Carpenter Technology Corp. announced Friday that it has purchased the former Dana Corp. industrial site for about $6 million.
The Spring Township-specialty steel and alloy maker bought the 50-acre industrial property where General Motors vehicle frames were once produced from Reading Industrial Investments Corp., Ambler, Montgomery County.
What Carpenter got in the deal is about 40 acres of land and an additional area where four buildings are located, at West Robeson and Weiser streets, adjacent to Carpenter’s East Shore property.
Easton Mayor Applauds Crime Reduction, Economic Development
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Editor’s note: Will we ever see a headline like this with POTTSTOWN in it?????
Mayor Sal Panto Jr. believes there is much to applaud in Easton, Pa. — a falling crime rate, promising redevelopment projects — but also much yet to do.
Panto outlined his vision for 2012, and mentioned some of the successes of 2011, in a “state of the city” speech Wednesday night before City Council, noting an 11 percent drop in crime overall, and a 37 percent drip in violent crime since 2006.
“Easton is becoming safer for families,” Panto said.
It is a theme he has stuck with in the march to redevelop the downtown into a place to work, eat and live, not just visit from time to time. Panto talked in the speech of a 24/7 downtown, which he said can only happen with new development drawing in full-time residents.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-state-of-the-city-20120222,0,5829329.story
Foot Traffic Draws New Business To Kennett Square
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A store owner has moved his store from Delaware to Kennett Square because he likes how vibrant the downtown business community has become.
Mystique, a store that offers men’s and women’s clothing, opened this week at 11 E. State St.
A grand opening is planned for March 2.
“Kennett Square is one of the top 10 small towns in the nation, and they have monthly events, which is wonderful,” said Bill McClane, owner of the store. “I really like the mix here with the variety of stores and all the people walking around.”
Read more:: http://business-news.thestreet.com/daily-local-news/story/foot-traffic-draws-new-business-kennett-square-4/1
West Reading: Keeping It Fresh On The Avenue
When West Reading’s state and community-funded Main Street Program on Penn Avenue reached maturity in 2005, a total of 66 businesses had been created in six years, along with more than 125 jobs.
Grant funding of $6 million from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development revitalized the streetscape with new facades, sidewalk and traffic-lane design, and pedestrian and street lighting.
What’s going on in West Reading to maintain and expand the cycle of growth on the hippest street in the county? Some businesses still flounder, while others take root and grow.
Target Eyes Valley Forge Shopping Center For Possible New Store
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UPPER MERION — A new development at the Valley Forge Shopping Center goes before the planning commission next week. If approved, a new Target department store and Starbucks Coffee could come to the township in a few months.
The Valley Forge Center Associate are planning to redevelop the eastern portion of the Valley Forge Shopping Center, to include a Target department store, a Starbucks and an inline commercial building.
Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/article/20120203/NEWS01/120209817
New Reading Mayor Calls Coordination Key To Jobs Plan
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Piggy-backing on a positive national report on job creation, Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer on Friday recounted what his administration is doing to create jobs in the city.
Primary among them will be to complete a plan on how the city and the Reading Redevelopment Authority can cooperate on economic development, he said.
The city already has a wider economic development plan, urging it to focus on one site at a time and find a new tenant for it.
Mayors Tout Jobs Growth In Lehigh Valley
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As a national jobs report released Friday pointed to a surge in hiring, the mayors of four of the Lehigh Valley‘s largest municipalities gathered in front of the future minor league hockey arena in Allentown to tout the Valley’s growth.
The mayors — Ed Pawlowski of Allentown, John Callahan of Bethlehem, Sal Panto Jr. of Easton and Ed Hozza Jr. of Whitehall Township — didn’t announce a new project on the same scale as Steel Stacks or an out-of-state company bringing hundreds of jobs. Instead, they praised the creation of 40 jobs for workers who are making way for the hockey arena at Seventh and Hamilton streets.
That number, Pawlowski said, will grow to 1,000 during construction.
The mayors gathered in front of the demolition site just days after revelations that the special tax district that will help pay for the $158-million arena may divert and delay the return of the Valley’s municipalities’ earned income taxes.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-hockey-arena-jobs-20120203,0,1222186.story
