New Beginning: Allentown’s Warrington Avenue Poised For A Makeover

The crowd inside — and eventually outside — 816 E. Warrington Ave. one recent evening gathered to showcase a newly renovated Allentown property. The former Ken’s Variety had been vacant for more than 20 years.

As the evening deepened, “Open in Allentown,” a “pop-up” event with a garage-style glass door rolled up, became a stew of neighborhood leaders, investors, consultants, residents of Allentown and nearby neighborhoods mingling over cocktails and catered nibbles.

The event and mix of people signified what Hilltop Alliance executive director Aaron Sukenik called “Warrington Avenue in its reinvention phase.”

One mile from Downtown (Pittsburgh) and cradled by the hot markets of Mount Washington and the South Side Slopes, Allentown is riddled with residential blight, and 35 percent of its commercial properties are vacant. But the newly repaved Warrington Avenue is on the cusp of a transition from being seedy to being seen.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2015/04/06/New-beginning-in-Allentown-Warrington-Avenue-poised-for-a-makeover/stories/201504060015

Fresh Start Planned For Blighted York City Building

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

A York City businessman plans to gut a blighted downtown building to make room for a future restaurant.

Elliott Weinstein, president and CEO of Weinstein Realty Advisors, will soon be the owner of 45 W. Market St., the former Griffith-Smith menswear store.

York City’s Redevelopment Authority gave the $2,000 sale the green light Wednesday. Technically, the sale is not final until the paperwork is signed and money exchanged.

Weinstein said he’s hoping to take advantage of York County’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance, or LERTA, program, which is designed to incentivize economic development by stretching property taxes on improvements over 10 years.

Read more: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_25811017/fresh-start-planned-blighted-york-city-building

Norristown Officials Tout Micro-Loans For Small Businesses

Location of Norristown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NORRISTOWN — Local officials are putting their noses to the grindstone to lure more businesses to Norristown, and they say they have the bucks to back up their plans.

Specifically, the municipality wants new restaurants, boutiques, delis and coffee shops along the so-called Main Street corridor, which runs along the Schuylkill River Trail from West Norriton to Plymouth Township.

Ron Story, director of the Norristown Small Business Assistance Center (NSBAC), and Gabriele Prete, Norristown’s business development coordinator, presented Norristown Planning Commission with a series of short promotional videos Wednesday targeting would-be businesses.  Prete said there are 13 countries represented on Main Street in the form of restaurants.  The videos and an interactive map are available on the municipal website, www.norristown.org.

Read more:  http://www.timesherald.com/article/20130711/NEWS01/130719906/norristown-officials-tout-micro-loans-for-small-businesses#full_story

Party Atmosphere Aids Painters Working To Brighten Reading Blocks

Replacing their button-down collars for T-shirts, employees of several local firms and organizations grabbed scrapers and paintbrushes and helped 20 families in the 6th Ward spruce up the facades of their homes Saturday.

It was part of Operation Facelift, run by Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Berks Inc. since 1989.

This year it focused on the 200 and 300 blocks of North Second Street and the 100 block of Elm Street.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=482280

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.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=383070