Boscov: Mall At Steamtown Changes Must Get My Approval

Repurposing the troubled Mall at Steamtown as a Reading Terminal-style market, a casino or a skating rink will remain a dream.

That is because the mall’s lease agreement with Boscov’s Department Store allows the anchor tenant to veto significant changes like that, said department store chairman Al Boscov in an interview at The Times-Tribune, a Times-Shamrock newspaper, on Monday.

Boscov’s Department Store will likely be among bidders in the June 1 – 3 auction of the Mall at Steamtown and the goal will be to buy the mall and keep the mall all — or predominantly — retail, he said.

Boscov wants to keep people with ideas of re-purposing the mall, some of whom he called “cranks,” away from the auction scheduled by LNR Partners, the mall’s caretaker since it was taken over by lenders following foreclosure.

Read more:

http://citizensvoice.com/news/boscov-mall-at-steamtown-changes-must-get-my-approval-1.1883885

Bethlehem Moving Forward With South Side Garage Despite Stalled Development

The Bethlehem Parking Authority is moving forward with a study for a new South Side parking garage despite any concrete plans for the major buildings for which the garage is supposed to be needed.

Authority Executive Director Kevin Livingston said the authority can’t wait for developer Dennis Benner to have signed tenants for his planned South Side buildings because the authority could lose the state grant funding set aside for the garage.

Bethlehem has filed for an extension for the $5.2 million in state grant funding but isn’t sure if the extension will be approved, Livingston said.

“We’re obviously afraid of losing it,” he said.

Read more:

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2015/03/bethlehem_moving_forward_with.html

Authority: Lancaster Will Need More Parking In Several Years

The Lancaster Parking Authority is about maxed-out on parking offerings, according to its executive director.

And the authority will need to add parking in several years to meet higher anticipated demand, according to Larry Cohen. So now’s the time to start planning.

The demand will come — in part — from a 96-room hotel planned next to the Lancaster County Convention Center, more and larger conventions that are anticipated at the center and other economic development, according to a report Cohen put together.

Cohen said he thinks there’s a misperception that there’s an abundance of parking because of the number of parking garages in the city.

Read more:

http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/authority-lancaster-will-need-more-parking-in-several-years/article_12cfee22-c1b0-11e4-861e-f757a23a870a.html

Alco Proposing Two Office Towers, Parking Garage On North Shore

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

Three years ago, Alco Parking president Merrill Stabile was rebuffed when he offered the city’s Stadium Authority $10 million to buy land on North Shore Drive for a “signature office tower.”

Now Mr. Stabile is back — this time with plans for a new office development and parking garage on the land he owns behind PNC Park on the North Shore.

As conceived, the project would feature two, 11-story glass office towers erected on top of a new five-story, 1,227-space parking garage. In all, as much as 600,000 square feet of Class A office space would be built.

“We think it’s a game-changer,” said Kim Clackson, senior vice president of CBRE, which is marketing the “very dramatic” development that would rise above the ballpark and offer views of the Downtown skyline.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/10/09/Alco-proposing-2-office-towers-parking-garage-on-North-Shore/stories/201410090197

Allentown Approves New Parking Garage Near Hockey Arena

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Allentown officials have insisted they are prepared for the barrage of vehicles that will be coming into the city from the opening of the new PPL Centerhockey arena.

Now, those vehicles will have 1,000 additional spots to park in.

Allentown planners signed off today on a new seven-story parking garage at Sixth and Walnut streets, within walking distance of the arena and other major downtown development projects.

“The traffic’s coming, there’s nothing we can do about that,” said Oldrich Focuek, planning commission chairman. “You know ‘the British are coming?’ Well, the traffic is coming, and we’re trying to deal with that.”

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/allentown/index.ssf/2014/09/allentown_approves_new_parking.html

Gateway Center Owner Confirms Complex Is For Sale

Gateway Center, downtown Pittsburgh

The Downtown office complex that became the face of Pittsburgh’s first Renaissance 60 years ago is for sale.

California-based Hertz Investment Group confirmed on Tuesday that it intends to sell the four buildings and parking garage it owns in Gateway Center at the tip of the Golden Triangle.

The complex consists of four skyscrapers known as Buildings One, Two, Three and Four and the garage on Liberty Avenue near Building Four.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/6597718-74/hertz-complex-buildings#ixzz3ACedDCZF
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Northampton County Grant Will Buy Trolley For Downtown Easton

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

Easton officials hope to ease the city’s rising parking problems by introducing a trolley to the Downtown area purchased through a Northampton County grant.

Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said today that the city plans to buy a used trolley sometime this month and have it up and running through the Downtown area this summer. With the city’s new parking garage not due for completion until autumn, the city will rely on the trolley to connect distant parking lots to popular tourist spots, Panto said.

“We can’t invent parking, so I think it’s the next best idea,” Panto said.

County Executive John Brown said the $42,000 grant from the Northampton County Gaming and Economic Redevelopment Authority is part of the county’s outreach to regional partners. The county will also allow the city to use the Northampton County Courthouse’s parking lots for the Easton Farmers’ Market and other large events, he said.

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/easton/index.ssf/2014/05/northampton_county_grant_will.html

Developer’s Agreement For $200 Million Plan Adopted In Conshohocken

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

CONSHOHOCKEN, PA — A developer’s agreement with  Keystone Property Group (KPG) of Lower Merion to build a hotel, an office tower and a parking garage on Fayette Street and a new borough building for police and borough workers was unanimously approved Wednesday by Borough Council.

The $200 million KPG plan was selected by council in mid-September over a competing proposal by Brandywine Realty Trust (BRT) of Radnor.

The 32-page agreement will be ratified Friday by the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority.

KPG agreed to build an 18-story, 200-room hotel at the intersection of Fayette and Elm streets, an eight-story parking garage to replace an existing three-story garage and a new, 16-story, 200,000-square-foot office building at the intersection of First Avenue and Fayette Street.

Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/general-news/20131218/developers-agreement-for-200-million-plan-adopted-in-conshohocken

Developer Negotiating To Build Apartments, Parking Garage Near Dormont Light Rail Stop

Map of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A developer is expected to begin negotiations with Port Authority next month for a $39.8 million, five-story apartment building and parking garage at the park-n-ride lot adjacent to the Dormont Junction Light Rail Transit station.

An authority committee today approved a one-year exclusive negotiating period with Fore Property Co., a national real estate developer based in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas, Nev., on a lease agreement for the site, part of which is owned by Dormont Borough. The project would include an estimated $10 million in public funding, to be used toward construction of a 500-space garage.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/2013/11/20/Developer-negotiating-to-build-apartments-parking-garage-near-Dormont-light-rail-stop/stories/201311200133#ixzz2lFThxkzt

Bethlehem South Side Business District To Get Major Retail, Office, Student Housing Complex

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

A $56.5 million redevelopment project including significant retail, office and student housing space is planned for Bethlehem’s South Side business district.

Developer Dennis Benner today revealed plans for a 13-story student housing and retail complex on the first block of West Fourth Street and a seven-story office and retail complex a block north at West Third and South New streets.

Construction on the project, which includes a 507-space parking garage, is scheduled to start in the second quarter of next year and take 24 months.

Benner, a Lehigh University graduate, said he’s long heard complaints about how there isn’t enough for college students and young professionals to do in the city and that his complex aims to remedy that. His retail plans include high-end restaurants and lounges, likely including a wine bar, he said.

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2013/11/bethlehem_south_side_business.html

Developer Scales Down Grandiose Project For Mount Washington

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

Some five years after it was first proposed, a developer is scrapping plans for a grandiose $100 million hotel-condominium project on Mount Washington in favor of a more modest apartment complex.

Gone will be the 20-story high-rise featuring a four- to five-star, 163-room luxury hotel. Gone will be about 58 condos perched on a cliff overlooking Downtown.  Gone, apparently, will be amenities like a scenic overlook and a giant plaza that would have been open to the public.

Instead, Sycamore Grandview Development is proposing to construct about 300 market rate apartments in four buildings wrapped around a “grand central yard” at the four-acre site at the end of Grandview Avenue near the Monongahela Incline.

Developer Beau Beemsterboer is expected to present the revised plans to the community at a meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Mount Washington Senior Center.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/developer-scales-down-grandiose-project-for-mount-washington-702313/#ixzz2eDmwdroM

Surveillance System Change At Wilkes-Barre Garage Draws Rave From Board Member

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

WILKES-BARRE — An upgrade to a fiber-optic connection improved the Hawkeye Security Solutions cameras in the Park & Lock East garage, said a member of the board of the nonprofit corporation overseeing the operation of the city’s surveillance system.

The switch from copper wire cost about $2,000 for hardware to make the connection, said Lou Lau, a Hawkeye board member and Wilkes-Barre city employee, at the board’s regular monthly meeting on Wednesday.  “The improvement there is fantastic,” Lau said.

The garage is located on the corner of North Washington and East Market streets, across from City Hall.

The Wilkes-Barre Parking Authority’s two other garages, Park & Lock Central and North, have wireless connections.  The Intermodal garage, operated by the city, should have more than 60 cameras operational in another month.

Read more:  http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/555670/W-B-Hawkeye-upgrade-praised

Lancaster General’s $50 Million Project At Former Lancaster Family YMCA Site Moves Forward

After receiving approvals more than a year ago to build a new office building and a parking garage on the former Lancaster Family YMCA site, Lancaster General Health put the brakes on the project.

Now it’s full speed ahead.

Andrew Baldo, vice president of project developer Arcadia Properties, on Wednesday sought and received from the city Planning Commission a waiver of preliminary plan approval requirements.

The waiver allows the $50 million project to skip a step and moves it closer to having all approvals in place by late June.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/839506_Lancaster-General-s–50-million-project-at-former-Lancaster-Family-YMCA-site-moves-forward.html#ixzz2QqkIejI3

Development Group To Buy Abraham Lincoln Hotel Garage

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

The Reading Parking Authority Board agreed Wednesday to sell the parking garage at The Abraham Lincoln hotel to Alan Shuman Development Group, Reading, for $1.05 million.

Authority Executive Director Lawrence H. Lee said the board wanted to sell the garage at North Fifth and Washington streets to whoever was purchasing the hotel, for which the development group has an agreement of sale.

Details on the hotel purchase were not available.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=382186