What used to be Philadelphia’s Four Seasons hotel is set to reopen as a branch of Hilton’s high-end Curio brand, the hotel’s operator said Tuesday.
The property, which will be renamed the Logan, will be completely renovated before opening this fall, Denver-based Sage Hospitality Group said in a statement.
The Logan Square hotel, owned by Host Hotels & Resorts, will have its traditional decor updated to a more modern look, according to Sage, which did not provide a budget for the renovations.
Donna Sedor, vice president at the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber, has resigned to begin a new leadership career with the Wyoming Valley Children’s Association, according to a letter chamber chief executive officer Wico van Genderen sent to board members.
“I fully support her in this move,” van Genderen said. “As I have said on numerous occasions, our future is our children.”
Sedor has worked for the chamber for 24 years. During her tenure, van Genderen said the chamber has witnessed several accomplishments such as the openings of business parks, the arena, major transportation initiatives and the downtown Wilkes-Barre theater project.
Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/w-b-chamber-vice-president-resigns-1.1826648
Location of Whitpain Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Whitpain Township, PA – A new name, a new website, a social media campaign, and new ways for local businesses to meet and greet.
Those are just some of the perks now being offered by the former PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce, now known as of Wednesday as the PennSuburban Chamber of Greater Montgomery County.
“We’re really excited to keep our name, keep the logo, but add that geographic reference, so if we talk to folks who don’t know who we are, we can at least tell them where we are,” said CEO Pam Kelly.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lancaster General Health, the organization that serves about three-fourths of Lancaster County’s health care market, is looking at becoming part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
LG Health and the Penn system, UPHS, have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore “a consolidated relationship,” the two organizations said Tuesday.
If those explorations bear fruit, LG Health would combine with UPHS, becoming a member organization, LG Health CEO Tom Beeman told LNP.
He called Penn a “world-class strategic partner” that shares LG Health’s values and has complementary strengths.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting York County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you name it, they will come.
Sonia Huntzinger, executive director of Downtown Inc, said that’s the theory behind York’s recent push to brand pockets of its 26-block downtown business district, creating a patchwork of neighborhoods that will each offer something different to regional visitors.
In the last two years, the nonprofit, which promotes revitalization of the city, has partnered with grassroots groups to demarcate several sections, including Royal Square, the Market District, Beaver Street and the latest, Weco.
The growth in destination branding, as the strategy is called, has coincided with Downtown Inc’s “Who Knew” campaign, a YouTube ad effort that highlights shopping and eatery options with the goal of bringing more foot traffic into local businesses.
English: Downtown Pittsburgh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Morphing from steel industry collapse to eds-and-meds rebirth, from a too-gray place that young people flee to one that attracts them as a “green” center of culture and recreation, from a tale of Rust Belt woe to one of urban transformation, it is indisputable that the Pittsburgh region is a far different place than it was 30 years ago.
And by most standards, it would seem to be a far better place as well.
Since 1983, when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a special section chronicling the unique and worrisome issues confronting the region during Depression-level hits to its workforce, Pittsburgh has lost people, corporations, churches, schools and, yes, even a prothonotary.
But it has rebuilt its economy; added museums, theaters and riverfront trails; replaced its sports facilities, airport and convention center; and reinvented the Pittsburgh Downtown as a place to live, while serving the thousands more who commute to it by opening a subway, busways and a highway to the north.
The Reading Fightin Phils are off and running – maybe not quite as fast as last season, when they matched the best start in club history by winning their first five games and seven of their first eight, but they’ve gotten off to a positive start.
The Phillies won four times on a season-opening seven-game road trip to New Hampshire and Portland. Not bad, considering how young the club is and how badly things started, with a 9-0 loss Opening Night.
Reading manager Dusty Wathan, whose roster includes 10 players making their Double-A debuts and 12 who are 23 or younger, said he likes what he’s seen the first week of the season.
“I think we’ve done a great job of being aggressive on the bases, of putting pressure on the defense,” said Wathan. “We, as an organization, want to emphasize that aggressiveness (this year). We’ve been taking extra bases, our steal attempts are up. I like the way we’ve been aggressive on the base paths.”
The next town in my series of redevelopment success stories in Quakertown, PA. Pottstown area residents are all familiar with Quakertown. We even share Route 663.
Quakertown has benefited over the years, to some degree, by their proximity to the big cities in the Lehigh Valley. They are part of suburbia on heavily traveled Route 309. What many people think of when they get a visual of Quakertown is the “Big Box” sprawl on 309. However, there is more to Quakertown.
Quakertown Borough is 2.0 square miles and contained 8,931 residents according to the 2000 census. A 2009 estimate put the population of the borough at 8,672. The estimated median income for Quakertown in 2008 was $53,340. The 2008 estimated per capita income was $27,000. The City-data crime index for Quakertown in 2009 was 258.0, which is considered low.
This all sounds rather idyllic. Why not roll with it? However, the status quo was not good enough for Quakertown officials who felt they needed to get people excited about their downtown and what it has to offer. Honestly, I never thought there was much more to Quakertown than Route 309, if the truth be told. So now I am excited too!
Quakertown has come up with the all important “tag line” which is “Explore The Possibilities”. Kind of peeks your interest further, doesn’t it! I enjoy exploring! Now I feel the urge to drive up to Quakertown and venture into their downtown to “explore” the possibilities! Local officials want to make Quakertown a destination. To that end, they hired Delta Development Group of Mechanicsburg, PA to help lead them to the promised land of redevelopment. In addition, Quakertown has hired Marketing Solutions of Quakertown to help them identify and market their borough.
The $64,000 question: What kind of destination does Quakertown want to be? The winning answer is recreation, culture, shopping and dining. To that end a logo was carefully crafted incorporating these elements. Because Quakertown is strategically located on the edge of the Lehigh and Delaware valleys, they are marketing themselves in both areas.
Quakertown was once a manufacturing and commercial center. With the decline of industry, Quakertown is now a bedroom community and regional shopping destination. Quakertown has decided to work with the assets they have and improve upon them. Instead of crying over what once was, they are embracing what is.
Click here to check out the Quakertown development organization’s website – Quakertown Alive! http://www.quakertownalive.com/
Hat tip to readers Katy and Andrew for bringing this story to my attention!
Demographic data from Wikipedia and City-data.com
Image via Wikipedia
One year ago, Roger Brooks visited York City and came up with 33 recommendations how downtown York could market itself and attract people. This idea should sound familiar to Pottstown residents after a ULI study and recommendations were made for Pottstown.
What did York do with these 33 recommendations? Do you suppose they ignored them or possibly took an expert at their word and went about trying to carry out these ideas? I know, sounds pretty zany, doesn’t it!
Mr. Brooks gave York a 3 – 5 year time frame to make the changes. Like Pottstown, York has a downtown entity similar to PDIDA, called Downtown Inc. Their Executive Director, Sonia Huntzinger reports they have completed 18 out of 33 recommendations in the first year!
Some of these recommendations, Pottstown has already completed (mainly the cosmetic ones). One unique recommendation, completed in October, was a “best of” guide. Downtown Inc. released a Downtown Destination guide which promotes downtown York!
Brooks recommended that York brand itself as “America’s Industrial Art and Design Capital”. The York County Economic Development Corp. has developed “Creativity Unleashed” to support this effort. The idea is to attract young professionals and artists to York along with tourism. A logo was developed to be used by organizations and companies in their advertising to help promote this rebranding.
How refreshing to see that the county and the city work together to achieve these goals. How refreshing to see the vigor with which York is embracing these recommendations for positive change.
If you would like to check out Downtown Inc.’s website site, click here: http://downtownyorkpa.com/
To view their 25 page Downtown Destination brochure, click here:
http://downtownyorkpa.com/storage/Destination%20Guide%20ALL%20Pages.pdf
To view Creativity Unleashed info, click here:
http://downtownyorkpa.com/creativity-unleashed/
If this doesn’t inspire you, check your pulse!
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