Study: Pittsburgh’s Network Of Riverfront Parks Contributes To Boom In Development

Pittsburgh’s riverfront parks system is not only a haven for rest, relaxation and recreation but an economic powerhouse that has helped to generate billions of dollars in development over the past 15 years, a study has found.

In that time, the $130 million invested in the 13-mile Three Rivers Park has helped to produce nearly $4.1 billion in development on and near the riverfront, according to the study by Sasaki Associates, a Massachusetts-based architectural and planning firm.

In addition, the study, commissioned by Riverlife and to be released today, determined that since 2001, property values along that stretch have jumped by 60 percent compared with 32 percent in the rest of the city.

“The pattern in Pittsburgh and in other cities across the country is clear: properties with close proximity to high quality park infrastructure increase in value more than properties that do not,” the report stated.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2015/05/07/Study-Pittsburgh-s-network-of-riverfront-parks-contributes-to-boom-in-development/stories/201505070094

Solar Energy To Light Up Wilkes-Barre Township Shopping Center

English: Map of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania highlighting Wilkes-Barre Township (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

EDWARDSVILLE, PA — After successfully using solar energy at the Gateway Shopping Center, Joe Amato Properties is number crunching on the feasibility to install solar panels at the East End Centre, Wilkes-Barre Township.

Three years ago, the Gateway Shopping Center in Edwardsville made a groundbreaking move, becoming the first area shopping plaza to install solar panels to light all common areas such as parking lots, lights under canopies and an office space.

Liana Kissinger, property manager for Joe Amato Properties, and A.J. Bittner, president with Keystone Energy Solar Services, Wyoming, confirmed they are working together again with the East End Centre under consideration for a similar installation.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/business/50441894/Solar-energy-to-light-up-East-End-Centre

Clarke Unveils Plan For Affordable Housing In Gentrifying Philly Neighborhoods

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

Council President Darrell Clarke today unveiled a plan to build 1,500 affordable housing units in gentrifying neighborhoods like Francisville, Point Breeze and Mantua by redeveloping city-owned vacant land or tax-delinquent properties.

One thousand of the units will be rentals and would take advantage of two underused financing tools, Clarke said: operational subsidies for affordable housing from the Philadelphia Housing Authority and a tax credit from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

The city would also need to issue a $100 million bond to be paid for by the Housing Trust Fund, which currently supports other programs.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/Clarke-unveils-plan-for-affordable-housing-in-gentrifying-neighborhoods.html#o1ssZ08Syqt3eBBK.99

Loans From Reading Sought For Downtown Hotel Project

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

The long-planned Doubletree Convention Center Hotel downtown has hit a new snag, and its chief developer – retailer Albert R. Boscov – is asking the city for help.

Boscov told City Council and the administration Monday that the project has lost the $1 million commitment it was counting on from the Lancaster-based Community First Fund.

That fund last week announced it was giving $6 million in federal new markets tax credits to another city project – Shuman Development Co.’s plans for market-rate apartments in the old Big Mill outlets at Eighth and Oley streets – leaving none for the hotel.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=517591

Reading May Not Cut Commuter Tax Or Earned-Income Tax

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

Reading City Council members who weeks ago tentatively agreed to a slight drop in earned-income and commuter taxes have now changed their minds; they want both taxes to stay flat.

The difference would mean an extra $1.2 million in annual revenue – mostly from commuters – and council is focusing on the 2015 and 2016 budgets that have gaps of more than $10 million each.

Council President Francis G. Acosta, who is against the move, said he was surprised when a poll of council members Monday showed five in favor of keeping the tax flat.

But he and other council members said they don’t want the extra 2014 revenue to be used to hire more people at City Hall, but rather be put in the contingency fund, or be reserved for 2015 and 2016.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=517020

Proposed Norristown Apartment Building Denied Low-Income Housing Tax Credits

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

Editor’s note:  YAHOO!

NORRISTOWN ­­— The developer of a proposed $17 million, 96-unit apartment building slated for a Montgomery County parking lot in Norristown has been denied $1,020,581 in low-income housing tax credits requested from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA).

The proposal from Pennrose Properties of Philadelphia was not included on a July 11 list of Cycle 2 awards from the PHFA, according to Jerry Nugent, the executive director of the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority.

“I have no idea what effect this will have on the project,” Nugent said.  “My understanding is there was an appeal filed by Doug Seiler and other people for the (Norristown) variances granted.  I don’t know how long that will run.  The legal appeal could run for a year or more.”

The development company secured the zoning variances on March 26 for the proposed, four-story building and has not yet submitted site plans to the Norristown planning department.

Read more:  http://www.timesherald.com/article/20130721/NEWS01/130729944/proposed-norristown-apartment-building-denied-low-income-housing-tax-credits#full_story

A Petition To Stop Housing Visions Of Syracuse, NY From Building More Low-Income Housing In Pottstown

We implore the State Government, the PA Finance Housing Agency to deny tax-credits to the recent low-income developer, Housing Visions of Syracuse, NY, who would like to contribute 43 more rental housing units for low-income people.

Please sign our petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/deny-…

Homeowner occupants in the Borough of Pottstown struggle to pay their taxes, maintain their homes, safeguard what is left of their quality of life, and watch their home values sink.

We are a borough of 5 square miles, population 22,000 in Montgomery County, PA one of the Wealthiest Counties in the U.S.  By the counties own figures, Pottstown has a rate over 7 times higher than the county average of Voucher Housing residents.  The poor, disabled, drug addicted and mentally ill are warehoused here as sex offenders and other criminal elements find respite within our slums.

The streets and sidewalks of our town are land mines of trash and discarded households, raw sewage runs freely, crossing public walkways into the gutters and storm water drains while greedy rental income investors milk the taxpayers, collect their government checks and blatantly neglect their properties, their tenants, their taxes and this community.

Rental homes fill with moisture and mold, faulty furnaces go unchecked while dangerous electrical wiring lies hidden beneath false ceilings.  Drug dealers rule the streets and young women, who give them shelter in their Section 8 dwellings, have more babies that we cannot afford.

Pottstown and Norristown Boroughs carry an untenable weight of segregation of the poor and non-whites so that the wealthy white communities of Montgomery County, PA will never have to know the reality of impoverishment.

STOP THEM NOW.

43 Apartments Planned For Pottstown Furniture Warehouse

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

Editor’s note:  While we 100 percent support any adaptive reuse projects in Pottstown, we are greatly concerned about the involvement of a low-income housing tax credit.  This project, if done correctly, could be a HUGE shot in the arm to this neighborhood and solidify the borough’s claim to be moving towards becoming an arts designation (which we 110 percent support). 

That being said, private sector investment is needed, not more glorified Section 8 housing.  In our humble opinion, this is the “easy way out”.  It might be harder to find private sector dollars but the payoff is greater.  Other communities are successfully finding investors who are converting old building into MARKET RATE apartments and condominiums.  I am all for affordable housing but any involvement of Section 8/low-income funding taints the project.

Pottstown needs to have a better opinion of itself and not settle for the first offer that falls from the sky.  Section 8 and low-income housing do not raise property values nor do they change people’s minds about Pottstown.  Somebody needs to be courageous and just say no.  Find another way.

POTTSTOWN — The moribund plan to transform the former Fecera’s furniture warehouse on Beech Street into artist loft apartments returned to borough council Wednesday night with new backers and a new twist.

Genesis Housing Inc., the non-profit agency which engineered the development of the former Jefferson School into senior rental housing and has rehabilitated dozens or blighted properties in the first ward into owner-occupied homes, is partnering with a Syracuse non-profit housing agency on a $12 million plan to develop the property into 43 apartments targeted toward artists.

The difference is in addition to securing an historic architecture tax credit for the project, the developers,   HousingVisions, are also seeking a low-income housing tax credit, the same kind sought in 2010 for the controversial Pearl senior housing proposal along Industrial Highway — and that raised a few eyebrows on borough council.

“I’m still not sold,” Borough Council President Stephen Toroney said. “This is the same tax credit that was sought by the Pearl Group and that was for a 55-and-older community and people still came out and protested.”

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130607/NEWS01/130609465/43-apartments-planned-for-pottstown-furniture-warehouse#full_story

Investors Could Get Tax Credits For Reading Projects

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lancaster-based Community First Fund announced Wednesday that it has received $15 million from the federal New Markets Tax Credit program enticing investors to bring jobs to low-income areas, including Reading.

“Those in the New Markets Tax Credit world know how big a deal this is,” Daniel Betancourt, fund president and chief executive, said at a news conference in the offices of Berks County Community Foundation, Third and Court streets.

Betancourt said the award will significantly increase investment in the region’s lowest-income communities, especially Reading.

The Community First Fund, which has an office at 505 Penn St., was among 85 organizations in the nation getting a share of $3.5 billion in this year’s round.  There were 282 applicants.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=474642

Exchange To Offer Health Insurance To Nearly 81,000 In Northeast Pennsylvania

Exchange to offer health insurance.

Assistance available to those in need.

Nearly 81,000 Northeast Pennsylvanians will be eligible to buy subsidized health insurance next year through an exchange, according to a new report released Wednesday.

The report, “Help Is at Hand: New Health Insurance Tax Credits in Pennsylvania,” by Families USA, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit that supports President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, details who will be eligible to obtain health insurance through the Pennsylvania exchange.

Read more:  http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/health-science/exchange-to-offer-health-insurance-to-nearly-81-000-in-northeast-pennsylvanian-1.1464563

Lower-Income Rental Complex Proposed For Norristown

“A proposal for 48 rental apartments on Sandy Street subsidized by federal tax credits ran into pointed questions and some opposition when it was recently presented to council”…. read the full story on the Times Herald:

http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2010/12/27/news/doc4d17e877e8982758384678.txt?viewmode=default

Hat Tip to Chris Huff for bringing the story to my attention!

Here is another story from the Philadephia Inquirer with their take on the lower-income rental complex proposed for Norristown and includes Pottstown in their discussion.  Another hat tip to Chris Huff for the link!

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_region/20101230_Norristown_shuns_apartment_dwelling.html?viewAll=y