Lancaster City Seeks Proposals For Bulova Building, Adjacent City Property

Lancaster city is formally seeking proposals for the vacant Bulova building and adjacent city-owned property in hopes of connecting a stagnant part of downtown.

The city intends to use eminent domain to take the Bulova building at North Queen and East Orange streets. That means the city would pay fair market value for the property and the building’s lien holders would then be paid.

The city issued requests for proposals on Friday.

Randy Patterson, the city’s economic development and neighborhood revitalization director, said the property is in a critical location downtown.

Read more:

http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/lancaster-city-seeks-proposals-for-bulova-building-adjacent-city-property/article_09f9f3de-00a7-11e5-84a4-17935f8a2998.html

Luzerne County Officials Tour Historic Wilkes-Barre Train Station

Moments before a tour was to begin, Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority workers found two men dozing on sleeping bags inside Wilkes-Barre’s historic train station Tuesday afternoon.

The men were annoyed with the interruption at first, telling officials, “We’re napping.” They scurried away when workers ordered them out for trespassing. They were let off with a warning because they were homeless and insisted they had never been there before.

The tour was scheduled because officials are still trying to determine the structure’s fate a decade after prior county commissioners first discussed plans to save the former New Jersey Central train station at the corner of Market Street and Wilkes-Barre Boulevard.

The authority purchased the 6-acre property, including a strip mall, for $5.8 million in April 2006 using federal community development funds provided by prior county commissioners.

Read more:

http://www.timesleader.com/news/home_top-local-news/153025164/Officials-tour-train-station

Donora Demolishing Former Fifth Street School

For more than a decade, Virginia Summers anticipated the day she could gaze across the street from her Donora home and see – nothing.

She is about to get her wish.

The borough on Thursday began demolition of the century-old building known as Fifth Street School. The structure, located at the intersection of Fifth Street and Allen Avenue, has been deteriorating for years and had become a safety issue.

“It’s been a pest,” Summers said. “… It is unsafe and everybody knows it. You could see bricks falling down. We’ve been troubling council for 10 years asking to please get it down, get it down. And I’m grateful they were finally able to make it happen.”

Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmonvalley/yourmonvalleymore/8054591-74/street-borough-building#ixzz3Vb3VVDgV
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York RDA Looking To Buy Cupids, Other North George Street Building

York’s Redevelopment Authority board on Wednesday gave its staff the go-ahead to negotiate a purchase of the two buildings at 244-250 N. George St., including the Cupid’s Adult Boutique building, which was partially damaged in a November fire.

The RDA wants to buy the two properties from their owner and find a developer who would redevelop them, said Shilvosky Buffaloe, York’s deputy director of economic development.

Read more: http://www.ydr.com/business/ci_27742943/rda-looking-buy-two-buildings-at-244-250

Memories And Sadness Greet Montgomery Hospital Demolition

NORRISTOWN, PA – The start of a six-month demolition of the seven-story Montgomery Hospital building on Powell Street this week has unlocked a flood of emotional responses from former patients, employees and residents of the nearby Locust Street block.

“It’s sad, but it is what it is,” said Leah Yzzi, a 16-year resident of Norristown who worked at the hospital as both a switchboard operator and as a teenage candy striper. “It was stupid to move the hospital to East Norriton.”

Yzzi gave birth to her three children — Kailee, 13, Jordan 12, and Angelo, 8 — at Montgomery Hospital.

“I made a lot of friends there. My mom, Kathy Kriebel, worked there for 15 years as an oncology nurse,” she said. “My step-dad, Dave Trumbore, worked there as an infectious disease doctor. I actually candy striped there for two summers in high school. I liked doing that.”

Read more:

http://www.timesherald.com/general-news/20150312/memories-and-sadness-greet-montgomery-hospital-demolition

Building Collapses In Philipsburg Causing Power Outage

Counties constituting the Happy Valley Region of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PHILIPSBURG, PA — The former Philipsburg commercial building on Pine and 11th streets, gutted by a fire in June, was scheduled for demolition Tuesday.

Overnight, it got a head start.

Monday, shortly before midnight, the upper section of the vacant building along Pine Street collapsed from wind and rain, spraying bricks onto the sidewalk and street and knocking out power in the neighborhood.

Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2014/08/12/4301425/building-collapses-in-philipsburg.html?sp=/99/116/#storylink=cpy

Is Wilkes-Barre’s Irem Temple Next On The Demolition List?

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

WILKES-BARRE, PA — At some point something has to be done with the Irem Temple, and Rick Williams and others hope it’s not torn down like the nearby Hotel Sterling.

Last week demolition crews razed a good portion of the rear of the hotel.

They’re moving to the North River Street side today to continue to reduce the landmark structure to rubble.  The hotel opened in 1898, and nine years later, the temple, designed in Moorish revival architecture complete with four minarets and dome, was completed on North Franklin Street.

Like the hotel, it’s been vacant for years, and architect Rick Williams fears its brick walls could be bashed to pieces by the steel buckets and blades of excavators, like those leveling the hotel.

Read more:  http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/707441/Is-the-Irem-Temple-next

A Legend Will Fall: Wilkes-Barre’s Sterling Hotel End Nears

English: Hotel Sterling, Wilkes-Barre (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kurt Sauer will get a long-awaited birthday present next Thursday: The demolition of the Hotel Sterling.

Since Wilkes-Barre officials decided in January to bring the building down without the help of Luzerne County, the city had to start the process from scratch.  That meant Sauer, the city’s director of community development, had to fill out reams of paperwork – he points to a 4-inch binder chock-full of various documents – as he worked to get approval from various state and federal agencies.

So when Brdaric Excavating finally begins work Thursday, Sauer will be a year older and a step closer to finishing the job.  And the current chapter of the Sterling’s life, one filled with hopes of restoration and disappointing and expensive failures to save the historic building, will near a close.

John Brdaric, owner of Brdaric Excavating, didn’t respond to requests for an interview about the $419,000 demolition.  But Sauer and Butch Frati, Wilkes-Barre’s director of operations, explained how they believe the process will unfold.

Read more:  http://citizensvoice.com/news/a-legend-will-fall-sterling-s-end-nears-1.1523678

Coffee-Roasting Site Planned On East Marion Street In Lancaster

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

Kyle Sollenberger often walks along East Marion Street with his children from his East Orange Street home to Musser Park.

He would pass the vacant, dilapidated building that was the former home of Gam Manufacturing.

An entrepreneur, Sollenberger began thinking about ways to better the neighborhood by reusing the building at 315 E. Marion St..

On Monday, Sollenberger and his architect laid out plans to members of Lancaster city’s Historical Commission.

A city cafe, which he declined to name, is interested in using the building to roast coffee. Previously, before the city’s Zoning Hearing Board, he said the cafe operators also would have a bakery in the building to prepare items for sale in the cafe.  Employee training also would occur there.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/828453_Coffee-roasting-site-planned-on-East-Marion-Street-in-Lancaster.html#ixzz2ONOqY3PT

Funds Sought To Restore Wilkes-Barre Irem Temple

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

WILKES-BARRE – The 107-year-old Irem Temple building, a historic landmark on North Franklin Street, once was Wilkes-Barre‘s primary public performance venue.

Today, the once-grand building has fallen into disrepair and has no heat, lights or electricity.  But city and chamber officials are trying to save it.

During a tour by flashlight Wednesday, Ross Macarty, vice president of community development, real estate and special projects for the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, showed that water damage has taken a toll on the deteriorating building and thieves have stolen copper and brass inside over the past two months.

The Greater Wilkes-Barre Development Corp., an arm of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, bought the building in 2005 for $992,000, using a combination of federal, state and chamber funds.  The chamber and city are seeking $2.4 million in state gaming funds to bring the building up to code and return it to use.

Read more:  http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/business/funds-sought-to-restore-wilkes-barre-irem-temple-1.1434055