"With several construction and redevelopment projects planned or under way in the surrounding neighborhood, including a proposed federal courthouse project at Sixth and Reily streets, a growing sense of optimism is building that the area dubbed the northern gateway might be the catalyst for future investment in the ailing capital city." -- Central Penn Business Journal
Northern gateway could bolster Harrisburg's urban renewal
Seventh Street improvements expected to enhance real estate marketability
By Jason Scott
October 14, 2011
Vibrant and thriving are not words anyone is using to describe the North Seventh Street corridor between Reily and Maclay streets in Midtown Harrisburg.
But with several construction and redevelopment projects planned or under way in the surrounding neighborhood, including a proposed federal courthouse project at Sixth and Reily streets, a growing sense of optimism is building that the area dubbed the northern gateway might be the catalyst for future investment in the ailing capital city.
"It's one of the major arteries in and out of the city. It's well-suited and poised to be a mixed-use neighborhood," said Ralph Vartan, CEO of Susquehanna Township-based Vartan Group Inc., developer of the $13.6 million 1500 Project, a condominium and retail building under construction at Sixth and Reily streets.
Last month, Harrisburg officials ceremoniously broke ground on an $8 million gateway improvement project that calls for widening North Seventh Street to four lanes from two, and adding sidewalks, sewage infrastructure and antique-style lighting and benches.
The project also includes improving the intersection at North Seventh and Maclay streets, and revamping the crumbling Maclay Street bridge, which connects to Cameron Street and the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center.
Midtown developers and city leaders said they believe the improvement project will draw traffic from Interstate 81 and Routes 22 and 322, diverting it away from the heavily traveled Front Street and Second Street corridors.
The additional traffic on North Seventh Street would increase the marketability of real estate and could prompt businesses to invest in the corridor, said Bryan Davis, executive director of the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority.
Rundown and vacant structures and undeveloped parcels make up the bulk of the property in that area.
"Once the widening is complete and the increased traffic flow is there, it makes it much more attractive for boutique stores of larger chains," Davis said, not ruling out the possibility of a big-box retailer locating in that part of the city.
The widening project is slated for completion next summer or fall, said Robert Philbin, a spokesman for Mayor Linda Thompson. The mayor's focus is on housing and family-sustaining development projects to build a thriving young professional community in that area, he said.
"I believe the ultimate goal (for the northern gateway) is achievable; but like everything with the economy, funding becomes a major problem," said August "Skip" Memmi, executive director of the Dauphin County Department of Community and Economic Development.
There are signs the northern gateway will take off, he said, citing projects by Vartan and Harrisburg-based GreenWorks Development (see sidebar).
"We're starting to see the infill retail businesses coming to Midtown," he said.
Much of that is along North Third Street in the area of the Broad Street Market.
A sustainable rebirth of Midtown would have a big impact on Dauphin County and beyond, Memmi added. The Dauphin County Redevelopment Authority is in the process of launching a redevelopment marketing strategy that spans the entire county.
Any commercial development, especially those projects that are the size of the proposed courthouse — the plan is 265,000 square feet — also is going to have a positive impact on property values and additional community investment, Davis said.
However, debate over a new tax abatement strategy remains a hurdle, developers said.
"It's imperative for the city to look at (abatement) again," said David Butcher, president of Harrisburg-based WCI Partners, the developer behind the neighborhood revitalization of Olde Uptown.
Without an abatement program, it's very difficult to make economic development work, he said.
Vartan also stressed the need for tax incentives and continued efforts to fight blighted properties in the city.
The city's last tax abatement under the state's Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program, known as Lerta, expired in December. It gave owners who added value to any property within the city 10 years to phase in their higher tax rates at increments of just 10 percent each year.
Attempts to tackle a new ordinance have been hampered by debates over a fiscal recovery plan that will pull Harrisburg out of its lingering debt problems, which include $310 million of incinerator debt.
This article appeared in the Central Penn Business Journal and is available online here.
