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I was in Downtown Wilkes-Barre for several hours today. I had to run a few errands, which included picking up my textbooks for next week ($650! Ouch!), renewing my parking permit ($50/mo. Ouch!), and driving a relative home from work. I intentionally left myself a lot of free time so I could meander around the city to see how things were progressing. I was very saddened by my visit. I was dismayed to have seen very little, if any, progress had been made on the riverfront recreation project. I felt like a moving target as I tried to cross busy River Street at the Market Street Bridge. I then stopped into the Hallmark store on Public Square to chat to a college friend of mine who works there. I learned that this store was the latest casualty of the downtown's volatile economic climate, as it will be closing in late-February. You know something is seriously wrong with your community when both a Wendy's and a Hallmark in its core can't stay afloat.
Wilkes-Barre just has so much potential on every block, and when I hear about business after business shuttering its doors I can't help but get frustrated. The city's central core, with the exception of Public Square and North and South Main Street, is very historic in nature. The city is very pleasant to walk around with a lot of tree-lined streets and historic structures. Nevertheless the city continues to falter. I have a lot of faith in Mayor Leighton, but to date it seems as if for every new business that has opened downtown (La Toscana, That Thai, Quizno's, Barnes & Noble, Starbuck's, etc.) another business closes in its wake (Club Mardi Gras, Campus Square Billiards, Wendy's, Slainte, Hallmark, etc.) "I Believe" in the city of Wilkes-Barre, as per Mayor Leighton's slogan, but it seems like revitalization efforts have now plateaued.
This is why I think we need to talk the Mayor into trying to renovate most of the downtown into Municipal services along with some apartment complexes. Keep promoting the two colleges abroad to get enrollment up helping them to expand into the downtown core. With these implementations and the Riverfront finishing convenience stores will be enticed back downtown. I don't think we'll ever see downtown become a vibrant thriving shopping destination again.
We have to reinvent the downtown to be a mix of these three elements for starters before we might see some retail growth in the area.
Oddly enough the suburbs aren't faring all that well either. I always thought that there were too many restaurants cramped into one small region in Wilkes-Barre Township, and that has become apparent now that one of them, Boston's Gourmet Pizza, has shuttered.
I noticed some time back that the shopping hub in Wilkes Barre seemed overbuilt. The first place I noticed was the shopping area where the Big Lots is. The Chi Chi's, Ames and a couple other vacant spots. Across the street you have what I think was Circuit City and is sometimes now Halloween stuff. They just put too much in one space for only so much potential revenue. Then you have Viewmont Mall sucking up half the dollars being disbursed in the area. The big empty spot next to Kmart. I could go on and on about the fact that there are too many buildings in this area for all of them to thrive.
On the plus side, if and when the area grows and it will, we will have ample space already in place to grow retail wise with the new migrants.
Last edited by Chefkey; 01-09-2008 at 04:53 PM..
Reason: typo
This is why I think we need to talk the Mayor into trying to renovate most of the downtown into Municipal services along with some apartment complexes. Keep promoting the two colleges abroad to get enrollment up helping them to expand into the downtown core. With these implementations and the Riverfront finishing convenience stores will be enticed back downtown. I don't think we'll ever see downtown become a vibrant thriving shopping destination again.
We have to reinvent the downtown to be a mix of these three elements for starters before we might see some retail growth in the area.
The downtown is home to Wilkes University, King's College, and the LCCC Corporate Learning Center, all of which are growing by leaps and bounds. Nevertheless a visitor couldn't tell Wilkes-Barre was a "college town" if it bit you in the rear-end. Efforts to bring the three institutions together have largely failed. Collegetown Campus Square Billiards closed early last year. The Barnes & Noble joint college bookstore is profitable, but most college students rush in to buy/sell their textbooks and buy campus gear and then retreat back to King's or Wilkes, which anchor the northern and southern ends of downtown, respectively.
Reinvigorating Downtown Wilkes-Barre as a nightlife and tourist destination is the way to go. Niche retailers would be nice, but they are impractical in a region that has proven itself addicted to Wilkes-Barre Township. Wilkes-Barre serves as the "downtown" for the Back Mountain, Mountain Top, Nanticoke, the West Side, Bear Creek, and Greater Pittston. Hundreds of thousands of people could be lured in for a fun "night out on the town." Some amenities are wonderfully fitting this bill already---the F.M. Kirby Center immediately comes to mind even though its offerings are usually lackluster. I'd recommend trying to recruit some off-Broadway shows, as the Scranton Cultural Center does. It would be nice to head to the Kirby to see "RENT" or "Hairspray" some evening capped off with dinner at La Toscana, That Thai, or Katana and an after-show pick-me-up at Starbuck's.
Here are some things I'd like to see downtown to help it to fit the mold of a nightlife hotbed, tourist-friendly college town:
-Ice Cream Parlor: I can't believe there's no place for students, workers, etc. to drop by on sweltering days for a refreshing cold treat. I'd love to see a Cold Stone Creamery open up in one of the vacant storefronts in the Northampton & Main mixed-use project or in the space that will soon be vacated by the outgoing Hallmark store on Public Square. A Rita's Italian Ice might be good too. I'd also settle for a Dairy Queen, even though both this and Rita's have locations just across the river in Kingston. Hillside Farms in the Back Mountain could be revolutionary by opening a second store downtown to lure in folks to purchase farm-fresh dairy goods, including ice cream!
-Organic Grocery Store: I know Wilkes-Barre will never get a Whole Foods, but some sort of grocery store, even if it's not an organic one, will help serve students and residents of downtown high-rises and will lay the groundwork to make upcoming residential mixed-use projects viable for new downtown residents. It would be nice to find a market that sells fresh meats, cheeses, produce, etc. Valley Seafood on the northeastern edge of downtown already sells fresh seafood.
-Starbucks: One of these is one the way, in addition to the one just across the street inside the Barnes & Noble, so I can't complain here.
-Vegetarian Restaurant: With Thai Thai, Katana, La Toscana, La Poblanita, etc. the city's ethnic dining options are bursting at the seams. However I do know of some vegetarians in the Wyoming Valley who complain about the lack of a good vegetarian-friendly eatery. One would likely thrive in Wilkes-Barre as a result.
-Visitors' Center: Unlike Lackawanna County, which idiotically put its visitors' center in the suburbs, Luzerne County should strive to follow through with plans to establish a new visitors' center in a restored train station on Market Street Square on the eastern fringe of Center City.
-College-Oriented Night Club: I never patronized short-lived and poorly-managed Club Mardi Gras, but I definitely see the need for students to be able to meet somewhere to dance, socialize, etc. Plains Township has three night clubs, all of which are too far for students without vehicles to access.
-Billiards Hall: I barely even knew Campus Square Billiards was open before it closed abruptly. I long to have a place to play pool, along with foozeball, air hockey, etc. Such a business venture doesn't exist downtown (to my knowledge).
Finally, I'd like to see downtown businesses do what Scranton does in that it offers welcome bags to all incoming students filled with menus, coupons, favors, and all other sorts of "goodies" to entice students to patronize downtown businesses. I told friends on campus that I had patronized a downtown business once last semester, and they had no idea it even existed. That is characteristic of poor marketing towards students, who have more disposable income than you might think. I don't know why businesses in Downtown Wilkes-Barre wish to shun us and turn down our dollars---I have felt unwelcome in a few establishments though. My money is as good as anyone else's, is it not?
Allentown is to Bethlehem as Wilkes-Barre is to Scranton.
With two cities located so close to each other, it is really difficult for both to prosper. Wilkes-Barre will come around, but probably at the expense of Scranton. The whole circle thing. Nothing can prosper forever.
I noticed some time back that the shopping hub in Wilkes Barre seemed overbuilt. The first place I noticed was the shopping area where the Big Lots is. The Chi Chi's, Ames and a couple other vacant spots. Across the street you have what I think was Circuit City and is sometimes now Halloween stuff. They just put too much in one space for only so much potential revenue. Then you have Viewmont Mall sucking up half the dollars being disbursed in the area. The big empty spot next to Kmart. I could go on and on about the fact that there are too many buildings in this area for all of them to thrive.
I can still recall the mid-1990s (pre-Arena Hub/Highland Park era) in which Kidder Street (the road that Friday's is on) was the commercial real estate "hot spot" in the Wyoming Valley. Anybody who was a "somebody" NEEDED to have visibility on that roadway. Mundy Street was two lanes and was riddled with potholes. The only reason folks knew about that street was because of the Van Scoy Diamond Mine commercials in which the man speaking would repeat the name over and over again and even spell it out "M-U-N-D-Y" Street. (I still have those commercials stuck in my head!)
In the mid-1990s the Arena Hub Plaza was developed, and Mundy Street was widened to four lanes to accomodate the anticipated increase in traffic flow. That was nail in the coffin #1. The next big blow to Kidder Street came when the Wachovia Arena (then the First Union Arena) was completed in 1999, drawing even more attention towards that end of the township. Finally shortly thereafter Exit 168 was established off of I-81 to link the arena to the interstate and then Highland Park Boulevard was built to link that to the city via Coal Street. When Wal-Mart announced plans for a new supercenter on this new corridor, other chain stores began latching onto its foot traffic. Now retailers along Kidder Street struggle to get noticed, much like how retailers on Mundy Street did before the Arena Hub Plaza was developed. This is why there are so many blighted buildings along Kidder Street and why the East End Center (Old Country Buffet area) is so seedy now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chefkey
On the plus side, if and when the area grows and it will, we will have ample space already in place to grow retail wise with the new migrants.
I suppose you're more optimistic than I am. I don't see the throngs of people moving into Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties the way I used to hope and dream about. Monroe and Pike Counties will continue to become suburbs of New York City, but there seems to be much more limited interest in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre MSA than I thought.
Once the Riverfront project is finished a really good idea for the area right along it would be to try to present a New Hope, PA kind of atmosphere. If they could entice some small business owners with hobby and collectable shops along with some fashion trendy clothing stores these might do well there. Why not make Wilkes Barre's riverfront into another New Hope?
Starbucks just announced downsizing. Could one of these stores in the downtown be closed?
I don't think so. There are 14,000 people who work in Downtown Wilkes-Barre in addition to the nearly 6,000 college students and perhaps 3,000 residents. That is a base of 23,000 folks to draw from, not including daily visitors. That should be plenty to sustain a free-standing Starbuck's and one inside the Barnes & Noble.
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My money is as good as anyone else's, is it not?
