Green ridge section of scranton/please answer scrantonwilkesbarre

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by WilkesColonel

Hey Paul. I'm another Pittston kid myself, Hughestown to be exact.

We probably know each other. I'm in Hughestown all the time; my grandmother lives on Rock Street, and occasionally I'll run for exercise around the streets of Stauffer Heights or at the track at the new primary center (the mountain views from both areas are phenomenal!)

Originally Posted by WilkesColonel

Like you too, I'm a full-fledged idealist and optimist. Watching all of the tremendous development throughout NEPA over the past five or so years, I've found myself quite giddy about the area for a change. We've still got a long way to go, but you can already see the progress being made.

Definitely. I think the new town slogans in place are finally working to get people thinking more optimistically about our region's future again. People are "Believing" in Wilkes-Barre, and they are "Restoring the Pride" in Scranton. I've been toying around the with the idea of launching a similar community redevelopment organization for Pittston called "Pittston 2020" (see www.pittston.org for the basic shell of the website I started), as I see that Scranton and Wilkes-Barre are both forging onward with successful downtown renaissances while Downtown Pittston continues to languish. I'm hopeful that the new waterfront condo towers being built next year between Cooper's and the Water Street Bridge generate enough upper-middle-class foot-traffic in the downtown to lure unique merchants back to Main Street; it's sad when most of the town reverse-commutes out to the 'burbs in the evenings to "hang out" at Wal-Mart. It's nice to see I'm not the only 18-24 year-old that is bucking the "Brain Drain" phenomenon.

Originally Posted by WilkesColonel

As for this CenterPoint project, what exactly is it? Working and schooling primarily in Wilkes-Barre, I pass by the clearing between I-81 and 476 on a regular basis, finding myself all the more curious each time. Also, does that have anything to do with the clearing just west of I-81 as it passes by Pittston Twp, or is that still being held open for the potential Super Wal-Mart complex?

CenterPoint is basically an "upscale" industrial park being developed by Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services. I know so much about the project because I live in a housing development in Pittston Township (Butler Heights) that will nearly be surrounded by this new growth within five years, so we have a vested interest in preserving our neighborhood's appeal.

Basically, here's the rundown with Wal-Mart: The traffic light at the Pilot Travel Center will be upgraded to include a fourth direction---The entry into Pittston Crossings (which is the name for the new shopping center that will be housing the Wal-Mart Supercenter and over a dozen other stores), will sit directly across the intersection from Pilot. Nearby existing buildings, including two former Vullo trucking garages, an old ranch home, and the former Car-Lotta Credit building will all be razed to make room for an L-shaped complex of smaller stores while Wal-Mart will be set back from Highway 315 to being about parallel with Victoria Inns (Now Quality Suites). Behind that L-shaped complex and to the right (north) of that new access road is our development. Currently, the developer of Pittston Crossings, George Zamias, is embroiled with impending litigation with Mericle over the usage of that new access road to continue behind the Wal-Mart complex and then curve left (south) to Oak Street, where it will intersect between the Casey Dental Institute and the upcoming childrens' village. Mericle is developing the land behind the dental office and behind the proposed Wal-Mart for one of the several phases of this massive "CenterPoint" project (See the new billboard along I-81 Northbound near Wilkes-Barre), and they want to create this L-shaped road to access this phase of the park, but Zamias apparently doesn't want all of the freight traffic coming through his shopping center and creating a traffic nightmare (As if two-lane Oak Street isn't already congested enough at rush-hour).

[SteelCityRising]

The first phase of CenterPoint is currently under development off of Armstrong Road (behind Ken Pollock Chevrolet on 315 in PT). This phase will be home to a Men's Warehouse distribution center, Lowe's Home Improvement Distribution Center, and this potential Wall Street West tenant. Mericle is erecting all of the buildings, retaining ownership of them, and leasing them to companies, giving Mericle better management over being selective in their decisions to rent as landlords (Rob Mericle said at a recent township meeting that his company had already turned down a firm because it wasn't "suitable" for the environment they wanted to create). The buildings will range from distribution centers (Lowe's, Men's Warehouse) to office buildings (Wall Street West). I'm still leary of what will become of the Highway 315/Oak Street/Armstrong Road corridor once thousands of new employees and shoppers are heading to Pittston Crossings and CenterPoint, but my concerns were not echoed by any of our supervisors when I brought them to their attention (I suppose Oak Street, being two lanes, is more than capable of handling an added 10,000 vehicles per day without becoming "congested.") Since my sister and I have both been involved in accidents near that dangerous intersection by Pollock Chevrolet (my sister was sideswiped at that dangerous middle-turn lane near Perkins, and I was rear-ended at a red light), I also brought safety issues to their attention. Rob Mericle impressed me in that his company is committed to making many improvements to traffic flow in the area, including the re-alignment of Armstrong Road (it will no longer veer AWAY from Pollock and parallel 315, but will come out as a STRAIGHT road), and the potential widening of Oak Street (how many of the homes in Browntown, if any, will be razed is beyond me, but Horizon Estates was already developed right adjacent to the road's right-of-way, so I don't see how "widening" is possible here).

Finally, I just read in the property transfers that the Pittston Plaza (the Redner's stucco-ish portion) was recently sold by Acadia Realty for $6,000,000 to what apparently looks to be Zamias's parent company; could he perhaps be looking to expand his Pittston Crossings project or extend his Wal-Mart access road to the ByPass? (which would kill K-Mart for sure!) I'll have to keep on top of this, as some homes in our development are just a few hundred feet away from this property!

Originally Posted by WilkesColonel

If this CenterPoint project has something to do with the Wall Street West program as you suggest, then I am thoroughly impressed because I was under the impression that very little of the Wall Street program would reach as far as Pittston. I was led to believe that it would primarily be situated in the immediate Poconos, and maybe a few renegades who want to extend further might end up in one of the existing industrial parks around Wilkes-Barre or Scranton. If it is true about them laying foundation in PT, all I have to say is "Sweet!"

I also thought it was more of a "Pocono" thing, but if Mericle is aggressively-marketing this upscale park to Wall Street, then I'm pleased by all means.

Originally Posted by WilkesColonel

By the way, did you graduate from Pittston Area, and if so, what year?

I'm indeed a Patriot; I graduated in 2005, and my sister, also an alumnus, is currently an English teacher at the high school. The school certainly wasn't as bad as the community makes it out to be; I was the only one in my college class who had already mastered MLA citation in high school!

Originally Posted by WilkesColonel

Also, please keep us all informed to the best of your ability of new developments and projects in "the Valley" if you'd be so kind. I try to keep up, and even when I think that I've got the whole story, you seem to have something more. Much appreciated. Keep up the good work.

I most certainly will, and thanks for the compliments. We may be cross-town rivals, but we certainly have a lot in common as small-town neighbors (from my perch at the top of Butler Heights, we can see over to Quail Hill, Laurel Street, and the Primary Center in Hughestown). Look carefully the next time you start to come down Rock Street towards Laurel Street, and you may actually see my home off in the distance through the trees between Dupont and Redner's.