Upcoming Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Area Projects (for sale, hotel, taxes)

[WasPA]

Originally Posted by ryanc

Anyone have more info on this? Is it still moving forward?

Which?

If you mean the Wilkes Law School, yes, it is moving forward. I believe they expect to enroll the first law students in 2009, but I could be mistaken....;

If you mean the Intermodal Transportation Center, it is under construction.

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by WasPA

Which?

If you mean the Wilkes Law School, yes, it is moving forward. I believe they expect to enroll the first law students in 2009, but I could be mistaken....;

yes, because this is just what NE PA needs, a training ground for more ambulance chasing lawyers.

If I have one complaint about NE PA, its that we probably have the highest concentration of ambulance chaser personal injury lawyers in the nation.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by conorsdad

yes, because this is just what NE PA needs, a training ground for more ambulance chasing lawyers.

If I have one complaint about NE PA, its that we probably have the highest concentration of ambulance chaser personal injury lawyers in the nation.

If I hear that commercial for Dougherty, Leventhal, & Price one more time on television, I think I'm going to vomit! "INJURY? CALL DLP! INJURY? CALL DLP! INJURY? CALL DLP!" Ahhhhhh!!! It's almost as annoying as that "Head On; Apply Directly to the Forehead" commercial! LOL!

[WasPA]

Hell's bell's...... I just tried to respond to the guy's question. Why the subsequent digressions/segues when the topic of the thread has to do wtih projects and project progress. I don't understand. I'm sure that we can all contribute to a seperate thread disparaging lawyers. That's too easy....

[Tenth Generation]

Originally Posted by ryanc

Anyone have more info on this? Is it still moving forward?

Ditto (re the Riverfront Project).

Is the Riverfront Project political hype or is this project real?

Okay, maybe I'm a noob on this forum but my ancestors (Scots) came up the Susquehanna over 300 years ago. So this river that most NEPA residents despise, is to me one of the most inspiring attractions in all of PA.

Yes, the river needs a bit of taming, but as that continues to happen I think the attitude of most area citizens will slowly turn to see the river as the magnificent wonder it is. To that end, I am immensely interested in the Pittston Riverfront Project, but almost every mention of it I can find dates back to the original 1995-96 Phase I project.

By several accounts the Susquehanna is the second most ancient geological watershed on the face of the Earth. When the NEPA area stops seeing the river as either an enemy or our own personal sewer system we'll all be the better for it.

Aside from some nice looking mock-ups on a few websites, where does the Pittston riverfront project stand? Yeah, the Rails-to-Trails project is nice, but its not really intended to truly showcase the community or the river...

All indications I can find seem to suggest that when the PA state grant for Phase II was fumbled (by Mayor Lombardo?) in 2003, all progress screeched to a halt. True? False?

[SteelCityRising]

True, I believe. This can be seen in the fact that the city's Victorian-era streetlight project has only been partially-finished now for several years. The project was also supposed to include moving all utilities along Main Street underground, new sidewalks, patterned brick crosswalks, and landscaping. All of these would have combined to give Downtown Pittston a "nostalgic" flair to it that entrepreneurs could have capitalized upon to renovate the city's historic buildings to house all sorts of retail/restaurant possibilities that would lure in the hundreds of thousands of potential shoppers that live just 9 miles north in Scranton or 9 miles south in Wilkes-Barre. The re-alignment of the Pittston exit off of I-81 to provide an easier gateway to downtown would also do wonders for the city's tourism efforts.

Pittston is just one of those towns that has unbelievable potential to bounce back, yet it just hasn't been able to do so due to inept politicians, urban sprawl, and apathy from the residents themselves in terms of a lack of civic pride. The town has tumbled from a peak population of 21,000 to around 7,500 today as the surrounding suburbs continue to explode in growth. Pittston just has so much going for it---why can't it turn itself around?

[tsedeski]

Hello, I'm a new subscriber interested in all development and construction in the NEPA area. I grew up in Edwardsville, went in the military,graduated Penn State (Architectural Engineering '94) and have been working in the DC area for 13 years.

I am curious about those engaged in these strings about development. Are you mostly design, development or construction professionals or just interested in the area in general? I am interested in moving back to NEPA in 3-5 years once my oldest is off to college and would love to continue my career.

[dansdrive]

Thanks for the post of the Murray building. I grew up in the shadow of that complex, my grandfather worked for American Chain & Cable, the wire rope folks. I have lived outside the area for almost 30 years now, born raised and educated in Wilkes-Barre and had to leave to find a good paying job. Glad to see they are actually going to do something with the buildings. I know they tried several times to create something out of that old factory. Hopefully this time it works!

Lived many places over my past 30 years but never found a place like North Eastern Pennsylvania, the area with the Heart as they use to say in 1972!

I read the website and it just said mixed use facility. Anyone know what they plan for the buildings?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by tsedeski

Hello, I'm a new subscriber interested in all development and construction in the NEPA area. I grew up in Edwardsville, went in the military,graduated Penn State (Architectural Engineering '94) and have been working in the DC area for 13 years.

I am curious about those engaged in these strings about development. Are you mostly design, development or construction professionals or just interested in the area in general? I am interested in moving back to NEPA in 3-5 years once my oldest is off to college and would love to continue my career.

Tom Sedeski
VP of Construction & Development
Clark Builders Group
Clark Realty

Hello,

I'm just a local college student who wants to see the area revived so I come onto this forum daily to promote it any way I can to prospective newcomers, most of whom hail from NY or NJ. I have no affilliation whatsoever with any local firms, and I personally don't stand to profit economically off of my efforts.

The big "movers and shakers", so to speak, in terms of the local real estate development, appraisal, marketing, etc. industries include the following:

Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services: (major local development firm whose current largest project is the CenterPoint Commerce & Trade Park project in the Pittston 'burbs, in which they are reaching out to Wall Street West).

CityVest: (non-profit group that is currently restoring the Hotel Sterling and is involved in various other residential projects in Downtown Wilkes-Barre)

Hinerfeld Commercial Realty: (Scranton-area development firm that mostly specializes in land acquisitions and real estate sales)

Normandy Holdings: (Scranton redevelopment firm that has brought the city The Lofts @ The Mill and the upcoming Jefferson Pointe and St. Peter's Square downtown mixed-use projects). Be advised though that my inquiries to the company via e-mail asking about rental availability and the status of their two long-stalled downtown projects have gone ignored in the past, which has left me with a sour taste in my mouth for them.

Daniel Siniawa & Associates: (Local development firm that has a history of developing the Dickson City chain retail district north of Scranton. Future projects of theirs include urban revitalization projects in Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Scranton, and Carbondale, even though it appears all of his projects have been stalled for years now. I find it humorous that this man can rush to complete projects that bring sprawl to our region, yet when it comes to those that will help breathe vitality into our struggling urban cores (which are dying BECAUSE of his Dickson City developments), he's been dragging his feet.

I'll add more as I think of them.

[wilkes-barretruestory]

Politicians:

Now, all we have to do is increase the taxes on the residents who were suckered into moving here by those pro-NEPA robots on that city-whatever website, and then give that money to our friends and they can build all they want... WAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA