Evergrey
04-12-2008, 01:57 AM
http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/508587.html?nav=5011
Williamsport mayor celebrates signs of growth and new development
http://www.sungazette.com/photos/news/lg/508587_1.jpg
By R.A. WALKER - rwalker@sungazette.com
“I feel like I’m in heaven,” Mayor Gabriel J. Campana recalls thinking when he was shown the sanctuary of a former Methodist church that a city developer plans to turn into “luxury loft apartments.”
Campana was present Thursday for the official public announcement of the conversion project that he and his staff claim is a sign the city is experiencing growth despite national trends.
The city is specifically “experiencing a spike in apartment construction,” according to a press release issued to promote the church conversion project and the Albarano family’s already-under-construction Tulane apartments on Canal Street.
Both projects are privately funded and neither will rely on federal, state or local taxpayer money, the mayor stressed.
The bigger of the two projects is the planned $1.2 million conversion of the former Calvary United Methodist Church at 1400 W. Fourth St. into upper-end loft apartments.
According to placards on display in the sanctuary of the former church, “The Sanctuary Loft Apartments” will preserve at least the essence of sanctuary, including the stained glass windows.
Developer George Hutchinson, owner of Hutchinson Realty Development, said he plans to create at least 16 apartments in other parts of the former church while keeping the exterior of the building intact.
He said there will be an outdoor courtyard in the gated complex and a basement fitness center.
The sanctuary, Hutchinson added, will be preserved as much as possible, and he expressed interest in renting the sanctuary to a congregation for church services if possible. However, if no long-term arrangement develops for its future use as a sanctuary, Hutchinson said he would remove the pews and create business office space, preserving as much of the other features as possible.
The project will need a special exception but has ample off-street parking, according to Joseph Gerardi, city building officer and codes administrator.
The mayor, who also happens to be the developer’s brother-in-law, called the project the kind that “takes guts” to undertake because such developments “do not (necessarily) make an individual rich.”
He said he was “very proud” of the project and others like it under way or planned around the city.
“We’re on the move,” he said. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,”
Permits for upscale apartments seem to be popular, Gerardi said, citing several downtown structures that have had extensive renovation work done on the interior and are being rented successfully for amounts ranging from $840 to over $14,000 per month.
Councilman N. Clifford Smith was a member of the former Calvary congregation and is now a member and trustee of the combined St. Paul-Calvary United Methodist Church.
Smith gave a summary of the church’s history, noting the site was occupied by settlers by the latter half of the 1700s and was the site of what has become known as “the Plum Thicket massacre,” an event commemorated by a sign on a boulder outside the church. The site later contained the Lycoming Chapel, the first Methodist church in the city. Construction of the current building occurred in the 1920s.
Williamsport mayor celebrates signs of growth and new development
http://www.sungazette.com/photos/news/lg/508587_1.jpg
By R.A. WALKER - rwalker@sungazette.com
“I feel like I’m in heaven,” Mayor Gabriel J. Campana recalls thinking when he was shown the sanctuary of a former Methodist church that a city developer plans to turn into “luxury loft apartments.”
Campana was present Thursday for the official public announcement of the conversion project that he and his staff claim is a sign the city is experiencing growth despite national trends.
The city is specifically “experiencing a spike in apartment construction,” according to a press release issued to promote the church conversion project and the Albarano family’s already-under-construction Tulane apartments on Canal Street.
Both projects are privately funded and neither will rely on federal, state or local taxpayer money, the mayor stressed.
The bigger of the two projects is the planned $1.2 million conversion of the former Calvary United Methodist Church at 1400 W. Fourth St. into upper-end loft apartments.
According to placards on display in the sanctuary of the former church, “The Sanctuary Loft Apartments” will preserve at least the essence of sanctuary, including the stained glass windows.
Developer George Hutchinson, owner of Hutchinson Realty Development, said he plans to create at least 16 apartments in other parts of the former church while keeping the exterior of the building intact.
He said there will be an outdoor courtyard in the gated complex and a basement fitness center.
The sanctuary, Hutchinson added, will be preserved as much as possible, and he expressed interest in renting the sanctuary to a congregation for church services if possible. However, if no long-term arrangement develops for its future use as a sanctuary, Hutchinson said he would remove the pews and create business office space, preserving as much of the other features as possible.
The project will need a special exception but has ample off-street parking, according to Joseph Gerardi, city building officer and codes administrator.
The mayor, who also happens to be the developer’s brother-in-law, called the project the kind that “takes guts” to undertake because such developments “do not (necessarily) make an individual rich.”
He said he was “very proud” of the project and others like it under way or planned around the city.
“We’re on the move,” he said. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,”
Permits for upscale apartments seem to be popular, Gerardi said, citing several downtown structures that have had extensive renovation work done on the interior and are being rented successfully for amounts ranging from $840 to over $14,000 per month.
Councilman N. Clifford Smith was a member of the former Calvary congregation and is now a member and trustee of the combined St. Paul-Calvary United Methodist Church.
Smith gave a summary of the church’s history, noting the site was occupied by settlers by the latter half of the 1700s and was the site of what has become known as “the Plum Thicket massacre,” an event commemorated by a sign on a boulder outside the church. The site later contained the Lycoming Chapel, the first Methodist church in the city. Construction of the current building occurred in the 1920s.
