ERIE | Development Projects Thread

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Dblcut3

I hope Erie is able to keep revitalizing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like there have been several plans for revitalizing the waterfront, but have there been any real progress on those projects? Last time I was in Erie (years ago) I didn't notice much being done along the waterfront. Downtown Erie has a ton of potential due to it being along the lake, so I hope it keeps improving.

While some parcels have laid undeveloped for 2 decades now (i.e., the former Penelec and Holland St. Pier tracts purchased by Scott Enterprises in 1999 and sat on since then), there has been significant progress along Erie's waterfront otherwise. It looks like many of the projects that have been built or are planned appear in this thread. The main recent developments consist of the new Marriott hotel and overall redevelopment on the Sassafras St. pier (former GAF corporation factory), which Within the next 5 years, it looks like Erie's bayfront will be dramatically different.

But you're correct... there have been many proposals over the years with little action, while Erie (and its bayfront) has transitioned from a heavy industrial-based economy to more of a blended, services-oriented one. It seems that the time is finally complementary to getting real, visible progress happening on the waterfront.

[pj3000]

Newly-constructed Highmark Amphithteater at Liberty Park on west bayfront.

[deja vu]

More news on Erie's bayfront and Harbor Place project:

Official: Improved bayfront connections priority for Erie
By Madeleine O’Neill
December 16, 2017

...Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Community and Economic Development...visited Erie Friday to help announce millions of dollars in state investments that will go toward improvements along the Bayfront Parkway...Davin said Erie must continue its momentum as it builds a buzz similar to Pittsburgh’s — as an up-and-coming community that’s attractive to young people and job creators. A big part of building that buzz will involve developing connections to the bayfront, Davin said, especially as hotels and other projects there, such as the $150 million Harbor Place development planned by Scott Enterprises, attract more visitors to the city...

...work on the Harbor Place project will likely start in the first quarter of 2018...

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by deja vu

More news on Erie's bayfront and Harbor Place project:

The announcement of over $30M in state funding for bayfront transportation improvements is big news... because from the sound of it, there's more to come.

A much talked about "iconic connection" between downtown and the bayfront is rumored to be what the state funds will go towards... connecting downtown with the exisiting and planned developments on the bayfront. The at-grade bayfront parkway is currently an impediment to that.

[deja vu]

This article has some info on the ongoing UPMC Hamot tower project. Interior demolition has begun on the now-vacant Hamot Professional Building:

UPMC Hamot leader updates construction project
David Bruce | GoErie.com
January 23, 2018

The former Hamot Professional Building will be demolished, not imploded, as part of UPMC Hamot’s $111 million patient tower project. Hamot President David Gibbons provided an update on the most expensive construction project in the Erie hospital’s history during the Manufacturer’s & Business Association’s monthly Eggs ’N Issues meeting Tuesday. Gibbons was the event’s guest speaker.

“The building has been emptied and inside demolition has started,” Gibbons said. “We will level the exterior instead of imploding it because our operating rooms and (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) units surround the building, and air quality is vitally important for those...”

[deja vu]

After receiving a positive response from at least 12 'interested' developers, the city did not receive a single proposal on the GAF waterfront site last month. Officials are now in the process of contacting the numerous developers that responded to the RFQ, to find out why they chose to not submit a formal proposal for the site -

Erie Events waits for GAF site development proposals
Kevin Flowers | GoErie.com
January 28, 2018

When Erie Events started soliciting formal proposals in September from developers interested in revamping the former GAF Materials Corp. site on Erie’s bayfront, more than a dozen individuals or agencies quickly expressed interest. However, that interest has yet to produce the concrete plans the agency was hoping for, and officials want to find out why. Casey Wells, Erie Events’ executive director, confirmed to the Erie Times-News that no developer has submitted a formal proposal to redevelop the site. Erie Mayor Joe Schember and Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper are aware of the situation, Wells said...

One of the ideas being floated now to help spur development here is to expand LERTA to include the bayfront property -

Schember proposes expanded LERTA in Erie
Ed Palattella and Kevin Flowers | GoErie.com
February 9, 2018

Mayor Joe Schember wants to expand 10-year tax breaks to spur development in the city of Erie. He also wants to explore including bayfront property in his plan, which would be a first under the city’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program.
But Schember cannot enlarge LERTA on his own. He needs approval from City Council as well as the other two local taxing authorities in the city: the Erie School District and Erie County government...

Another idea is to designate 8 parcels (including the GAF site) as Federal Opportunity Zone-eligible parcels, under the new tax plan -

Could new tax plan help Erie projects?
Kevin Flowers and Matthew Rink | GoErie.com
February 15, 2018

The city of Erie has asked Gov. Tom Wolf to designate eight areas for a new federal program that aims to spur investment in economic development projects. A proposal sent to Wolf asks that six census tracts in the core of downtown Erie and two industrial tracts be included in his application for Opportunity Zone program designation. The downtown tracts would include the bayfront, the former GAF site, the area near Dobbins Landing that’s planned for Harbor Place, the new Innovation District on State Street, and the neighborhoods near UPMC Hamot Hospital and Erie Insurance. The total potential investment in these areas is $600 million, the city notes in its application...

[deja vu]

With UPMC Hamot's current expansion underway, there has been growing anticipation of a need for additional parking in the area. Now, news that the Erie Parking Authority and the hospital are contemplating a new 3-4 story parking deck, at the current site of the surface lot located at W 2nd and Peach Streets -

Erie Parking Authority, UPMC Hamot consider new parking garage
Kevin Flowers | GoErie.com
Februar 12, 2018

The Erie Parking Authority has started preliminary talks with UPMC Hamot officials about the possibility of constructing a parking garage near West Second and Peach streets to provide much-needed parking adjacent to the hospital’s campus. Raymond Massing, the Parking Authority’s executive director, said a feasibility study is underway regarding the garage, which would likely either be three or four stories and feature about 700 parking spaces for vehicles. It could cost as much as $17 million. Massing stressed that no final decisions have been made. The garage is being eyed for a surface parking lot at West Second that UPMC Hamot owns...

[pj3000]

Erie Insurance development progressing. While I'm not a fan of downtown "campus-style" heaquarters, this project will be a shot in the arm for downtown Erie, bringing an estimated 1,200 new white-collar jobs to the downtown area (and all that comes with a sizeable number like that). Good to see cranes popping on the skyline and steel going up in downtown Erie... something that hasn't been seen in a while.

The finished building will be about the same height as the Ford Hotel/Richford Arms apartment building in the background.

[pj3000]

Erie Insurance (add'l renderings and construction pics)

[deja vu]

^ Nice update pics. this project is substantial for downtown Erie.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by deja vu

^ Nice update pics. this project is substantial for downtown Erie.

yeah, it's definitely a game-changer for downtown. It's great to see a Fortune 500 company make such significant investment locally. A lot of positive ripple effects will come from this.

[pj3000]

I won't hold my breath on this one. They've sat on this valuable waterfront acreage for 20 years and done nothing with it. They announced this particular plan 5 years ago.

Not until I see structural steel of at least 5 floors will I be confident that this development is a go. They've tried to get every last penny from the state, county, and city to do this. Scott Enterprises is a chain motel and chain restaurant franchise company, much better suited to building a Econolodge and Applebee's off of a highway exit ramp, than they are to developing an urban, waterfront location.

Hopefully, their planned "Hampton Inn & Suites" turns out better than the renderings... if it ever actually gets built.

May groundbreaking planned for Erie Harbor Place project

http://www.goerie.com/news/20180327/...-place-project

After years of delays, construction is scheduled to start in May on Scott Enterprises’ $150 million Harbor Place development on Erie’s bayfront.

First to be built will be the eight-story Hampton Inn & Suites, with 95 to 100 rooms and a rooftop bar, said Nick Scott Sr., president of the family-owned lodging and recreation business.

He said construction of the hotel, which represents Harbor Place’s first phase, will start in May, take 14 to 16 months to complete and will be followed by the project’s second phase — construction of a 90,000-square-foot, eight-story mixed-use office building, with retail space on the first floor. The 12-acre Harbor Place site is northeast of the intersection of State Street and the Bayfront Parkway.

Construction of the project had been stalled for years as Scott waited for the state to award a $5 million grant from the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, known as RACP.

The state released the money in October 2016, and Scott said construction would start on the hotel phase in 2017, but Scott later said the need to meet state requirements pushed back construction to 2018.

The new timeline, for May construction, is the most solid timeline yet.

The first phase of the Harbor Place project is also to include a five-story office and retail structure. The second phase of the project — construction of the mixed-use office building — is as ambitious as the first, and Scott said he hopes to get state funding for it as well.

The entire Harbor Place project is to include 43 townhomes, another hotel, a waterfront restaurant, a family recreation center, 30,000 square feet of retail space and a parking garage, according to plans announced previously. Scott on Monday said an expansion of the LERTA tax-abatement program in the city of Erie would help spur the sale of the townhomes.

This was the original rendering...

[pj3000]

It's good to see this local history center really developing in the West Sixth Historic District. Billionaire money is nice to play around with.

Great to see the renovation of the historic 1849 Wood-Morrison house by the Erie County Historical Society. It was the home of Wiliam Maxwell Wood, the first surgeon general of the US Navy and the childhood home of Charles Erskine Scott Wood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Maxwell_Wood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charle...ine_Scott_Wood


New education center on Erie history center’s to-do list

http://www.goerie.com/news/20180412/...ers-to-do-list



1891 Watson-Curtze Mansion - Erie Historical Museum main building (Thomas Hagen History Center)


Work already has started on another project: transforming the 1849 Wood-Morrison House, 338 W. Sixth St., into the society’s education center.

Erie County Historical Society officials will break ground this coming fall on construction of a two-story, 6,000-square-foot exhibit center on the grounds of the Hagen History Center, 356 W. Sixth St.

“That will be devoted to several new exhibits, including a comprehensive Erie County history exhibit,″ Deutsch said. “We’ll have a major transportation exhibit in with cars from our own collection, plus some other new things we’ll talk about when we acquire them. There will be a third major exhibit, which I’m not ready to come out of the box with yet, but it will be a big exhibit and a big surprise. It will be a major exhibit of national consequence. I’d say probably the first exhibit would perhaps be ready in the fall of 2019 for a major opening.″

As Historical Society officials prepare for that project, work has started on transforming the Wood-Morrison House, 338 W. Sixth St., into the society’s education center. It formerly housed a law firm. When completed, the renovated house/education center will be about 5,500 square feet.

The Italianate-style Wood-Morrison House was built in 1849 by Dr. William Maxwell Wood, a U.S. Navy surgeon general who served on the USS Wolverine.

Wood and his family lived in the home until 1865, when Wood sold it to the family of William Morrison, the last Pennsylvania Naval Militia captain of the USS Wolverine and the first superintendent of Presque Isle State Park.

The house is located next to where the Erie Extension Canal once cut a swath through the city in the early 1800s.

Construction crews started demolition work in early March.

About one-quarter of the Wood-Morrison House on its north side has been demolished. That portion of the house will be rebuilt to include a lobby, restrooms, an elevator and a stairwell.

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by pj3000

I won't hold my breath on this one. They've sat on this valuable waterfront acreage for 20 years and done nothing with it. They announced this particular plan 5 years ago.

Not until I see structural steel of at least 5 floors will I be confident that this development is a go. They've tried to get every last penny from the state, county, and city to do this. Scott Enterprises is a chain motel and chain restaurant franchise company, much better suited to building a Econolodge and Applebee's off of a highway exit ramp, than they are to developing an urban, waterfront location.

Hopefully, their planned "Hampton Inn & Suites" turns out better than the renderings... if it ever actually gets built.

Completely agree. It would be foolish to think otherwise, given their track record.

[pj3000]

So the powers that be are planning to sink the Bayfront Parkway underneath State St. in order to remove the busy intersection that serves block pedestrian and bike access to the bayfront from downtown.

While this is good thinking, it is also quite frustrating since they created the problem to begin with back in 1992 when they decided to raise the Parkway up to streel level and create the intersection with State Street to begin with.

Meaning, the design they are now proposing already existed back in 1992. The State Street bridge was already there, going over the railroad tracks. All they had to do was build the Parkway underneath (with modifications obviously). Instead they spent significantly more millions of dollars to build a 1000ft long, 50ft high hill that the Parkway would traverse to meet State Street at-grade. But that's PennDOT for you. Arrrghh.

http://www.goerie.com/news/20180429/...et-in-concrete

[Erie Pa]

In the above photo, the lower left is the north facing south that is the upper right. I notice there is no left turn lane to head east on the parkway. The center lane is marked for north bound traffic to turn left heading west. PDot planning+ rickshaw drivers.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Erie Pa

In the above photo, the lower left is the north facing south that is the upper right. I notice there is no left turn lane to head east on the parkway. The center lane is marked for north bound traffic to turn left heading west. PDot planning+ rickshaw drivers.

Ha! Didn't notice that.

Also, it looks like they made the westbound on ramp just a bit too narrow (if it even exists at all)! It looks like westbound travelers will be crashing through those trees unfortunately.

Hopefully, this is just a really bad rendering.

One more thing... and this "design" was obviously just thrown together to get the point of what they want to do across in the most basic way... but I certainly hope the bridge will be a much more iconic connection, rather than some standard overpass bridge that's basically invisible. Because if that's all they're planning to do, they might as well not do anything.

[Erie Pa]

Groundbreaking today Scott's Hampton Inn pegged at 94ft due to Bayfront zoning laws.
4th hotel on the Bayfront

From the Erie Times-News


Ground broken Friday for the $20 million, eight-story hotel.

For Scott Enterprises, the waiting came to an end early Friday afternoon as the family-owned company broke ground for a $20 million, eight-story hotel, the first installment of a planned $160 million mixed-used Harbor Place development.

More than 100 guests, including political figures, community and business leaders, gathered under a tent or shivered outside on an unusually cool day on 12 acres west of Blasco Library. Among those on hand was Dennis Davin, Pennsylvania Secretary for Community and Economic Development.

Nick Scott Jr., a vice president of the company, described Friday as coming full circle for a family whose American journey began with the 1916 arrival of his grandfather, Christ Skountzos, in the United States.

His grandfather, who shortened his last name to Scott, would eventually find his way to Erie where he would build a number of motels. His third project, Scott said, would be the Niagara Hotel, at the site of the present-day 100 State St., not far from the location of the new Hampton Inn & Suites for which the company broke ground Friday.

Nick Scott Sr., president of Scott Enterprises talks during a groundbreaking ceremony Friday for the Hampton Inn and Suites the company plans to build as phase one of their Harbor Place development on Erie’s bayfront. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]
His father, Nick Scott Sr., said this hotel is the first of as many as 10 construction phases that will eventually include restaurants, housing, retail and office space. The second phase, he said, will be a 90,000-square-foot mixed-use office building.

The elder Scott, president of Scott Enterprises, said Friday that he already has a tenant lined up for the building. He committed to moving Scott Enterprises headquarters from Summit Township to the new building on Erie’s bayfront.

Nick Scott Sr. said he’s encouraged by the development that he sees all around him, including the work of the Erie Downtown Development Corp. and projects by Erie Insurance and UPMC Hamot.
Scott Enterprises breaks ground for Harbor Place


Full story

http://www.goerie.com/news/20180511/...-hotel-in-erie

































“

[Erie Pa]

V-NET nearing completion of $8M re-do.

Video from TV24 news

http://www.yourerie.com/news/local-n...rie/1174048557

[pj3000]

This is pretty cool

Lawrence Park receives historic designation

http://www.goerie.com/news/20180521/...ic-designation

A section of the township, originally developed to house GE employees in the early 1900s, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Lawrence Park Historical Society hired a consultant to help them make the case that the town was built by General Electric as an "industrial village."

The town built for GE has been included in the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. The National Register is the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation, according to the National Park Service.

The nation’s first recognized city planner, Philadelphia native John Nolen, helped design the Lawrence Park development to provide nice neighborhoods for General Electric Co. employees in 1911 after construction of the GE plant began just east of Erie in 1910. In 1917, Nolen added Lawrence Park’s signature row houses to his plans to accommodate growing numbers of wartime employees.