Community Revitalization Desktop Guide

Reconstruction After 1972 Flood Provides a 10-Year Pacemaker to Keep City Thriving. Wilkes-Barre’s economy took a major blow from Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972. The storm pushed the Susquehanna River to nearly 41 feet, four feet above the city’s levees, and ﬂooded the downtown with nine feet of water. Six people were killed, 25,000 homes and businesses were either damaged or destroyed, and damages were estimated to be $1 billion, with President Richard Nixon sending aid to the area. The post-ﬂood reconstruction included the complete demolition and rebuilding of the commercial core of the city to 1973 design standards. This new downtown allowed Wilkes-Barre to retain a stable ofﬁce base throughout the 1980’s and attract new businesses to the city, including a large downtown Boscov’s. This reconstruction pacemaker, which had kept the city’s heart beating for over a decade, crashed in the early 1990’s. Wilkes-Barre geared up in the 1990’s to revitalize the sagging downtown but had little success. Stores continued to close or move out of town. King’s College and Wilkes University, whose campuses bookend the downtown retail core, both retreated inward, trying to separate themselves from downtown’s decline. By 2000, Mayor Tom McGroarty had earned the city a less than dubious reputation with his handling of the city’s ﬁscal affairs and his confrontational style towards the local business community, downtown’s colleges, and several state and federal ofﬁcials. Governor Mark Schweiker went so far as to call him “inept.” Rather than unify residents and businesses towards a single vision, Mayor McGroarty seemingly exacerbated divisions. In his most symbolic move, the Mayor, frustrated with older street lights malfunctioning, ripped them all out and left downtown in the dark. City makes poor developer and defaults on bonds. Mayor McGroarty began to demolish vacant older buildings downtown in the belief that their removal was a powerful symbol of change. After demolition, the Mayor proposed that the city redevelop the parcels, acting as both developer and general contractor. This turned out to be a gross misjudgment that would threaten the city and come close to throwing it into bankruptcy. The City acted as developer and general contractor for two projects. The ﬁrst project called for an 80,000-squarefoot call center to be built to suit and leased to a company, Corporate Express Call Center Services, which had been recruited to WilkesBarre. The City built the call center as its own independent island within the city, providing a pedestrian bridge to a parking lot across the street and a company cafeteria. Employees never had to walk the downtown streets and they did not. In addition, the inexperienced City failed to prohibit the lease from being assigned to other companies, which is just what occurred. In December 2001, the newly assigned company shuttered the facility and laid off several hundred workers. Without lease payments coming in, the City defaulted on its general obligation bonds. The second project also ended poorly. The President of Boscov’s, Al Boscov, kindly connected the city with R/C Theaters, a theater company from suburban Baltimore that was looking to expand in Pennsylvania. The Mayor negotiated a deal to build a multiplex downtown with the City as developer and R/C as tenant. The City identiﬁed a site and planned to build a parking garage with the theater on the ground ﬂoor on a secondary street without other retail or amenities. The City acquired and demolished buildings on the site and started construction. Unfortunately, the City never obtained the necessary approvals and permits or checked to make sure they owned the entire site. When the owner of part of the site sued, construction stopped, leaving a big hole in the ground with concrete footers. The City defaulted on a $5 million lease with R/C and ended up with mechanics’ liens from suppliers and vendors. By the time Mayor McGroarty lost the mayoral primary in 2003, Wilkes-Barre was nearly $11 million in debt. 2001 Perceptions Organizationally Stagnant Unfocused Physically Deteriorated Depressed Unattractive Promotionally Dead Boring Economically Empty 2010 Visions Uniﬁed Focused Renewed/Restored Historic Attractive Active Exciting Vibrant Busy Prosperous Diverse Quality of Life Dirty Dangerous Clean Safe Bright Attitudes Sad Hopeless Proud Progressive Friendly “ Wilkes-Barre remains the single biggest employment center in the region, but ofﬁce workers are not a magic bullet for saving downtown. You need to utilize all of your assets.” – GREATER WILKES-BARRE CHAMBER OF BUSINESS & INDUSTRY VICE-PRESIDENT OF ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT LARRY NEWMAN Independent Visioning Process in 2001 Leads to Action Plan. During this period, divisions between City Hall and the downtown business and institutional communities had widened into a chasm; argument and angry confrontation ruled the day. Finally, the Chamber of Business & Industry and two other organizations decided to reframe the debate about downtown’s future, initiating a series of public visioning sessions to reach consensus on a revitalization strategy for downtown. The Chamber hired Bill Fontana, director of 65 GOAL FOUR: APPLY STRATEGIES THAT WORK Wilkes-Barre

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Community Revitalization Desktop Guide

PA Community Revitalization Desktop Guide Table of Contents How To Attract High Impact Investment to Core Communities Goal One: Choose One Asset-Rich Redevelopment Area Interviews with Pennsylvania Mayors Goal Two: Prepare Redevelopment Area for Market Interviews with Developers who Have Invested in Pennsylvania Cities and Towns Goal Three: Welcome Investment Interviews with Developers who Have Invested in Pennsylvania Cities and Towns Goal Four: Apply Strategies That Work Conclusion

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