Community Revitalization Desktop Guide

to combine their separate campus bookstores, which attracted little if any general trade, into a single large downtown bookstore. The site would be the ground ﬂoor of the former Woolworth’s building that the Chamber had previously rehabilitated as the Innovation Center @ Wilkes-Barre – a technology incubator. The Chamber had speciﬁcally delayed leasing this prime retail space, instead waiting to attract the highest and best possible future use. That use emerged when the colleges put out a joint proposal to college bookstore operators that included lease of this space. Barnes & Noble came forward seeking to leverage the captive college market for textbooks from two schools and agreed to include a major general trade section and put their name on the store. The bookstore opened in November, 2006. No public money was needed to ﬁnance the deal other than a county loan to ﬁt out the Chamber-owned space. Vacant Call Center becomes University Center. The former call center building is now occupied by Wilkes University’s University Center on Main and the $14 million in debt obligations has been eliminated. The University was able to turn the ofﬁce portion into its new administration facility and a one-stop-shop for registrar, admissions and other administrative ofﬁces. In a unique conversion, the call center ﬂoor became an indoor campus recreational facility. CAT was instrumental in convincing DCED to signiﬁcantly compromise its debt and lien on the property (down to $200,000 from $2 million) in order to allow for this conveyance and the resulting relief to the city from its suffocating debt obligations. Lights On. A $7 million streetlight and streetscape enhancement project has returned the lights to downtown Wilkes-Barre. Notwithstanding the policy of PennDOT to award its Hometown Streets grants to streetscape projects focusing on beautiﬁcation enhancement, CAT convinced PennDOT that replacement of the streetlights in downtown was a more important priority. As a result of CAT’s engagement, PennDOT agreed to provide a $1 million Hometown Streets grant to the city for much needed new streetlights. This grant was followed by federal grants from Senators Specter and Santorum and from Congressman Kanjorski. Talk to anyone involved in these projects and they will tell you that the difference in Wilkes-Barre’s downtown is startling. The Barnes & Noble and R/C Wilkes-Barre Movies 14 create an 18-hour downtown. Several restaurants and nightclubs have opened up in the last few months and the downtown residential and commercial markets have attracted new interest. The pledge-based supplementary cleaning program has now been followed by a successful drive, overwhelmingly supported by downtown’s property owners, to create a permanent business improvement district for Downtown Wilkes-Barre. After some devastating mistakes, Wilkes-Barre has made extraordinary progress towards achieving a thriving downtown. Key Lessons Learned • BE CAREFUL that local government plays an appropriate role and does not take on the role of private developer. • PARTNER with universities and business community. The Chamber’s visioning sessions provided the strategies for moving ahead. The college and university had needs that ended up attracting a Barnes & Noble to town and ﬁlling a vacant building. • PROJECTS ARE NOT SILVER BULLETS. Simply putting a building up doesn’t guarantee that there will be a benefit beyond the walls of the building. It is important to proactively ensure there will be a positive impact on the surrounding area. • STICK TO THE PLAY BOOK AND STRIKE WHEN OPPORTUNITIES ARISE. It would have been foolish to pursue a national bookstore chain at the beginning of this process. By pursuing its strategy, an opportunity arose and the city was able to leverage it. • SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS. Each successful project helped to attract interest in other projects. 67 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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