Aerial view of the three buildings purchased by Pennmark, which formerly housed the Polyclinic Hospital. The building furthest to the left is proposed to become apartments, the middle may be office buildings, and the building on the right would be apartments and retail. Photo courtesy of Pennmark.
A former Harrisburg hospital complex may be adaptively reused for apartments, according to a newly released proposal.
At a community meeting on Tuesday, a developer announced plans to construct housing and retail at the former Polyclinic Hospital in Uptown Harrisburg.
In March 2024, Pennmark Harrisburg Holdings, an affiliate of Montgomery County-based Pennmark Management Company, purchased the sprawling campus, located on N. 3rd Street. The property stretches over six acres from Polyclinic Avenue to Wiconisco Street and consists of three buildings totaling over 271,000 square feet.
Originally home to the Polyclinic Hospital, the property sold in 2004 to Penn Center Harrisburg, which utilized it as office space until selling it to Pennmark two decades later.
Now, Pennmark is proposing a $45 million project that would include renovating all three buildings and constructing 250 to 300 apartment units and retail shops.
“We saw this as a really good opportunity,” said Greg Hallquist, director of Pennmark. “We love the city of Harrisburg.”
At the community meeting, held in the largest of the three buildings of the campus, Hallquist shared that the project would work in three phases. First, developers would renovate the building closest to Wiconisco Street, which historically housed nurses’ residences, to create about 100 apartments. Currently, that building is vacant.
In a second phase, the company would renovate the former hospital building closest to Polyclinic Avenue, creating another 150 apartments, along with retail and amenities, such as a gym, for tenants. Hallquist proposed commercial space along N. 4th Street, including a grocery store, coffee shop and restaurant. Currently, the building still houses a few offices, such as the state Department of Drug and Alcohol.
In the third phase, Pennmark would renovate the middle building, formerly office spaces, as offices for staff.
All apartments would be market-rate and include studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units, Hallquist said.
The front of the former Polyclinic Hospital building.
At the meeting, a handful of neighbors shared concerns about parking issues and the traffic that they believed would likely come with hundreds of new residents in the neighborhood.
“We live here because we like the quietness,” said resident Shannon Wade, who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years. “I feel like it’s bringing too much activity to our neighborhood.”
Wade said that, while the hospital and offices brought a lot of people into the neighborhood, they would leave at the end of the day, whereas this project would bring lots of new residents.
Others were concerned that patrons of the proposed retail spaces would make on-street parking more limited for residents.
Another long-time resident, Julia Mallory, shared many of the same concerns, but said that she needed more information before forming an opinion.
Developers said that they would hold several additional community meetings in the near future.
“We do listen and we want to address the concerns as best as we can,” Hallquist said. “Our goal is to have a magnificent development that’s complementary to the neighborhood.”
Pennmark is slated to go before the Harrisburg Planning Commission on Wednesday evening in an effort to re-zone and subdivide the property, the first steps in the city approval process.
The historic integrity of the exterior of the buildings will be maintained, Hallquist said, and there will be no change to the footprint of the buildings.
Hallquist hopes to break ground on the project in the fall and said that he expects phase one to take around a year and phase two to take 18 months to complete.
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