If you drive through the heart of Allison Hill, near 13th and Derry, you’ll see a varying collection of small businesses, bodegas, eateries.
Some are busy, interesting and well kept; others, not so much.
But those highly visible convenience stores, bars and ethnic food joints are not the totality of commerce on Allison Hill. A few blocks up, there’s another commercial district, primarily industrial, that once was a job center of the community.
Along S. 17th Street, there are the remnants of a formerly vibrant local economy—empty and under-utilized buildings where factory workers once toiled all day and night. In some spots, parking lots take the place of where buildings once stood.
Over the decades, there have been attempts to re-energize S. 17th Street. New efforts are being made today, and, in fact, some people see signs of hope for the revitalization of the corridor.
The Catalyst
A newly constructed building occupies one of the key blocks along S. 17th, not too far from Market Street.
The major health care provider to the community, Hamilton Health Center, opened its new building two years ago to centralize its satellite locations. The facility now has become the focal point of a flurry of efforts aimed at revitalizing that part of Allison Hill.
CEO Jeannine Peterson said that access to good health care is key to a healthy and vibrant community and sees the health center’s expansion as leading the way in the neighborhood’s rejuvenation.
“I believe Hamilton Health Center is an economic catalyst for the S. 17th Street Allison Hill corridor, attracting other businesses to locate to this area,” she said.
Hamilton Health invested $16.2 million in the first phase of its development, completed in 2012. It’s now proceeding with phase two of the project.
“Our development has allowed us to increase the number of jobs from approximately 100 when we moved into our new location to our current staffing level of 180 people,” said Peterson.
Neighborhood residents hold many of those jobs. It’s been vital, she said, to have the facility integrated into the community because workers often don’t have cars. So, they’re able to walk to work or take public transportation.
Nearby, Philadelphia Macaroni Company, one of the nation’s oldest and largest industrial pasta manufacturers, acquired the former Unilever pasta plant earlier this year. Philadelphia Macaroni’s S. 17th Street plant employs about 50 people and produces Knorr Pasta Sides and Lipton Soup Secrets products.
“We have made a substantial investment in the community, and it is operating 24/7,” said company spokeswoman Linda Schalles. “We expect to be there for quite some time.”
The Opportunities
Despite the anchor of Hamilton Health, the location remains a hard sell for those trying to attract businesses to the area, say developers and realtors.
Fairly or not, too many people equate that part of Allison Hill with typical inner-city problems like crime and drugs. And the gritty nature of the area doesn’t offer a lot of visual appeal.
That’s why much of the 17th Street corridor falls into the Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ), a largely tax-free zone designed to encourage investment and make the area more attractive to businesses.
Shaun Donovan is the economic development specialist with the Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce and its economic development arm, the Capital Region Economic Development Corp., known as CREDC. In that capacity, he helps administer Keystone Opportunity Zones in Harrisburg.
Recently, properties along the S. 17th Street corridor were selected for KOZ.
“The reason we kind of picked them is because of their proximity to the Hamilton Health Center,” Donovan explained.
He added that neighborhood input was elicited before they proceeded. The KOZ expansion followed discussions with local residents, businesses and community leaders.
“In this particular case, they really highlighted the 17th Street corridor, and they also said that they were really looking for commercial and industrial redevelopment in their neighborhood, more than residential development,” he said.
KOZ parcels on S. 17th now include the former Coca-Cola building at 227 S. 17th St., the Shimmel School at 548 S. 17th St. and the Hajoca Building at 101 S. 17th St.
In April, the for-profit Lebanon-based Pennsylvania Counseling Services offered the Harrisburg School District, which owns the Shimmel School, $550,000 for the 58,750-square-foot property.
Recently, representatives of the group were scheduled to appear before the city’s Zoning Hearing Board seeking a variance for their drug and alcohol recovery, mental health treatment and truancy programs. Because it is school district-owned, the building currently produces no tax revenue.
“A lot of people support it,” said Bill Gladstone of the Gladstone Group, a realtor involved with the sale. “We have to get through the system.”
CREDC’s Donovan explained that, by offering abatements on taxes on things like building supplies, earned income, net profits and real estate, the KOZ can entice potential buyers to look at vacant properties in neighborhoods they’d otherwise pass on.
“A lot of those buildings have minor issues that need to be resolved, but again, the KOZ program makes it more attractive for the new owners to come in,” Donovan said.
Gladstone also represents the Chicago-based owners of the Hajoca Building at 101 S. 17th St., across the street from the Hamilton Health Center. Gladstone said his clients like the KOZ concept, but they are still lacking a tenant or buyer for the 1.6-acre site, which is listed at $625,000.
“Unfortunately we still haven’t located a tenant, but I don’t think that has anything to do with it being in a KOZ; I think it has to do with locating someone willing to be in that location,” said Gladstone, referring to South Allison Hill’s less-than-stellar reputation. “We have other challenges besides the KOZ.”
When City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee met to vote on the establishment of city KOZs late last year, some residents objected because they felt that, given the city’s slowly improving financial picture, the more tax revenue, the better. Others supported the plan, saying that anything that would spur renovations on crumbing community eyesores, create and sustain local jobs and, in time, generate property tax revenue would benefit the city.
Donovan pointed to the Shimmel School property as an example of how a KOZ can take a non-tax revenue producing property and, over time, transform it into a revenue-producing property.
“It’s kind of wrong to say you’ve lost that revenue because, without the program, you’d have no revenue,” he said.
KOZ or not, the 17th Street corridor appears to be making incremental progress after years of heading in the opposite direction. Having completed its new building, the neighborhood anchor, Hamilton Health Center, is investing another $6 million in its project.
“We expect [our employment] number to climb to over 200 when we complete our phase two renovations in December 2014,” said CEO Peterson.
To other area businesses, more employees mean more people buying local goods and investing in their properties and improving their quality of life. Ultimately, that’s what brings a neighborhood back.
Reggie Sheffield is a Harrisburg-based freelancer and is reachable at troylus@comcast.net.
