A rendering of the proposed “market extension” building near the Broad Street Market
About 200 new housing units are planned for Midtown, as a Harrisburg-based developer prepares to present its wide-ranging, multi-year building project to the city.
Over the weekend, Midtown Redevelopment LLC held the first of three public information sessions to share its plan, which includes apartments, townhouses, a grocery store and commercial spaces in dozens of long-empty lots in the unfinished Capitol Heights and MarketPlace neighborhoods.
The projects are slated to be on the agenda of the city’s Planning Commission and Zoning Hearing Board beginning next month, said Matt Long of Harrisburg Commercial Interiors, the project’s general contractor.
“We’re trying to reach out to anyone and everyone,” Long said. “We wanted to do these public meetings ahead of time.”
One of the lots in Midtown Harrisburg slated for redevelopment under the plan.
Halfway into the four-hour open house on Saturday, only a few people had trickled into Historic Harrisburg Resource Center to hear about the plans. Two more public sessions are scheduled—one for Aug. 27 and the second on Sept. 1 at the same location–before presentation to the city in September.
Midtown Redevelopment already has city approval for the first phase of its building project.
In early 2021, the company received the go-ahead for a 12-unit apartment building, with a community center, on the 1600-block of N. 3rd Street, as well as eight single-family townhouses on neighboring Logan Street. Long said that project will break ground next month.
Then, later in 2021, the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority (HRA) selected the company to complete the unfinished MarketPlace development located between the Broad Street Market and Reily Street. HRA also has given the company the right to develop additional lots in Capitol Heights, located on the other side of Reily Street.
According to Long, the project scope for Capitol Heights includes three smaller apartment buildings (four to six units each) with first-floor commercial space and four larger apartment buildings (12 to 16 units each).
A rendering of a small apartment building with commercial space in Capitol Heights
The scope for MarketPlace includes three larger apartment buildings, market-rate townhomes, affordable townhouses and a workforce housing building. The apartments will be a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, Long said.
Long added that affordable housing will constitute about 20% of the overall residential component, and the buildings will include off-street parking.
A rendering of new townhomes in the MarketPlace neighborhood
The proposal also includes plans for a grocery store and, near the Broad Street Market, a “market extension” building that will house several food vendors, be open seven days a week and include a rooftop deck.
The master plan also includes a senior living component, which will go through the planning and zoning processes separately, Long said.
The entire project may take seven or eight years to complete, he said.
“When you add it all up, it’ll be about 200 new units of housing,” Long said.
The Harrisburg Planning Commission next meets on Sept. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in City Council chambers. The Harrisburg Zoning Hearing Board next meets on Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. in City Council chambers.
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