The historic Harrisburg Moose Lodge Temple, which is undergoing rehabilitation.
A Harrisburg co-working outfit will triple in size as it becomes the anchor tenant in the renovated, historic Moose Lodge Temple in Midtown.
st@rtup Harrisburg will take the entire ground floor of the landmark building at N. 3rd and Boas streets, which last housed the Ronald Brown Charter School. The company is expected to make the move this summer when the renovation is complete.
“This move will allow us to better serve the city’s growing creative class and independent workforce,” said Adam Porter, st@rtup co-founder with business partner Adam Brackbill. “Harrisburg’s high quality of life and easy access to major markets make it a great place for anyone with an idea and the energy to execute it.”
st@rtup Harrisburg was founded three years ago as the city’s first co-working space, setting up in a building on the 1500-block of N. 3rd Street. The new space, measuring 6,536 square feet, will allow the company to meet growing demand for a variety of workspaces, from shared desks up to private offices, said Porter.
WCI Partners purchased the dilapidated, 92-year-old building last year from Atlanta-based Mosaica Education. It had been empty since 2005, when the school district’s former board of control refused to re-authorize the school’s charter.
In addition to the st@rtup space, the renovation includes 33 high-end apartments in the building’s upper floors. Porter described the building as “Harrisburg’s first live/work” space, with the expectation that some tenants will choose to work downstairs in st@rtup.
Besides the Moose Lodge building, the project includes the renovation of three Victorian-style townhouses along the 900-block of N. 3rd Street. Those buildings will feature commercial tenants on the ground floors and apartments upstairs, said WCI President David Butcher. TheBurg plans to occupy the ground-floor space in two of those townhouses, moving from its current location in Uptown Harrisburg.
Increasingly, creative companies are relocating to the southern tip of Midtown. Recently, photography and video company GK Visual purchased and moved into a former warehouse at 933 Rose St. The company will hold a ribbon cutting for its new space on March 30 at 4:30 p.m.
To learn more about st@rtup Harrisburg’s new space, visit www.startuphbg.com/new-home.
Disclosure: WCI principal Alex Hartzler is publisher of TheBurg.
