Harrisburg School District officials and board members discussed William Penn at a meeting at Harrisburg High School-John Harris Campus.
All options for the future of Harrisburg’s William Penn building are on the table.
The Harrisburg School Board held an information gathering hearing on Thursday night to weigh proposals for its long vacant, blighted building, including demolition, sale or reuse.
The sprawling 99-year-old building, once a vocational school, has sat vacant for 14 years on its 27-acre campus, overlooking Italian Lake. For years, the district has weighed what to do with it.
“As many of you know, restoring and reimagining this facility costs a lot,” Harrisburg superintendent Benjamin Henry told about 30 members of the public who attended the meeting. “Well into the tens of millions of dollars for a district that has only recently exited financial recovery and receivership.”
District solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik presented the district’s current menu of options, to be voted upon at future board meeting, which included demolishing, selling, keeping or leasing the building.
Demolishing the building would cost $5 million, the solicitor said. While subdividing the land and selling it off in pieces would generate revenue, keeping it as is and paying for security would cost the district between $177,000 and $566,00, per year, depending on the level of security provided for the building— plus the cost of liability insurance.
The William Penn Task Force, which was created by the district in 2023 to generate ideas for the use of the property, previously recommended retaining the building and turning it into a career technical education center, with options for partial and full restoration, the solicitor recounted.
Sultanik noted that the district cannot take on new initiatives for five years following its exit from receivership, and that it has an existing debt burden of $19 million per year through 2036 “and is not in a position to borrow for a renovation of William Penn.” Additionally, Harrisburg school district enrollment numbers are expected to slightly decline over the next decade, he said.
Taking into account the current district needs, school administrators have recommended demolishing the building and constructing athletic fields on the land for the district’s sports. The plan would address the district’s need for a field for its new high school girls’ soccer teams.
The last three proposals came from developer groups, who had presented options for renovating the building earlier in 2025. At the meeting, district officials questioned the plans.
Sultanik asked about the “magnitude” of a concept from Harrisburg-native and retired NFL player Garry Gilliam, CEO of The Bridge.
Gilliam proposed turning William Penn’s campus into an eco-village, redesigning the property to include areas for student learning, businesses, restaurants and a housing component. Gilliam and his team proposed a similar concept for the former Bishop McDevitt school in 2019 and leased the building until earlier this year. The team operated a garden on-site, but never completed work on the building.
“How much seed money do you have available at The Bridge to put together such an ambitious program?” Sultanik said.
Tom Jones, co-developer on the project, responded that they don’t have any capital because a decision hasn’t yet been made to move forward with their plan.
School board member Danielle Robinson questioned how long the project would “actually take” to complete and expressed skepticism about whether such a project would benefit Harrisburg’s students. Board member Annie Hughes questioned whether housing would be allowed on district property.
The district also questioned proposals presented by Bret Peters, of the Harrisburg-based Office for Planning and Architecture, and the Capital Rebirth Project.
Presenting his plan through the Pennsylvania Social Equity Investment Fund, Peters proposed an adaptive reuse to lease and restore the building to be used as a vocational training center for adult education.
“The entire building will be carefully and lovingly restored to its original condition,” Peters told the board.
Sultanik asked for assurance that the group would be “financially strong enough” to do the project. Robinson, meanwhile, expressed concerns that such a facility would only serve students over 18. It would also be located next to Camp Curtin Middle School, she noted, which could present security concerns.
Capital Rebirth Project’s plan, inspired by Lancaster’s Spooky Nook sports center, focused on developing the fields around William Penn to make the property a large-scale sports complex that would serve as a venue for regional sports. The development would also include housing, restaurants, childcare and retail.
“I have been at this for six years now and I don’t think I could answer another question about this to be honest with you,” said Mikell Simpson, a Harrisburg High School graduate. He read a prepared statement about not being able to answer specifics about financing partners or tenants at this time.
“I understand your frustration. I do,” Robinson told him. “This party right here, this is the first time that they’re actually seeing this,” she said. “We’re trying to collect the information to make an informed decision.”
She explained that he’s presenting the information to a school board just coming out of receivership, which will be tasked with making one of its biggest decisions since it has been back under local control.
During the meeting’s public comment period, several Harrisburg residents voiced support for rehabbing the building as well as for providing more vocational education opportunities for Harrisburg students.
The board will make a decision on the future of the building at a future board meeting.
As it stands, the 228,141 square-foot building has no plumbing, no electricity and no HVAC. Its walls, ceilings, and floors are crumbling, and its doors and windows are in poor condition, district officials have explained. The building has regularly been a target of thieves, who’ve stolen copper piping and wiring, and arsonists.
Last year, the district cleared the building of all asbestos, debris, and hazardous materials, preparing it for either demolition or the next phase.
The William Penn building is located on the 2000-block of N. 4th St., Harrisburg.
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