In June, Jennifer Lazarski moved into a one-bedroom apartment in downtown Harrisburg.
Normally, this would hardly be a remarkable event, as downtown has a number of apartment buildings, large and small, and people come and go all the time.
Lazarski, though, was a pioneer of sorts. She became one of the first tenants at 130 Locust St., a high-end, office-to-residential conversion that suddenly has become the next big thing in downtown living.
“I wanted to be downtown,” said the 28-year-old Lazarski, a nurse at Harrisburg Hospital. “Now, I can walk to work and to restaurants or to have a drink with friends.”
Lazarski was living in Hershey, but found the commute “frustrating,” she said. So, she began searching Harrisburg for a new home, only to be disappointed by housing that was not up to her standards.
Finally, she learned about 130 Locust, a time-worn office building that was being re-developed into 14 one- and two-bedroom apartments with new floors, exposed brick, skylights, stainless steel appliances and other designer finishes.
“It’s urban and has character and was all brand-new,” she said. “I felt it was perfect for a young professional who wanted something modern to live in.”
As the downtown office market has cooled, developers have found salvation for Harrisburg’s vintage properties in an unlikely place: upscale residential. Turns out that professionals like Lazarski don’t mind paying a bit more in rent for a nice apartment in a boutique building near restaurants, nightlife and, often, work.
“They want aspirational space,” said David Butcher, president of WCI Partners, which re-developed the building. “This type of city living is resonating with their aspirations, with their artistic, financial, political aspirations.”
New Era
You can break down the history of downtown housing in Harrisburg into three rough phases. The first spanned the initial settlement of the city, from the colonial to the Victorian periods. Much of that stock has been lost to the wrecking ball, though a few charming pockets remain.
The second phase came with the advent of high-rise living in the 1960s and ‘70s. That era gave us such modernist buildings as Executive House, Pennsylvania Place and Presbyterian Apartments.
The current phase is apart from both those periods in design and living. It involves renovating and repurposing Harrisburg’s old, often-rundown (sometimes empty) office stock into small, boutique apartment buildings, with rents usually around $1,000 a month for a medium-sized, one-bedroom unit.
WCI stuck its toe into this market last year with a high-end renovation of two units above Little Amps Coffee Roasters at N. 2nd and State streets. After those apartments leased quickly, the company began scouring downtown for more opportunities, said Butcher.
That search led to the purchase of 130 Locust St., which, within weeks of completion, was almost completely leased. The company next acquired 210 Walnut St., the long-time home of the Keefer, Wood, Allen & Rahal law firm. WCI now is converting that four-story structure at the corner of Walnut and Court streets into a 21-unit apartment building, expected to deliver next April.
And it isn’t just WCI.
Across the street from the state Capitol, Brickbox Enterprises just finished its conversion of the former Barto office building to the LUX, a 42-unit planned community whose first occupants moved in last month. In recent years, Brickbox also re-developed several old, dilapidated office buildings into housing for Harrisburg University students.
Nearby, Vartan Group is finishing up work on a six-unit conversion of the long-vacant Carson Coover House at 223 Pine St. Down on Front Street, Vartan just bought the historic, circa-1863 John Hanna Briggs Mansion, the long-time headquarters of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. That 5,500-square-foot building is slated to become seven luxury riverfront apartments.
Even the 1960s-era Executive House has jumped on the trend, last year converting three entire floors from offices to upscale apartments.
“There’s so much vacant office space in the city of Harrisburg,” said Derek Dilks, vice president of property development for Brickbox. “If people are willing to live in these cool spaces, why not adapt them?”
This type of living has strong appeal to younger people, said Dilks. But it also attracts single professionals of all ages; married couples, mostly without children; and empty-nesters who want to live in a walkable community, he said.
“People want the amenities,” he said. “They want to be close to the restaurants, close to the river.”
To illustrate that point, Nicole Conway shared a story from her own experience. A dozen years ago, fresh out of law school, she wanted to live downtown to be near the restaurants, bars and clubs that were popping up along 2nd Street. She decided against it after she couldn’t find the well-appointed apartment she wanted.
“There are people who want to live in the city who are looking for nice rental,” said Conway, executive vice president and general counsel for Vartan Group. “Until recently, you had trouble finding it.”
Long-Term Trend
Of course, you can’t mention downtown Harrisburg without bringing up the issue of parking, as the cost of on-street spaces has doubled since January. Monthly garage rates also have increased, though not nearly as much.
Generally speaking, the developers said they thought the issue had been overblown. Indeed, some people will not live downtown because of the parking situation. Others, however, find they don’t need to own a car or they reverse commute or they take advantage of Standard Parking’s special rates for downtown dwellers, they said. In some cases, units come with parking.
“It’s not quite as big of a deal as people are making of it,” said Vartan’s Conway. “You go to any other city in Pennsylvania or the United States, and you will face the same challenge. You have to pay to park. It’s just part of being in a city.”
If parking were a deal-breaker, these developers wouldn’t be buying and renovating buildings, and people wouldn’t be moving into them, the developers said.
“People have to weigh the barriers versus the benefits,” said Dilks. “People who decide to live [downtown] are yearning to be closer to restaurants and work and to have greater interactions with others.”
Several other trends are favoring downtown residential development. Banks are beginning to lend again, and developers, seeing pent-up demand, are looking to renovate and build, said Dilks.
Harrisburg might just follow other cities in creating a “living downtown,” a place where people reside, not just work and party. That would further affirm the city’s status as a center for dining and nightlife, but it also might offer a better market for something the city clearly lacks—quality retail.
“It’s a trend, and it’s a long-time trend,” he said. “The trend to move out of the city lasted 30 years. Hopefully, this trend will last for that long of a time.”
Disclosure: TheBurg’s publisher, Alex Hartzler, is a principal at WCI Partners LP.
