Tag Archives: Strawberry Square

August News Digest

August 31, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

Councilman Baltimore Resigns

Harrisburg City Councilman Jeffrey Baltimore resigned last month from Harrisburg’s seven-member City Council.

In his resignation letter, Baltimore said he made a “difficult” decision after “person reflection” and “deliberation with his family,” according to Joyce Davis, the city’s communications director. He further said that he was “proud” to have served with “a creative, talented, caring and enthusiastic team” on council, Davis stated.

Baltimore was appointed to his council seat in 2014 following the death of Councilwoman Eugenia Smith. The next year, he was elected to a four-year term.

Baltimore has chaired both the Public Safety Committee and the Community & Economic Development Committee.

“Councilman Baltimore was a great asset to Harrisburg City Council,” said Council President Wanda Williams. “He is very passionate about public service, community development and an outstanding role model to the youth of our city. On behalf of City Council, we wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

Council now must pick a replacement for Baltimore. Council members have begun accepting applications to fill the vacant seat. The person selected will serve until January, and an election for a two-year council term will take place in November.

Security Camera for Midtown

A wireless security camera will be coming soon to Harrisburg’s Midtown neighborhood, as a community group last month received a grant to extend the city’s video surveillance system.

Midtown Action Council (MAC) announced it received a $15,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to help fund the extension of Harrisburg’s wireless security infrastructure to N. 2^nd and Forster streets. Currently, the system’s downtown component ends at 2^nd and Pine streets.

“Safety is our No. 1 priority as a community group, and it’s on the mind of every resident in Harrisburg,” said MAC President Jonathan Hendrickson. “This grant will help us access the infrastructure we need to eventually place wireless security cameras in the neighborhood.”

Before the system can be installed, MAC must raise $4,120 in matching funds. However, the organization is confident it can secure the funding for deployment this fall, said Dan Fulton, MAC’s secretary/treasurer.

In 2013, Harrisburg began deployment of a wireless security infrastructure, including 10 cameras downtown, Uptown and on Allison Hill, which allow city police and Dauphin County to conduct real-time surveillance. The $425,000 system was funded by Dauphin County’s Crime Task Force.

In Midtown, the first wireless camera will be installed facing north on 2^nd Street, from the intersection with Forster Street.

Fulton said this project “sets the stage” for future wireless cameras to be installed strategically through Midtown.

“This is just a first step, but it’s arguably the most important step because it gives us a foundation to build on,” Fulton said.

Airbnb Confab

Proponents and opponents gathered last month in Harrisburg’s Government Center at a city-sponsored meeting on all things Airbnb.

Harrisburg officials hosted the gathering to hear from a select group of business owners, as to how—or if—the city should regulate the run-your-own hospitality service.

“We’re here tonight to take information from you, the current operators,” said Michael Hughes, Harrisburg’s tax and enforcement administrator.

Over 90 minutes, Hughes and other officials, including Fire Chief Brian Enterline, Planner Geoffrey Knight and Solicitor Neil Grover, heard arguments for and against so-called short-term rentals, which include Airbnb and other Internet-based room reservation services. The wide-ranging discussion included such issues as zoning, taxation and safety.

Dee Fegan, chair of the board of the PA Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns, was the first to speak up, objecting that Airbnb hosts do not currently pay the Dauphin County hotel tax or, in many cases, other taxes, such as sales and mercantile taxes, which apply to traditional B&Bs.

“I just want to point out that rules are already in place,” she said. “It’s just up to people to follow them.”

Ted Hanson, who owns a short-term rental on Boas Street, said that he long has leased out his two-bedroom Airbnb house, which is next door to his own home, on an annual basis, but now is just renting it in a different way. Besides, he said, he’s helping to stimulate the local economy.

“I feel like I’m doing a service for the city,” he said. “I send people to businesses all over Midtown.”

Following the meeting, Hughes said the city now needs to ponder what changes, if any, to make to laws and regulations to accommodate short-term rentals. He’d like any changes to take effect on Jan. 1.

“Airbnbs were never contemplated when the rules were passed,” Grover said. “Now, we have to answer the question—do those rules apply or not?”

Home Sales Flat

The region’s hot real estate market took a breather in July, with sales nearly flat compared to last year.

Residential sales totaled 936 units, two fewer than in July 2016, according to the Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors. The median price rose to $180,000 from $175,500, GHAR said.

In Dauphin County, sales actually increased to 317 units in July versus 308 the year earlier, with the median price jumping to $164,900 compared to $155,900 in July 2016. Notably, average days on the market fell markedly to 44 days from 72.

Cumberland County sales decreased to 323 units versus 374, though the median price rose to $199,900 compared to $190,000 in the year-ago period. In Perry County, sales totaled 52 units, a rise from 34 units, with the median price falling to $164,000 versus $187,400 in July 2016.

GHAR covers all of Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties and parts of York, Lebanon and Juniata counties.

So Noted

BI Solutions has received the 2016 Admiral Stanley R. Arthur Award for Logistics Excellence for its work on behalf of the U.S. Navy. The Harrisburg-based company is the prime contractor of the LOGCELL project, which supports the P08A Poseidon, the Navy’s maritime, patrol and reconnaissance aircraft.

Harrisburg International Airport announced last month that it will receive a $10.9 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration. HIA said it will use the funds to rehabilitate the airport’s primary runway, prolonging the life of the pavement, replacing centerline lights, upgrading lead-on lights, reconfiguring the Surface Movement Guidance and Control System and upgrading runway surface monitoring equipment.

Mecum Auctions reported $20 million in sales last month from its fourth trip to the PA Farm Show Complex. The company said the highest bid came in at $415,000 for a 1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird. More than 20,000 people, including spectators, bidders and consignors, attended the show.

Penwell Bowman + Curran LLC, a newly formed law firm, opened last month at 215 Pine St. in Harrisburg. Scott Penwell, Brandt Bowman and Matthew Curran are the founding partners of the firm, which specializes in business law.

PinnacleHealth plans to open a primary care doctor’s office inside Strawberry Square in downtown Harrisburg, according to the company. The 3,000-square-foot office, located next to Rite Aid, will have six exam rooms, a community/conference room, a patient check-in and waiting area, a laboratory area and several offices. It is expected to open in mid-November.

S&T Bancorp this month will complete the final stage of its acquisition of Integrity Bank. As of Sept. 5, all Integrity Bank branches will make the name change to S&T Bank.

Sara K. Weiser, PSECU financial education manager, was recently honored by Junior Achievement USA with a 2016-17 Bronze Leadership Award. This award recognizes people in the community who have demonstrated a sincere commitment to JA’s mission of inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy.

Visit Hershey & Harrisburg is the new name of the Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitor’s Bureau. The organization changed its name to offer better and more consistent brand identity, said President Mary Smith.

Wildwood Park is seeking applications for its 2018 “Art In The Wild” environmental art exhibit, with the theme of “Natural Abstraction.” Most of the materials used for the installation should be natural. Exhibit applications and information can be found at wildwoodlake.org.

Changing Hands

Barkley Lane, 2505: E. & I. Gonzales to Y. White, $71,000

Berryhill St., 1944: G. Domon to E. Cruz, $72,900

Berryhill St., 2334: S. Kemble to W., J. & J. Morrow, $35,000

Caledonia St., 1921: M. Schreck to Cardinal Investments LLC, $32,000

Conoy St., 108: P. Marks to D. Noll, $114,000

Cumberland St., 272: M. Walsh to B. Hall & K. Humen, $128,000

Derry St., 2426: S. Rimal to P. & C. Ambrose, $38,000

Edgewood Rd., 2301: D. Butler to New Holland Enterprise Management LP, $144,000

Ellersie St., 2350: B. Fuhrman to PA Double Deals LLC, $44,000

Elm St., 1707, 1709 & 1711; and 1706 & 1708 Walnut St.: I. Cox to Q. Webster & N. Brunner, $45,000

Emerald St., 248: M. Chapman to C., A. K. & K. Thompson, $80,000

Forster St., 216: Thomas Mark Mustio Trust to F. Farry & K. Erway, $115,900

Green St., 1730: A.J. Fedore and Co. Inc. to T. Zingman, $199,000

Green St., 1816: G. Brown to D. Leaman, $92,500

Green St., 1938 & 1940: I. Brea & O. Sanchez to D. & C. Varno, $212,000

Green St., 2011: M. & E. Hunter to E. & S. Orndorff, $225,000

Green St., 2022: Cartus Financial Corp. to M. Crider, $224,000

Green St., 2152: Kusic Financial Services LLC to J. Barker, $54,308

Green St., 2438: Federal National Mortgage Assoc. to R. Diggs Jr., $60,500

Harris St., 240 & 242: David Kaminski IRA to Heinly Homes LLC, $215,000

James St., 1315: W. Cropper to J. Brinks & C. Wise, $40,000

Kelker St., 425: Wells Fargo Bank NA to D. & K. Steiner, $95,000

Maclay St., 330: A. Clay to Keystone Properties Group LLC, $35,000

Mercer St., 2430: M. Janos to PA Deals LLC, $40,000

Midland Rd., 2316: J. & S. Kalnasy to S. Agyeman, $280,000

Muench St., 276: K. Lannon to S. Garraty, $122,000

N. 2^nd St., 607: Bricker Boys Partnership to DelPenn Partners LLC, $335,000

N. 2^nd St., 2241: D. Kray to K. Shubert & L. Christopher, $165,000

N. 2^nd St., 2345: L. Whitcomb & M. Quinn to L. Vaughan & M. Henry, $193,000

N. 2^nd St., 2410: C. Bennet to M. Sheaffer, $167,000

N. 2^nd St., 2534: J. Erb to M. Tuck, $149,900

N. 3^rd St., 1308 & 1310; 1313 & 1315 Green St.; and 1318 Susquehanna St.: P. & M. Navarro to James Family Holdings, $415,000

N. 3^rd St., 1615: Joshua Group to Heinly Homes LLC, $75,000

N. 3^rd St., 1623½: G. Neff & J. Shopf to Heinly Homes LLC, $75,000

N. 3^rd St., 1625: Gary Neff Inc. to Heinly Homes LLC, $75,000

N. 3^rd St., 2116: Katamin Properties LP to N&R Group LLC, $47,500

N. 4^th St., 1644: 1515 Associates to Z. & L. Engle, $57,500

N. 4^th St., 2452: V. Burkholtz & D. Cooper to Lifeline 1 LLC, $47,000

N. 5^th St., 1702A: V. Dincher to S. Kent, $82,000

N. 6^th St., 3001: R. Vogel to B. Yanez, $75,000

N. 7^th St., 2632: P. Chacon to T. Krone, $62,000

N. 18^th St., 714: C. Frey to E. Sanchez & R. Hidalgo, $36,900

N. Cameron St., 1914: J. Pagliaro to E. Maher, $98,500

N. Front St., 1525, Unit 212: T. Grumbine to D. Taylor, $142,000

N. Front St., 1525, Unit 213: L. Mundy to B. Esworthy, $85,000

Penn St., 1928: LSF9 Master Participation Trust to S. Burgin, $125,000

Race St., 554: N. Batholomaei to T. Corl, $125,000

Reily St., 210: P. & H. Jackson to J. Manzella, $103,000

Rudy Rd., 2017: A. Meppurathu to A. Saldana, $177,900

Rudy Rd., 2307: C. & E. Kerns to J. & K. Klein, $162,000

South St., 110: E. Comp to M. O’Neill, $110,000

S. 13^th St., 445: RWM Properties LLC to H. Yap, $59,900

S. 13^th St., 30; and 401 & 403 S. 14^th St.: San Pef Inc. to Round Rock Investments LLC, $226,000

S. 18^th St., 1304: S. Lee to H. Noh, $120,000

S. 19^th St., 1215: F. & B. Matjasic to C. Turner, $102,300

S. Front St., 573: T. & C. Hinkson to B. & K. Crews, $144,900

S. Front St., 577: E. Taylor to M. Kuhns, $139,900

S. Front St., 633: T. Imswiler & H. Jones to S. & P. Benjestorf, $90,000

S. Front St., 635: T. Imswiler & H. Jones to S. & P. Benjestorf, $90,000

S. Front St., 705½: J. Foreman to J. & A. Juratovic, $125,000

Susquehanna St., 1610: S. Uhrinek to D. Lawyer & S. Flagle, $156,000

Susquehanna St., 1839: J. Cremo to S. Conover, $104,000

Tuscarora St., 104: J. Jones to S. Muniz, $189,900

Author: Lawrance Binda

Plant Party: VeggieFest to take root in Strawberry Square.

August 28, 2017 | by Admin

Customers peruse goods at the HBG Flea in Strawberry Square this winter. Strawberry Square will host the first Harrisburg VeggieFest on Saturday, September 23.

Herbivores in Harrisburg, rejoice: the city’s first festival showcasing vegan and vegetarian food is coming downtown this fall.

VeggieFest, an all-inclusive exposition featuring plant-based foods, craft drinks and healthy lifestyle products, will take place on Saturday, Sept. 23 in Strawberry Square on 3rd Street. The ticketed event will also include demonstrations and speakers, according to Sara Bozich, an organizer.

Bozich said that she and Brad Jones, CEO of Harristown Enterprises, which owns Strawberry Square, have been talking for years about bringing a healthy living festival to Harrisburg.

“We wanted to do something new for the community,” Bozich said. She added that the event is open to anyone—vegan, vegetarian, or curious carnivore—who wants to learn about a plant-based, locally sourced lifestyle.

Bozich reported that she has received great interest in VeggieFest from local and regional businesses. The growing lineup (confirmed vendors are listed below) includes craft breweries, cideries, restaurants and vegan/vegetarian-friendly food providers, as well vendors selling handicrafts and plant-based body products, she said. Vendors will pay a $25 fee for a spot in the venue, and local non-profit groups can sign up for free tables.

Brendalynn Armstrong, co-owner of Zeroday Brewery, supports the locally focused lifestyle that VeggieFest promotes.

“The focus of this event is healthy living, and we at Zeroday believe that beer can be integrated into a healthy lifestyle,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong added that most of Zeroday’s craft beers are vegan or vegetarian, and all are brewed with as many locally sourced ingredients as possible.

The Vegetable Hunter, a vegan and vegetarian restaurant on N. 2nd Street, will showcase some of its vegan menu items at VeggieFest. Owner Kristin Messner-Baker plans on bringing side salads and sandwich samples, as well as craft beers from The Vegetable Hunter’s in-house brewery.

“We only serve a vegan and vegetarian menu so this is an exciting opportunity to reach out to people who may not have been to our restaurant and brewery,” Messner-Baker said.

Jones, who counts four vegans among his family members, said that he wanted to host a plant-based food festival after attending similar events in other cities. He believes that VeggieFest can raise the profile of healthy living in Harrisburg.

“We wanted to highlight that this city is vegan and vegetarian friendly,” Jones said. He hopes that at least 200 people will be able to attend the event.

The event was first promoted as the Harrisburg VegFest, but Bozich said that she and Jones rebranded to avoid confusion with vegan festivals by the same name.

Tickets for the event are $20 for the general public and $10 for students or designated drivers. Bozich and Jones say that the cover charge allows them to host an all-inclusive event that will also give back to the community.

“Your ticket price is going to get you a lot for that $20,” Jones said, referring to the samples, tastings, and entertainment available to ticket-holders.

Bozich added that the ticket proceeds will help cover overhead planning costs. She also noted that Harrisburg’s VeggieFest includes a philanthropic component: Proceeds from the event will benefit local nonprofit JumpStreet, an arts development organization in Harrisburg.

The Harrisburg VeggieFest will be held Saturday, Sept. 23, from 12 to 5 pm in Strawberry Square. To purchase tickets or learn more, visit hbgveggiefest.com.

Sponsors
Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District
Giant Food Stores
Weis Markets
Reiki by Rickie
Geico Insurance
Weis Markets
Healthy Grocer

Brewery/Cidery
Zeroday Brewing Co.
Boneshire Brew Works
2050 State Brewery
Jack’s Hard Cider

Restaurants/Food
Arooga’s Grille House & Sports Bar
VRAI
The Vegetable Hunter
Yak N Yeti
Supernola
The Fountain of Juice

Vendors
Grape Cat Vegan Clothing and Accessories
Free and Thriving
Kyle’s Cactus
young living essential oils
Renewal Kombucha
Animal Advocates of South Central PA
Harrisburg Area YMCA Center For Healthy Living

Author: Lizzy Hardison

Note, August 29: This story has been edited to include a quote from Kristin Messner-Baker.

Strawberry Care: PinnacleHealth to open doc’s office in Strawberry Square.

August 10, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

PinnacleHealth Strawberry Square Family Care will occupy these storefronts next to Rite Aid.

At Strawberry Square, you can grab a bite to eat, buy a greeting card, deposit a check, get a latte, even rent an apartment.

And, come this fall, you’ll be able to get that bruise checked out or find out what’s wrong with your aching knee.

Around mid-November, following a build-out, PinnacleHealth plans to open a 3,000-square-foot primary care medical office, appropriately right next to the new Rite Aid store.

“I don’t remember the last time a family doctor’s office opened in downtown Harrisburg,” said Brad Jones, president and CEO of Harristown, which owns Strawberry Square. “This is one more thing that will make your life easier if you live or work here.”

PinnacleHealth Strawberry Square Family Care will feature six exam rooms, a community/conference room, a patient check-in and waiting area, a laboratory area, and several offices. Six to eight employees are expected to staff the office at any one time, Jones said.

“PinnacleHealth is pleased to bring this full-service primary care practice to the community,” said Robert Nielsen, president of PinnacleHealth Medical Group. “We have a long-standing commitment to the health and well-being of the city, and providing patient-centered, integrated care reflects our focus on offering easy access to the right care when and where patients need it.”

The Pinnacle facility will take the space long occupied by Modern Jewelers, which is relocating just across the atrium, next to the PSECU branch, said Jones.

The new medical office continues the recent transformation and modernization of Strawberry Square.

This fall, an urban-style market, Provisions, will open on the N. 3^rd Street side of Strawberry Square, and, at 3^rd and Market streets, Freshido, a 2,200-square-foot fast-casual Asian restaurant, will debut in space once occupied by Plum Sports. Last year, numerous new businesses opened in Strawberry Square, including Fresa Bistro and the Flats at Strawberry Square, the first apartments in the building.

Click here for more information about Strawberry Square.

Author: Lawrance Binda

July News Digest

July 31, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

Housing Funds Disbursed
Harrisburg City Council doled out some $1.9 million in federal housing funds last month, but not before making tweaks to the administration’s proposal.

Council provided $25,000 to the Heinz-Menaker Senior Center from the city’s portion of annual Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, a program of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The city administration had denied funding for the center, saying its application scored too low to merit a grant.

To make room for the Heinz-Menaker grant, $15,000 was taken from a proposed allocation for the city’s Police Bureau, which still will receive $90,000 to help pay for a new community policing van and a police cadet program.

Another $10,000 was taken from the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development, which still will receive about $43,000 to cover unreimbursed costs related to the sinkhole project on S. 14th Street.

Like last year, the greatest single amount of money, $562,248, went to repay federal loans the city backed during the Reed administration for several development projects, including the disastrous Capitol View Commerce Center project.

Other CDBG recipients included:

City Housing Rehabilitation Programs: $330,000
Tri-County HDC: $150,000
City Emergency Demolition: $120,000
Harrisburg Fire Bureau: $51,686
Habitat for Humanity Greater Harrisburg Area: $30,000
Rebuilding Together: $15,000
Christian Aftercare Recovery Ministries: $25,000
A Miracle 4 Sure: $25,000
Latino Hispanic American Community Center: $25,000
Fair Housing Council: $25,000
Mid Penn Legal Services: $15,000
Neighborhood Dispute Settlement: $3,900

While the city undertook the annual process of distributing CDBG money, funding is not assured as the Trump administration has threatened to end the program.

Riot Gear Debated

Harrisburg City Council last month left for summer break without voting on a plan that would supply the city’s police with new protective gear.

Council members said they would take up the matter once more after they returned from hiatus in late August and, in the interim, urged police to engage with residents to discuss the issue.

The Police Bureau is seeking to transfer $65,000 from unspent personnel funds to purchase 30 “top to toe” protective suits. The bureau’s current gear is old and inadequate, police say.

Some city residents have urged council not to approve the transfer, saying that so-called “riot suits” would escalate tense situations. Police, though, say that protests, particularly at the state Capitol, have become more frequent and more violent, and that officers need the equipment for personal protection.

College Plans Move to City Hall

Eastern University announced last month that it would like to move its satellite campus into the basement of Harrisburg city hall.

“I want to be in the city,” said Wesley Bunting, an official with the St. Davids, Pa.-based Christian college, whose satellite campus currently is located in Lower Paxton Township.

Therefore, the university approached the city with a novel offer. It would spend about $615,000 to fully renovate the mostly empty, worn-out basement of the MLK Jr. City Government Center on N. 2nd Street.

The city would be able to use a portion of the space for a new, state-of-the-art emergency operations center. It also would get access to classroom space when not in use and to the lounge, which could be used as a break room. The city would receive the improvements but no monetary rent during the 10-year lease term.

If approved by council, the project could start immediately and would take less than a year to complete, Bunting said.

“This is a substantial investment in the building with resources that we otherwise would have to draw from somewhere else,” Mayor Eric Papenfuse said.

Papenfuse said the project also would bring more people downtown, would boost building security, especially after hours, would offer technology upgrades in the building and would help create a “critical mass” of colleges downtown, adding to the existing presence of Harrisburg University, Temple University and Messiah College.

HDID Seeks Renewal

The Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District last month asked City Council for a five-year reauthorization, a plan that would expand the district to State Street.

Executive Director Todd Vander Woude outlined a few recent activities by the group, including last year’s “Dino-Mite Summer” public art project, this year’s “Discover the Ducks Downtown,” the St. Patrick’s Day parade, several new murals, more bike racks, brightly painted planters and a new safety substation.

“Our focus is making downtown clean, safe and beautiful,” said Vander Woude, who received a generally positive reaction from council.

In 2015, council refused to grant a full, five-year term, offering only two years with instructions to become more visible and active. Back then, some council members said that HDID wasn’t doing enough to attract people downtown.

Getting firm council support is particularly important this year, as the HDID is seeking to expand its northern boundary from Pine Street to State Street, bringing 58 more properties into the district and upping the organization’s annual budget by $40,000 to $820,000. Each commercial property is assessed a 1.75 mil surcharge on its city property taxes to cover the cost of HDID services, which also include cleaning, safety and beautification measures.

Property owners within the proposed district have 45 days from last month’s council hearing to vote against the district. Forty percent of properties within the boundary must vote against it for reauthorization to be defeated.

City Payment Restored

Harrisburg will receive its full state funding after all, as the legislature passed a budget re-inserting a $5 million payment to the city.

The $32 billion state budget for 2017-18 includes full funding of the “Capitol fire protection” line item, a type of payment in lieu of taxes that the city counts on to help fund emergency services.

Gov. Tom Wolf included the payment in his proposed budget in February, but it was later stripped out by the state Senate.

Over the decades, this annual payment has ranged widely from nothing to the current $5 million, an amount decided upon while the city was under state receivership. However, the money is not guaranteed, meaning that Harrisburg isn’t certain it will receive the funds until the always-fraught state budget is passed.

The money lands in the city’s general fund, but Harrisburg officials say it offers compensation for services that the city provides to about 30,000 state workers. The state pays no property taxes on its massive holdings in the city, which include some 50 state-owned buildings on about 42 percent of the city’s land.

New Grocery Store

If you’ve been hungering for an urban-style grocery store in Harrisburg, your wait is almost over.

In a few months, Provisions will open in Strawberry Square, emphasizing natural, organic and locally produced goods, mostly sold in bulk.

Provisions will occupy 2,350 square feet of space next to Fresa Bistro with a storefront entrance on N. 3rd Street, said Brad Jones, CEO of Harristown Enterprises, which owns Strawberry Square.

“You’re going to be able to get fresh food that you can shop daily for,” said Jones, who described the market as a “locally grown Trader Joe’s.”

Jones expects the build-out of the space to begin immediately, with the store opening in mid-October.

Provisions is the brainchild of Shaun Donovan, the owner of the online grocery store Appalachian Organics, and Adam Porter, co-owner of the co-working space, StartUp Harrisburg.

Steelton Redevelopment

A new development called Renaissance Row soon will begin to rise in downtown Steelton, in part thanks to a tax incentive program.

Dauphin County and Steelton officials last month credited property tax abatement for enabling the project, which will feature 80,000 square feet of commercial space and 46 one-and two-bedroom apartments across the street from Steelton Borough Hall.

“Providing property tax relief for new construction and renovation can make the difference between making it viable to move forward on a project,’’ said county board Chairman Jeff Haste.

Philadelphia-based developer Chariot Companies will build Renaissance Row. A second development featuring 12 new townhouses on Adams Street should break ground later this year.

All of Steelton is part of a Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) program, which provides tax breaks on property improvements for 10 years.

Home Sales Climb

The Harrisburg area scored another solid month for home sales, as purchases increased 4.2 percent year over year.

The Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors reported 1,147 sales in June compared to 1,101 sales in June 2016 for its coverage area, which covers all of Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties and parts of York, Lebanon and Juniata counties.

The median price also rose, increasing to $183,000 versus $175,000 in the year-ago period, GHAR said.

In Dauphin County, 389 homes sold, an increase of 23 units, with the median price rising to $163,500 from $160,000. In Cumberland County, sales totaled 398 units versus 388, with the median price jumping to $210,000 from $190,900.

Perry County had 51 home sales against 33, with the median price rising to $143,000 from $129,900 a year earlier.

So Noted

Fine Wine and Good Spirits will open an 11,500-square-foot retail store at the Capital City Mall this fall, according to mall owner PREIT. Next year, a Dave & Busters also will open, offering a casual dining and entertainment option.

Harrisburg University is relocating its Philadelphia campus, which will more than quadruple its space. The new site at 1500 Spring Garden St. in Center City will allow the university to offer full, four-year bachelor degrees at the campus without students needing to transfer to the main campus in Harrisburg.

Merit is the new name of the Harrisburg-based marketing and innovation firm, Sacunas. The company, founded by Nancy Sacunas, said it changed its name to better reflect its mission under now-owner Adam Vasquez.

Mom’s Tamales & Papusas is expected to open this month at 263 Reily St., across from Midtown Cinema. Owner Josue Osorto, a veteran of many Harrisburg restaurants, will run the eatery specializing in food from El Salvador.

PinnacleHealth has completed the acquisition of four hospitals in three surrounding counties. The Harrisburg-based company bought Carlisle Regional Medical Center, Heart of Lancaster Regional Medical Center, Lancaster Regional Medical Center and Memorial Hospital of York.

Rite Aid and Walgreens have dropped their plans to merge. Instead, Walgreens will buy 2,186 Rite Aid stores for $5.2 billion, leaving East Pennsboro Township-based Rite Aid with 2,350 stores after the deal is complete.

In Memoriam

Robert Marquette, long-time president and CEO of Members 1st Federal Credit Union, died last month, said the Mechanicsburg-based company. Marquette, 68, also was the face of the Members 1st, donning a superhero-type outfit and making homespun pitches during numerous advertisements.

Benjamin Olewine III, lifelong Harrisburg resident, businessman and philanthropist, has died at the age of 95. Olewine grew his family’s food business into one of the top food distributors in the country, selling it in 1988 to giant Sysco Corp., where he continued to work until a few years ago.

Changing Hands

Allison Ct., 7: B. Schaeffer to Flipside Home Renewal LLC, $32,000

Barkley Lane, 2503: F. Scott to L. Holloway, $62,500

Bellevue Rd., 2026: M&N Associates LLC to N. & S. Diehl, $70,000

Berryhill St., 1621: G. Campos to B. Brown, $30,000

Capitol St., 901: G. Ulrich to C. Lenz Jr., $117,900

Capitol St., 1003, 414 Forster St. and 919 & 923 N. 2nd St.: PLM Real Estate Investments & M. Stuski to AON LLC, $265,000

Chestnut St., 1822: G. Neff to A. Brown, $43,900

Derry St., 1408: M. Neidigh to J. & D. Judge, $30,000

Derry St., 2334: R. Miller & D. Shellenhamer to N. Hanna, $35,000

Derry St., 2400: J. Seibert to 2400 Derry Street LLC, $65,000

Edgewood Rd., 2315: R. Everngam Jr. & D. Bottini to I. & A. MacFarlane, $204,900

Fulton St., 1418: Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC to PA Deals LLC, $61,960

Fulton St., 1733: J. & R. Gregoire to M. Shelleman, $121,000

Grand St., 919: L. Bolan to A. Chen, $114,900

Green St., 1809: M. & R. Monticchio to D. Caley, $140,000

Harris St., 342: Keystone Properties Group LLC to D. Shelley, $89,000

Herr St., 211: M. Rudderow to G. Broome, $119,900

Herr St., 259: B. Eppley to J., J., & P. Millner, $150,000

Holly St., 1946: M. Naranjo to A. Mercado, $105,500

Hudson St., 1106: J. Raab to K. Fernandez, $60,000

Hudson St., 1215: A. Powers to PI Capital LLC, $33,500

Kelker St., 231: A. DeHoff to D. Rubenstein, $174,900

Lewis St., 303: E. Gadsen to E. Torres, $124,000

Market St., 810, 812 & 900; 24 & 26 N. 10thSt.; and 12, 21 & 23 N. 9th St.: Patriot News Co. to 812 Market Street LLC & Twenty Lake Holdings, $644,286

Market St., 1848: Kusic Financial Services to E. Lewis, $37,100

Muench St., 212: K. & K. Warner to C. Kim, $169,900

Mulberry St., 1162: Stoute Housing Inc. to Evidence Group LLC, $73,000

N. 2nd St., 1225: M. & L. Day to S. Shaffer, $125,000

N. 2nd St., 2011: M. Patterson to S. Gallagher & C. Prestia, $139,000

N. 2nd St., 2915: K. & K. Russell to L. Whitcomb & M. Quinn, $315,000

N. 2nd St., 3004: S. Jusufovic to L. Bolan, $219,000

N. 3rd St., 1722: M. Kravanis Jr. & N. Melton to A. Glickman, $112,000

N. 3rd St., 1728: Leonard J. Dobson Family Limited Partnership to Keystone Brothers Investments, $106,000

N. 3rd St., 1730: Secretary of Housing & Urban Development and Information Systems & Networks Corp. to S. Bernhard, $72,000

N. 3rd St., 1928: Secretary of Housing & Urban Development to J. Hobbs, $70,000

N. 6th St., 3107: E. Willis to S. & K. Wright, $99,500

N. 6th St., 3136: M. Naranjo to L. Seay, $55,000

N. 12th St., 47: Hobbeze Inc. to E&K Homes LLC, $35,000

N. 16th St., 521: D. Taylor to Wells Fargo Bank NA, $38,262

N. Front St., 1525, Unit 413: H. Michels to J. Becker, $93,900

N. Front St., 2201, 2225 & 2229; and 2200, 2214, 2216 & 2218 N. 2nd St.: 2201 Partners LP to 2201 NFS LLC, $1,800,000

Penn St., 1805: L. Urban to T. & K. Hand, $93,000

Penn St., 1933: WCI Partners LP to D. Ranson, $139,900

Rudy Rd., 2145: M. & K. DeRosa to G. Broadnax, $178,000

Rudy Rd., 2409: N. Ishman to W. & A. Krahn, $149,900

Rumson Dr., 2843: N. & I. Nanov to C. Rojas, $35,000

S. 13th St., 340: JKC Properties LLC to Round Rock Investments LLC,, $101,000

S. 17th St., 927: M. Maniari & Z. Erroudi to A. Mejia, $89,900

S. 18th St., 1128: J. Buzby to T. Ro & J. Musa, $95,000

Verbeke St., 116: H. Reynolds to M. Zecharya & B. Macavoy, $30,000

Verbeke St., 215: J. & S. Bircher to J. & & E. High, $215,000

Verbeke St., 235: S. Will to A. & C. Maset, $146,000

Author: Lawrance Binda

Bulk Up: New grocery store planned for downtown Harrisburg.

July 11, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

Soon, this storefront will house Provisions, a new grocery store.

If you’ve been hungering for an urban-style grocery store in Harrisburg, here’s some very good news—your wait is almost over.

In a few months, Provisions will open in Strawberry Square, emphasizing natural, organic and locally produced goods, mostly sold in bulk.

Provisions will occupy 2,350 square feet of space next to Fresa Bistro with a storefront entrance on N. 3^rd Street, said Brad Jones, CEO of Harristown Enterprises, which owns Strawberry Square.

“You’re going to be able to get fresh food that you can shop daily for,” said Jones, who described the market as a “locally grown Trader Joe’s.”

Jones expects the build-out of the space to begin immediately, with the store opening in mid-October.

Provisions is the brainchild of Shaun Donovan, the owner of the online grocery store Appalachian Organics, and Adam Porter, co-owner of the co-working space Startup Harrisburg.

Porter said that the pair met several years ago through mutual friend and fellow Harrisburg entrepreneur, Adam Brackbill.

“I said to [Donovan] one day, ‘I need a car just to feed myself,’ and down this path, we went,” Porter said, explaining how the idea began.

After searching for potential sites, the pair decided on N. 3^rd between Market and Walnut streets due to the rapid development of downtown apartments in recent years, as well as an influx of state workers into Strawberry Square.

“We chose to locate our new store in Strawberry Square to be a part of the growing community that has been developing here,” Donovan said. “The strategic location, within a short walking distance of transit centers and the developing residential sector, make the store very accessible.”

The future Provisions, from inside Strawberry Square.

Provisions will make the most of its relatively snug space by selling most items in bulk, thereby eliminating bulky, wasteful packaging. This strategy also will keep costs down, so that items should sell at an affordable price, Porter said. In addition, customers can measure out exactly how much of an item they need, reducing waste.

“We can put items on the shelf in a concise way,” Porter said. “So, we don’t need as much square footage in the store.”

Some items, like meats, cheeses and dairy products, will be sold in more conventional packaging. The store also will carry items like cleaning supplies, locally roasted coffee, fresh-made baked goods and locally sourced produce.

“We’re going to use as many local vendors as we can,” Porter said. “We may not have quite as wide a variety as a supermarket, but it will still be a robust selection.”

He added that Provisions is intended for a local shopper—a resident or worker—who wants fresh items and, therefore, will patronize the store more often than one might visit a supermarket, perhaps several times a week.

“Our primary customer is someone within a 10-minute walk,” Porter said.

He said that he wouldn’t be surprised to get some suburban shoppers, who might be attracted to the unique items and shopping experience. To that end, he and Donovan plan to promote Park Harrisburg’s reduced-rate street parking, which includes free parking on Sundays, four hours of free parking on Saturdays using an online code and reduced prices weekdays between 5 and 7 p.m.

If the concept is successful, Porter envisions Provisions expanding, with smaller-format stores in more neighborhoods in Harrisburg. That would contrast sharply with the current model of downscale corner stores in the city and sprawling supermarkets in the suburbs.

“People always ask me, ‘What about a grocery store?’ when you talk about a downtown renaissance,” Jones said. “Now, you’re going to be able to get fresh food you can shop daily for.”

ProvisionsHBG will be located at 15-17 N. 3^rd St., Harrisburg, also accessible from inside Strawberry Square. Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) is ProvisionsHBG. A website will be located at www.provisionshbg.com.

Author: Lawrance Binda

June News Digest

June 30, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

Dog Park Proposed

Terriers and hounds soon may displace groundhogs and squirrels from a block of long-empty land in Midtown, as plans are afoot for Harrisburg’s first public dog park.

The community group Friends of Midtown is raising about $18,000 to cover two years of expenses for the off-leash park, which would be created on a grassy, three-quarter-acre expanse at N. 7th and Granite streets.

“We have the enthusiastic support of the city, the planning bureau,” said Annie Hughes, who is spearheading the effort for Friends of Midtown with her husband Andy. “Everybody’s all in, essentially.”

The Vartan Group owns the lot and has agreed to a two-year commitment, Hughes said. Friends of Midtown should hear soon on the fate of a grant application from PPL Electric and also is soliciting funds from individuals. It hopes to have the park, which would be free and open to the public, ready by spring 2018.

Plans call for a fence to ring the lot, which would be divided into two areas—one for large dogs and the other for small dogs. Dog waste bags would be available on site, and signs would be posted with the rules of the park.

The desire for a dog park in Harrisburg has come up repeatedly in recent years. Two years ago, it was the fifth most-popular suggestion among 1,200 ideas for inclusion in the city’s comprehensive plan, Hughes said.

She added that the dog park would be temporary, serving as a pilot for the city, which may use data collected from this effort to build a permanent park.

Jackson Hotel Mural

A new mural will celebrate Harrisburg’s African-American history, adorning the side of a building that once hosted such luminaries as Louis Armstrong and Pearl Bailey.

Sprocket Mural Works announced the project last month for the former Jackson Hotel and Rooming House on the 1000-block of N. 6th Street, a building that, decades ago, catered primarily to a black clientele refused service in the city’s major, segregated hotels.

“It will be an African-American historic mural, playing off the history itself,” said Sprocket co-founder Jeff Copus.

The Jackson Hotel painting is one of 10 murals that will be created during the Harrisburg Mural Festival, which Sprocket is organizing for the first 10 days of September.

Copus last month told the Harrisburg Architectural Review Board (HARB) that the mural will feature people who stayed at the hotel, possibly including entertainers like Armstrong, Bailey, Cab Callaway and Ella Fitzgerald. It may also incorporate images of important Harrisburg figures such as Ephraim Slaughter, an escaped slave who fought in the Civil War and later settled in the city.

In August, Sprocket will seek public input for the mural design, Copus said.

Sprocket is commissioning artist Cesar Viveros to paint the mural. Locally, Viveros is best known as the artist-in-residence who helped design and lead the creation of the Mulberry Street Bridge murals.

Stop the Drop

A small change to trashcan lids may cut the amount of litter on Harrisburg streets.

That’s the idea behind “Stop the Drop,” a campaign to turn home trashcans into, essentially, public trashcans.

The new lids are bright orange with a hole in the center that residents can attach to their trashcans, replacing their existing, solid lids. Pedestrians then can put litter into the can through the hole, rather than toss it in the street, said Julie Walter, neighborhood revitalization manager at Tri County Community Action, a part of the grassroots coalition Clean and Green Harrisburg.

A successful, three-month pilot run on 6th and Market streets convinced the coalition to roll out the lids citywide, Walter said.

“[We were] excited that people were actually using the lids,” she said about the trial run. “When we would go check them out, there would be coffee cups and chip bags in the cans. You can tell that there was actually a need.”

Later this month, residents citywide will be able to volunteer to swap their lids out with the new lids. These new lids work well with rowhome residents who place their trashcans at the front of their houses, she said.

King Mansion Sells

Harrisburg’s iconic Horace King Mansion sold last month, purchased by an engineering firm that plans to relocate there.

K & W Engineers, under the holding company name 2201 NFS LLC, purchased the building at 2201 N. Front St., along with several adjacent parcels, for $1.8 million from a group called 2201 Partnership, which had owned it since 2003.

The 10-person engineering and consulting firm expects to leave its current offices in Swatara Township and move into the building once renovations are completed this fall. To that end, CREDC provided a $325,000 Enterprise Zone Loan for improvements to the second floor.

The building also houses the marketing firm Sacunas, which moved into the first floor late last year.

Home Sales Up Again

Area home sales continued a years-long climb, as unit sales rose 4.4 percent in May, according to the Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors.

GHAR said that May sales totaled 948 units versus 908 houses in the year-ago period. The median price dipped to $170,000 compared to $174,900 in May 2016.

Dauphin County sales were strong, with 355 units sold versus 297 in the year prior, with the median price unchanged at $155,000. In Cumberland County, 310 houses sold compared to 326 in May 2016, with the median price falling to $190,125 versus $193,950, said GHAR.

In Perry County, 43 houses sold versus 30 in the year prior, and the median price fell to $127,000 against $151,500 in May 2016, said GHAR.

GHAR covers Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties and parts of York, Lebanon and Juniata counties.

So Noted

Andrew Guth of Harrisburg took first place in the category of “Work on Paper” at the 2017 “Art of the State,” a juried exhibit held each year at the State Museum of PA to honor the commonwealth’s best artwork. Guth is a Millworks and Burg artist, contributing the cover art for our May issue. You can see his winning entry, “Where We Used to Go When Everything Was Wrong (I Watched the Lilies Grow Until They Got Old),” with the rest of the exhibit, which runs through Sept. 10 at the State Museum.

Anna Rose Bakery & Coffee Shop opened last month at Walnut and N. 2^nd streets in Harrisburg, featuring doughnuts, cupcakes, cookies and espresso drinks. The business, owned by Ron Kamionka, is located in the rear portion of the former Molly Brannigans Irish Pub, which closed almost three years ago.

Excelon Corp. is making plans to shutter Three Mile Island in 2019 absent policy reforms by the state legislature to make nuclear power more competitive. TMI employs 675 workers, most of whom would lose their jobs if the facility closed.

Freshido, a fast-casual restaurant specializing in Asian cuisine, is expected to land this fall in Strawberry Square, at the corner of N. 3^rd and Market streets. The 50-seat eatery will occupy the 2,200-square-foot storefront long vacated by Plum Sport.

Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District launched “Discover the Ducks Downtown,” an outdoor art and beautification exhibit for the summer. Along with HDID, Harrisburg-based Sprocket Mural Works commissioned artists to paint 15 fiberglass ducks, which now can be seen throughout the downtown.

Harrisburg Hoopla, a field day of track-and-field activities, raised $5,500 last month for local nonprofits. Fourteen groups with 101 participants competed for select organizations in this first-ever charitable event, sponsored by Emerging Philanthropists Program, a partnership of TFEC and HYP.

Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitor’s Bureau last month received a Bronze Anvil Award of Commendation from the Public Relations Society of America. The award was for “Tourism in Your Town,” a series of advertorials that appeared in TheBurg throughout 2016.

PFM Asset Management signed a lease last month for 63,133 square feet of space in an office building at 213 Market St. in Harrisburg. By year-end, the firm plans to relocate its 150 employees from 100 Market St., where it has been for the past 20 years, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE Group, which represented the company.

Rite Aid has opened in Strawberry Square in downtown Harrisburg. The new, 14,000-square-foot store moved from cramped quarters across Market Street after a yearlong build-out.

Changing Hands

Adrian St., 2418: G. Brown to R. Ivey, $30,000

Balm St., 60: Kusic Financial Services LLC to OJK Enterprises, $32,000

Bellevue Rd., 1921: CNC Realty Group LLC to J. Romelfanger, $55,000

Berryhill St., 2202: PA Deals LLC to R. Narinesingh, $62,500

Berryhill St., 2316: D. & Y. Jiang to D. & L. Nguyen, $30,000

Boas St., 1925: P. Long to Resistance Properties LLC, $38,000

Camp St., 521: G. & S. Gallagher to K. Moralez, $30,000

Conoy St., 123: Secretary of Housing & Urban Development & Information Systems Network Corp. to E. Fultz, $73,000

Elliot St., 1080, Lot 2: R. & C. Berger to A. Gerges, $250,000

Fox Ridge Ct., 307: B. Miler to C. Hoover, $121,500

Green St., 1007: R. Nicoli to J. & C. Nunley, $110,000

Green St., 1915: J. & K. Johnston to S. Williams, $207,900

Green St., 1930: A. Miller to I. Bailey, $205,000

Green St., 2013: L. Binda to M. Didone, $214,000

Green St., 2137: Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. Trustee to N. Morrison, $32,694

Green St., 2321: J. Yoder to Willowscott Investment LLC, $37,500

Hale Ave., 447: K. & L. Torres to D. Norris, $62,000

Hamilton St., 242: J. & J. Collins to P. Christensen, $150,309

Harris St., 207: MTGLQ Investors LP & Selene Finance LP to K. Clark, $117,900

Harris St., 344: MidAtlantic IRA LLC Phillip Sachs IRA to M. & A. Gilbert, $108,500

Herr St., 269: G. Thall to M. Berlin, $115,000

Hoffman St., 3221: W. Wood to N. Consagra & L. Umberger, $109,900

Holly St., 2006: W. Thompson III to SCC Ward Inc., 32,000

Kelker St., 427: Secretary of Housing & Urban Development & Information Systems & Networks Corp. to I. Jordan, $32,500

Kensington St., 2110 & 2116: Donald L. Pong Trust to M. & A. Robinson, $59,000

Lewis St., 237: J. Toro to M. Horgan & Innovative Devices Inc.., $43,500

Locust St., 202: AMTO LLC to Sturges Property Management LLC, $300,000

Luce St., 2320: EAD Associates LLC to S. Ginder, $38,000

Muench St., 278: Secretary of Housing & Urban Development & Information Systems & Network Corp. to H. & C. Foley, $44,06

N. 2^nd St., 1522: J. Cantarell & A. Meck to K. Reiter, $164,000

N. 2^nd St., 2323: LSFP Master Participation Trust to M. Horgan & CR Services Inc., 63,900

N. 2^nd St., 2528: A. & C. Broadus to E. Pine & S. Ransome, $145,000

N. 4^th St., 3119: R. & C. Steele to T. Gottshall, $123,500

N. 4^th St., 3213: A. Semancik to G. Erdman & S. Ukodie, $120,000

N. 4^th St., 3227: Central Penn Properties to T. Barnes, $142,000

N. 5^th St., 2515: 2013 M&M Real Estate Fund LLC to T. & V. Williams, $129,900

N. 5^th St., 2600: PA Deals LLC to S. & S. Aiken, $69,900

N. 7^th St., 2714: M. Owens to L. Owens, $45,158

N. 14^th St., 1206, 1314 N. 15^th St. & 603 Benton St.: Kirsch & Burns LLC to Equity Trust Co. Custodian John Spencer IRA, $165,000

N. 15^th St., 1340: MidAtlantic IRA LLC James Yeager IRA to Z. Yap, $39,000

N. 16^th St., 1216: R. Urrutia to W. Jones, $110,000

N. 17^th St., 1102: C. & N. Finnell to J. Martinez & T. Kobayashi, $33,500

N. Front St., 1525, Unit 605: A. Lenda to C. Carter, $173,500

Peffer St., 219: N. Braun to D. Wendt & S. Shultz, $122,000

Peffer St., 317: 1515 Associates to D. Berhe, $75,000

Penn St., 1605: R. Daniels to L, D. & R. Olenowski, $87,500

Reel St., 2416 & 2418: 24 Reel Street LLC to American Rental Home LLC, $52,000

Rudy Rd., 2454: J. & S. Merlina to J. Howard, $57,500

Sassafras St., 269 & 1112 Susquehanna St.: R. & J. Ruth to Major League Properties LLC, $60,000

Showers St., 605: H. Madsen to J. Moore, $163,900

South St., 122: Tang Liu Realty LLC to FA Realty LLC, $126,000

S. 2^nd St., 316: WK Rentals to Diamond Real Estate Solutions LLC, $32,000

S. 13^th St., 1456, 1460 & 1466: Davden Property Investments Inc. to 4880 East Prospect LLC, $66,000.

S. 16^th St., 947: R. Splawn to L. Jackson, $30,000

S. 24^th St., 623: K. & D. Brown to S. Jordan, $72,200

Swatara St., 2055: G. Barlow to S. Thomas, $34,500

Swatara St., 2413: J. Garisto to PI Capital LLC, $85,801

Verbeke St., 300: Kidder Wilkes LP to Silverstone Enterprises LLC, $215,000

Watson St., 2815: R. & A. Gates & C. Windham to LJ Realty Trust, $59,800

Harrisburg property sales for May 2017, greater than $30,000. Source: Dauphin County. Data is assumed to be accurate.

Author: Lawrance Binda

New Eats: Fresa Bistro to Open Monday in Strawberry Square

March 3, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

The dining room of the new Fresa Bistro on Third

Harrisburg diners will have a new, healthier option next week, as Fresa Bistro on Third is slated to open Monday in Strawberry Square.

Fresa will feature a menu of freshly made items, including sandwiches, panini, salads, wraps and soups. It will have a 60-seat dining area, accessible from both inside and outside of Strawberry Square, as well as food for takeout.

“The menu items from Fresa Bistro are a perfect fit for what our customers have been asking for in recent surveys,” said Brad Jones, president and CEO of Harristown Enterprises, owner of Strawberry Square.

Fresa (Spanish for “strawberry”) brings together in partnership several of Harrisburg’s best-known restaurateurs: Juan and Lisa Garcia of El Sol Mexican Restaurant and Nino Purpurra of JoJo’s Pizza. It is expected to employ 10 full- and part-time workers.

Fresa is one of many recent developments in Strawberry Square, which include a new Hallmark store, new apartments and expansions of both the Market on Market convenience store and the AMMA JO boutique. Soon, a new, 14,000-square-foot Rite Aid is slated to open, with access from both inside Strawberry Square and Market Street.

Fresa opens Monday, but the “official” ribbon cutting with Mayor Eric Papenfuse will be held the following Monday, March 13, at 2 p.m.

Fresa Bistro on Third is located in Strawberry Square, also accessible from 15 N. 3rd Street, Harrisburg. Hours will be Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Click here to view the Fresa Menu.

For more information on developments in Strawberry Square, read our feature story from the March issue.

Author: Lawrance Binda

Downtown’s Town Hall: Brad Jones and the re-imagining of Strawberry Square.

February 28, 2017 | by M. Diane McCormick

The mayor of Strawberry Square is holding court on this Tuesday morning. From his soaring chamber, he greets his constituency.

Some passersby get a wave and a hello, as in “Hi, Mr. Regan,” who happens to be state Sen. Mike Regan. Others stop at his table for a quick word about their businesses or schools. When he notices grandparents and their preschool-aged grandson looking at the centerpiece Chockablock Clock, silenced for the moment, he obligingly takes out a key and turns on the clanking, whirring, Rube Goldberg-ian centerpiece of Harrisburg’s downtown mall.

It’s all in a morning’s work for Brad Jones, president and CEO of Harristown Enterprises. He is, of course, not a mayor at all. But from a table at Little Amps Coffee Roasters—one of the new businesses in Strawberry Square—he sometimes presides over the moving pieces of Harristown’s ambitious plan to transform a dated, 1970s-era idea of urban renewal into a fresh, 21st century hub for live, work and play.

“We’re trying to create community here,” he said. “This was always the town hall.”

A brief history: Under the aegis of Harristown, a private nonprofit created in 1974, urban revitalization bulldozed into downtown Harrisburg with demolition of the iconic, if distressed, Penn Harris Hotel, making room in 1979 for a retail-office complex along Strawberry Alley. By 1990, phase two incorporated historic 19th- and 20th-century buildings along Market Street, where retail once flourished.

Verizon rented much of the upper-level office space, but, despite the presence of such mainstay businesses as Auntie Anne’s, the Strawberry Patch and Ideas and Objects, Strawberry Square, with its massive atrium, seemed empty and lost in time.

The recession years were especially chilling, but Harristown’s volunteer board of directors had already launched a reinvention plan seeking revitalized retail, the addition of residential units and support for what Jones calls an “education corridor.”

The pending 2016 vacancy of the Verizon Tower was the launching point. Painstaking negotiations with the state relocated 900 Department of General Services workers into the heart of downtown from their old digs at the former State Hospital grounds at the edge of the city.

Getting that 17-year lease with the state, and its power to nearly erase $41.6 million in debt obligations on the facility, “was like breathing again,” said Jones. Those 900 workers didn’t displace existing bodies but filled a space where only about 250 people knocked around by then. As Jones put it, “Retail follows people.” And so does residential.

One of the first signs of new life was a childcare facility, immediately popular among office workers happy to drop off, visit and pick up their kids right where they work. New office tenants included highly desirable tech businesses and a health care consultant. A space accessed both from an interior corridor and the street was converted into the bright Market on Market, stocked with convenience-store fare like soda, Tastykakes and Hershey’s Ice Cream pints, plus millennial chow like okra chips and a bin of fresh onions.

In a survey, Strawberry Square workers, residents and patrons clamored for a drug store, so Harristown obliged by luring in Rite Aid from across Market Street, coming soon to 14,000 square feet in the same corner once occupied by a Thrift Drug.

“We’ve been working on this for 10 years,” said Jones, who declined to share Rite Aid’s lease length but promised it’s lengthy. “This is a business that is clearly going to prosper here.”

Reasons to Stay

Amma Johnson, who sells her bags and other boutique ware in her shop, Amma Jo, cheers the innovation of a mixed-use complex, in contrast to shopping malls where she would be “next to a million other people selling handbags.”

Today’s customers seek experiences, she said. For her, they include state workers on lunch breaks, attorneys on Dauphin County Courthouse business, contractors working in Pennsylvania’s capital city or Strawberry Square residents.

“People want to come downtown,” said Johnson, who opened in December 2015 then, last year, gobbled up the storefront next door. “They want to browse. They want to eat. They want to have a cup of coffee, and they want to have it all in one place.”

In short, they “need more reasons to stay,” she said, just before two browsing Amma Jo customers left the store with a cheery, “We’ll be back with money tomorrow.”

Not every vendor agrees with Strawberry Square’s new direction. Vendors who asked to remain anonymous said they worry that the one-stop shop convenience of Rite Aid, stocked with some things also sold at surrounding specialty vendors, will drain their customer pools.

But what “The Square,” as Jones often calls it, takes away, it also gives. Twenty-two upscale apartments, carved out of former office space, opened last year and filled immediately, bringing in full-time residents for the first time, all with their own need to eat and drink and buy. Many of the new tenants work at DGS or Harrisburg University or with a Harristown-tenant business, Jones said. Harristown pitches the residents’ easy access to retail, restaurants, entertainment and nature. In his usual energetic manner, he enthusiastically explained that tenants can stay entirely roofed during the course of a day: eating in the food court or at the Hilton Harrisburg, seeing a show at Whitaker Center, taking classes at Harrisburg University, working out at FitnessU. All are directly linked to the complex.

As for restaurants, Harristown is helping slake the city’s seemingly insatiable appetite for new eateries. From the owners of El Sol Mexican Restaurant, Fresa Bistro (“Fresa is Spanish for strawberry,” remarked Jones. “How cool is that?”) is slated to offer sandwiches and wraps, paninis and salads.

Harrisburg might not ever be an 18-hour city, but 12 or 14 hours of ceaseless activity seem feasible, Jones said.

“Some days, you might have a shot at a 16-hour city, but we’ve got to do more,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of density, but we’ve got to continue to do more and capitalize on the opportunity to help these corridors grow.”

In addition to Harrisburg University, the education corridor includes the Capital Area School for the Arts Charter School, for which Harristown recently added new music-room space, and Temple University, which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificate programs and professional development. Harrisburg High School SciTech Campus is across the street.

Strawberry Square aligns with HU’s notion of city as campus by offering such amenities as eateries, banks and a fitness center.

“These are all important assets that we don’t have to provide,” said HU President Dr. Eric Darr.

HU interns have worked with Harristown entities, and WildFig, a data analytics startup that launched from HU and employs HU students, rents Harristown space. Jones also serves on HU’s board.

As in any marriage, there are occasional differences. Darr said he would like HU to be “THE university in the corridor,” but added that he recognizes the collaborative advantages of nearby university students and faculty.

“In general, we’re aligned with the direction Harristown is trying to take the corridor, particularly the more recent movement toward trying to attract technology businesses and analytics businesses, and providing nice, yet affordable housing for younger workers,” he said.

Future collaborative plans for HU and Harristown include an expanded, “more formal” business incubator and accelerator, to replace HU’s outgrown Blackberry Alley incubator, Darr said.

“We all know there’s a lot of work to do in the corridor,” he said. “Generally, as long-term players, we’re focused on some of the basics of trying to improve the basic corridor itself and the buildings and the facilities and the infrastructure, some of those basic pieces that have to be taken care of. Unfortunately, the city’s not in a position to do it themselves, and, so, we’re left as private entities to try to piece together ways to do this. When you’re talking infrastructure, that’s a pretty expensive proposition.”

About People

In all this, there is still the matter of Strawberry Square’s design, that living tribute to the disco era. Jones and Harristown are trying to give it new life.

A $16 million energy efficiency retrofit replaced every light fixture in the complex, saving money and brightening up the place. A $400,000 rebuild brought a wheezing escalator into the modern age (“As one who uses the escalator almost every day, I appreciate the undertaking,” said Darr). HVAC systems were revamped and bathrooms renovated. Badly needed elevator and skylight refurbs are on the 2017 docket, said Jones.

Of course, nobody hangs around to admire light fixtures, but the Harristown board elected to tackle needed infrastructure upgrades first, “reinvesting in the systems of the buildings,” Jones said. Attention should turn to cosmetic improvements by 2018, the year when a Christmas tree, now on order and proportionally big enough for the atrium, will deck the halls for the holidays, he added.

In the meantime, the push is on to attract what Strawberry Square needs most—living bodies spending money. Among new businesses, Little Amps opened its third café in 2015, warming up the cold, open atrium and offering an attractive, central meeting place for workers, students and residents. Inside the vast space, the HBG Flea found a winter home for its monthly craft market, and pop-up events like craft beer tastings increasingly encourage mingling and socializing.

Jones said that Strawberry Square’s growth spurt originated with his predecessor, Russell Ford, and the Harristown board. Jones took over the helm in January 2015, 13 years after starting there as corporate director for public and community services. His career in economic development went from the state and federal levels to “nose right to the ground,” with oversight over “just about every brick, every fire hydrant, every tree.”

“I went from 10,000 feet to ground level,” he said. “I have to say, ground level is a lot more fun.”

To Jones, this is all perfectly natural. The son of Cliff Jones, legendary Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry president and cabinet secretary for six governors, Brad Jones grew up with economic development, attending ribbon cuttings at 5 years old. “If you try to make somebody’s day every day,” Cliff Jones would say, “you’ll make your own day.” He also preached that, “It’s not about projects.”

“It’s about people,” Brad Jones said. “Helping people get jobs. Helping people find places to live. Helping people start businesses. Those kinds of lessons stuck with me.”

Jones is a Camp Hill resident with three children, one still in high school. He hopes that Harristown’s support for CASA and SciTech help create opportunities for more families to find quality schooling for their children. He is also a guitarist who once played with a band in Washington, D.C. Sitting at his de facto conference table by Little Amps, he says he is “the luckiest guy.”

“To me, this is the best job in the city,” he said. “It couldn’t get any more fun than this. You’re building your environment, adding to it every day. It’s exciting.”
For more information about Strawberry Square, visit www.strawberrysquare.com.

Author: M. Diane McCormick

More Cop Shops: 2 police substations coming to Harrisburg

January 26, 2017 | by Danielle Roth

The sub-station, located at 17 S. 3rd Street, functions as a hub for private security officers contracted by the Downtown Improvement District.

Harrisburg soon will have more police closer to the action, as a new precinct is planned for Allison Hill while a substation opened downtown.

Harrisburg City Council this week took a step toward opening a precinct in Allison Hill, a key aspect of the mayor’s goal to implement a community policing strategy.

On Tuesday, council unanimously approved a resolution to work with SGS Architects Engineers of Carlisle for design and construction management. After a three-month design phase, the construction to complete the renovations will go out to bid, said Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

“This will make response times quicker and community feedback easier,” Papenfuse said.

This Allison Hill precinct on 15^th Street is the second of three “full-time, fully staffed” precincts that the mayor aims to create. The Uptown neighborhood will receive its own precinct next, he said.

A Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will fund the construction.

Also this month, Harristown Enterprises and the Harrisburg Downtown Improvement District (HDID) opened a Security and Safety Sub-station on 17 S. 3^rd Street near Strawberry Square.

The new “S-5” sub-station serves as a hub for unarmed security officers contracted by HDID to cover the district. Pairs of officers man the sub-station five days per week (Tuesday through Saturday) from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. to supplement the daytime presence of the Capitol Police, said Brad Jones, CEO of Harristown.

“We will have patrol units continue to canvas the DID to look for situations that are unsafe and, when appropriate, call in the emergency,” he said.

These unsafe situations could be a pedestrian in distress, a motorist having car troubles or a streetlight that went out. If an emergency occurs, the private security officers contact the Harrisburg police or the Pennsylvania Capitol Police to respond, Jones said.

“These are all good things that will make the city safer,” Papenfuse said.

Author: Danielle Roth

Wheels Free: With new apartments and growing amenities in Harrisburg, some residents have parked their cars permanently.

December 30, 2016 | by M. Diane McCormick

When Brett Comeau moved from Los Angeles to downtown Harrisburg to start a business and close the gap in a long-distance romance, he resisted giving up his wheels to join his girlfriend in her carless existence. Give it a month, she suggested.

“Within a month, I said, ‘I don’t ever want to own a car again,’” he said now, four years later. “It’s so much easier. The stress-freeness of it. I don’t have to drive through traffic.”

As the revitalized city offers new living and entertainment options, a new breed of urban dweller is attempting—and succeeding at—the carless life. They are walking, biking, busing, train-riding and Uber-ing to their destinations.

Oh, and some are keeping their personal vehicles but only for occasional use. We’ll get to them in a minute.

Of course, cities have long been home to residents who don’t own cars. In Harrisburg in 2015, the U.S. Census Bureau tells us, 3,266 people age 16 and over didn’t have a vehicle for getting to work. They commuted by bus, foot, bicycle, taxicab and carpooling.

For most people, though, the thought of ditching the car is akin to cutting off a limb. Car ownership, we’ve grown up believing, is equivalent to freedom. But the return of upscale amenities to the city—dining, entertainment and rehabbed housing—has inspired more professionals to throw away the car keys, or at least, give the car long rests between rides. In the process, they’ve discovered a new form of freedom—an escape from the tyranny of the motorized machine.

No Place Like That

Several new, upscale apartment buildings opened last year, offering more living options in walkable downtown and Midtown Harrisburg. Of all the new (and old) buildings there, The Flats @ Strawberry Square may make the strongest case for the carless curious.

The units link directly, through an indoor walkway, to the Hilton Harrisburg, restaurants, Open Stage and Whitaker Center, in addition to the many shops and eateries in Strawberry Square itself.

“You don’t even have to go outside if you don’t want to,” said Brad Jones, president and CEO of Harristown Enterprises, which developed the building. “If you do go outside, you’re a block or two from another 35 or 40 restaurant establishments. There’s no place like that in central Pennsylvania.”

WCI Partners, busy rehabbing homes and apartments, finds that walkability attracts residents. City dwellers “generally want to live in the city to have easy access to restaurants, parks, shopping, theater, community involvement,” said Vice President, Director of Operations Lori A. Fortini.

When it comes to walkability and building community, “one feeds the other,” said Fortini, whose company recently opened the 33-unit Union Lofts building at N. 3rd and Boas streets.

“It’s a bounce back and forth,” she said. “The more you commute outside of the car, the more you are aware of your surroundings and able to connect with them. At the same time, that creates the safety to do that.”

As Comeau noted, spending goes where wallets go, and being carless, he and his girlfriend, Linda Walters, keep their wallets close to home.

“Linda and I spend about 90 percent of our money on local businesses,” he said. “We are part of this community.”

Spinning Wheels

ChuChi and Shadow inspired Scott Foulkrod to adopt a daily walking life.

The Harrisburg University professor had no one who could take the two small dogs for walks every few hours. So, he moved into a luxury apartment rehabbed by Vartan Group on Pine Street, just blocks from his workplace.

Always an outdoorsy type, Foulkrod “fell into the routine pretty quickly” of walking back and forth between home and work a couple of times a day. He also walks to downtown events and restaurants.

“It’s a simple way to live,” he said.

It’s a living arrangement that could change with a move to the country someday, but, for the time being, “It seemed like a no-brainer.”

Foulkrod didn’t entirely abandon the car—“a car I really like, a nice car.” His Audi TT convertible stays garaged for much of the time but comes out for grocery runs and getaways.

Like Foulkrod, Ian Kanski has a car but, most days, keeps it parked in a nearby lot since moving to Harristown’s Fifteen at Twenty-Two, or F@TT, apartments on S. 3rd Street in September. The apartment is across the street from his business, Integrated Agriculture Systems, the folks behind the hydroponic and aquaponic systems increasingly seen in schools.

“I couldn’t resist the opportunity to live right next to where we were putting our office,” he said. “It’s great for me to walk to meetings downtown.”

The car is handy for out-of-town meetings and driving to his company’s Susquehanna Township facility, but often, he takes the train to meetings in Philadelphia and New York. Even travel to Costa Rica, where his wife is from, is simplified by proximity to Harrisburg Transportation Center’s Amtrak station, for rides directly to Newark Airport.

“I get my baggage, walk over to the train station, and get to another country without getting into a car,” he said.

Asked if he doesn’t miss having a firewall between work and home, Kanski laughed. He gets that question a lot, it seems.

“Being in a startup, it’s hard to separate those two things, anyway,” he said. “In the startup world, work follows you anywhere. That’s inevitable.”

I’m Done

The freedom of carlessness, it seems, comes from making the car work around your life—not the other way around. Comeau said that he’s no longer “tempted to go somewhere for no reason.”

The hardest part of the adjustment, he said, was learning to plan ahead, but routine makes the lifestyle run smoothly. Groceries come from walks to the Broad Street Market or are delivered by Giant Food’s Peapod service. If he and Walters rent a car for some purpose, for a weekend every two or three months, they think of everything they need that a car facilitates and “cram everything in.”

About six months ago, to adopt a cat named Kinsey, Comeau and Walters rented a car, picked her up, bought all the food, took her home to their WCI apartment on Walnut Street, and, while she was adjusting, drove around for things that included a Troeg’s Brewery tour in Hershey.

“By Monday, when we dropped the car off, I said, ‘I’m exhausted. I’m done,’” he said.

Walters, the girlfriend who converted Comeau to carlessness, has always lived and worked along bus routes. The natural-born organizer knows all the routes and uses Capital Area Transit (CAT) updates to follow the progress of her buses. If a bus is late, she calls Uber to get her to work, “because Uber is pretty quick,” Comeau said.

“When she’s on the bus, she listens to podcasts, she listens to notes, she listens to books on tape, as opposed to having to drive and get all stressed out by traffic,” he said. “She just zones out and gets to do her thing, and she really enjoys that.”

Comeau and Walters hope that Zipcar comes soon to Harrisburg to replace their occasional car rental needs. Zipcar media relations did not return an email asking if Harrisburg is in their sights.

Great, Walkable

Like Walters, some who go carless find a transportation assist from the bus system. According to Jones, CAT and Harristown “have a long working relationship.”

“Service to various parts of the region are pretty good in this area, especially if you’re in the center,” he said. “You could literally go to 50 different locations by bus—Hershey, Hummelstown, Carlisle, Mechanicsburg, Holy Spirit. The new Pinnacle hospital now has a service. You can cover a lot of ground by bus.”

Many of CAT’s 10,000 daily riders don’t have cars, said CAT spokesman Bob Philbin. “Anyone living in Harrisburg can move from point A to point B within the city within about 30 minutes,” he said.

New routes include a loop from Shipoke to the Capitol and 2nd Street, and, at lunchtime, it expands to the Broad Street Market “so we can move that lunch crowd around the city apart from downtown,” he said.

Recently adopted bus tracker software lets riders check the CAT website to see their buses en route, with a separate link for mobile phones. CAT’s Twitter feed notifies users of delays. There’s no app due to the challenges of aligning ever-evolving bus routes with Google maps, Philbin said.

“We’re constantly evaluating routes in and out of Harrisburg and around Harrisburg,” he said. “The system was built with Harrisburg at its core.”

Harrisburg is not only a walkable city but a bikeable one. Therefore, some residents have replaced the auto through a combination of bike and bus. In fact, riders bringing bicycles to rack on buses have risen 10 percent to 15 percent, year over year, to reach the current level of about 15,000 annually, Philbin said.

So far, at least, Kanski, whose new home is above El Sol restaurant, hasn’t had to hop the bus much. He walks almost everywhere he needs to go.

“There’s good, diverse cuisine,” Kanski said. “There’s great arts and culture happening in Harrisburg as a whole. Everything is pretty close. It’s a great, walkable city.”

Disclosure: Alex Hartzler, a WCI Partners principal, is publisher of TheBurg.

Author: M. Diane McCormick

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