DCED Deputy Secretary tours downtown WB development

Dec. 5—WILKES-BARRE — Larry Newman, Executive Director at Diamond City Partnership, on Tuesday said you can't have a successful Main Street program without the ability to sustain it over time.

"But when you build sustainable partnerships and work together, great things happen — and that's what we're seeing today," Newman said.

Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Deputy Secretary of Community Affairs and Development Rick Vilello highlighted the Shapiro Administration's $2 million investment in downtown Wilkes-Barre during a tour of the former Murray-Smith Furniture Company, which is being redeveloped by DDC Wilkes, LLC.

The combination commercial and residential building at 116 South Main St. will benefit from a recently announced Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP) award.

The project calls for converting the site into a mixed-use development that restores and integrates the historic building into the surrounding community.

The building's ground floor will be the home of Building Blocks Early Learning Center (BBELC) and the upper floors have been converted into 34 residential apartments — which Nick Dye of DDC Wilkes, LLC, said are all under lease.

Childhood education operator Building Blocks Early Learning Center will hire 25 new employees to provide much needed additional daycare services in the city's downtown.

"The Neighborhood Assistance Program promotes the development of public-private partnerships and demonstrates the value these collaborations have in communities across the Commonwealth," Deputy Secretary Vilello said. "The tax credits DDC Wilkes LLC received through this innovative program helped it attract a new business that will provide a vital service, create jobs, and boost efforts to bring more people to live and work in downtown Wilkes-Barre."

The NAP encourages private sector investment in non-profit community projects by providing tax credits to businesses that donate capital to address neighborhood and community initiatives. The program also awards an Enterprise Zone Program (EZP) credit to private companies, like DDC Wilkes LLC, located within an Enterprise Zone to rehabilitate, expand, or make physical improvements to a building which result in jobs being created or retained.

Dye said D&D Realty received a $500,000 state tax credit to provide the first-floor 11,000-plus space the first floor for Building Blocks Early Learning Center.

"We continue to see high demand for quality market-rate housing in downtown Wilkes-Barre and believe the development of 116 South Main enhances the surrounding neighborhood and contributes to the collective vision for the community," said Nicholas Dye, Developer for the DDC Wilkes LLC project. "The Neighborhood Assistance Program EZ Tax Credit bolstered our budget to construct the facility for Building Blocks Early Learning Center. The importance of quality daycare in the post-pandemic environment is greater than ever, as companies look to attract remote workers back to the office, which in turn supports local street level business."

Zubeen Saeed, owner of BBELC, which plans to open the new facility in February, said this will be the company's 14th location in Luzerne County.

"This is a great public/private collaboration," Saeed said. "And we have had a lot of community input from several partners and that assures the sustainability of projects like this."

Saeed said the BBELC will enroll 125 students, ages 6 months to 5 years and it will employ 25 staff.

Newman said the project is the latest evidence of Downtown Wilkes-Barre's emergence as the region's walk-to-everything neighborhood.

Deputy Secretary Vilello said the Enterprise Zone Tax Credit award is a direct result of Downtown Wilkes-Barre's status as one of Pennsylvania's state-designated Main Street programs.

"And, in turn, that designation was made possible because of the willingness of Downtown's property owners to invest in the long-term revitalization of their neighborhood through their support of the Diamond City Partnership and the Downtown Wilkes-Barre Business Improvement District," Newman said. "It was a little more than a year ago when we gathered in this spot to announce the start of this project — but look around."

Newman said when you add the 34 new residential units in the building to the 52 units D&D has previously developed in the same block, that's a total of 86 new households added to this quadrant of Downtown in the past few years. And he said if you add the 21 condos above Movies 14, the total rises to more than 100.

"In fact, as many of you know, because of the past decade of residential conversions, Downtown's core census tract — from North Street to South Street — has gained more than 1,000 new residents," Newman said. "Just around the corner on Livingston Lane and South Main Street, we're welcoming four new businesses to formerly empty storefronts — because residents drive retail."

Newman said DCP is collaborating on a plan to use the adjacent courtyard as a public amenity that helps to advance this block's emergence as Downtown's gallery district.

"As Downtown Wilkes-Barre evolves into a walkable college-anchored live-work neighborhood, we're shaping a place where people want to be," Newman said. "We know where we want to go. We have an asset-based plan to make our vision a reality. In buildings like 116 South Main, we've got the raw materials."

Newman said DCP is building the partnerships between property owners and developers and entrepreneurs and city and county government and anchor institutions like Wilkes University and King's College.

"Everyone who believes that we need to work together and make smart investments to build a better Downtown and making good things happen," Newman said. "And, because of that, we have the Commonwealth as a partner in our work, joining us in putting its shoulder to the wheel. So, let's keep going."

Attending the news conference were Sen. Marty Flynn, D-Scranton; Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre; Mayor George Brown, Lindsay Griffin-Boylan, President/CEO of the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber; Greg Cant, President of Wilkes University; and DDC Wilkes, LLC, partners Adam Donohue, Casey Donahue and T.J. Amico.

Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.