Harrisburg 2.0: City has to overcome crime, homelessness and empty offices to thrive

Where many see a city center in the decline, Justin Browning sees the opportunity to have the second street of Harrisburg, which was once so trendy.

The owner of JB loved and his partners are so confident that they follow two main projects in the heart of the business district.

They recently took over the Sawyers Entertainment Complex and transformed him into a nightlife in South Beach with a Taco menu and live music.

Next is the Capital City Music Hall in the works of the former state with an expected opening of the summer.

For Browning it is simply good business to bet on Harrisburg.

“There is a lot that Harrisburg has to offer, but the city liked it in difficult times,” he admitted.

Browning's investments in the City Spiegel risk its entrepreneurial predecessors such as Ron Kamionka and Judd Goodman more than a quarter of a century ago, which led to Harrisburg's original Renaissance “Restaurant Row”. At that time, the city of the city found a real public development plan from the late nineties and in the first decades of the 2000s of the 2000s.

However, the creation of Harrisburg 2.0 will not be as easy as the reopening of some of the closed clubs and restaurants from the city's past.

Factors such as the COVID-19 shutdown and the continued long-distance work of many state employees as well as incidents of violent crime, high parking and omnipresent homelessness require a comprehensive plan for Harrisburg's path forward, urban business leaders and important stakeholders.

To ensure that the second revival of Harrisburg is sustainable and no other shooting star like the Row restaurant, these executives of the private sector call for a wholesale use of Center City. Their ideas that are still detailed plans and then in actual public-private investments and projects must be obliged-bypass the conversion of the abundance of empty office space into condominiums and apartments and the creation of more mixed usage projects that combine retail, restaurants and dormitories.

And that's only for the beginning.

The catalyst is the universal agreement among the city's stakeholders that Harrisburg's long decline in the city center has reached a “bending point” and that all sides are ready to combine and act.

A number of revitalization groups and civil servants, politicians and consultants, private developers and entrepreneurs such as Browning see Harrisburg's severe problems, but also solutions. The task now is to implement a common vision for a dynamic, destination of a city center and then follow it with every public and private resource that can be brought into play.

Bradley Jones, CEO and President of Harristown Enterprises Inc., an organization that committed to the guidance of “transformative revitalization” in the city center of Harrisburg did not underestimate the large predecessor. Nevertheless, he expressed confidence that real, sustainable solutions to reverse the decline of the city center in the understanding of the city.

“We know that there is a lot to do here and we are optimistic in the future of the city center, but we have hard work ahead of us,” he said.

The way Jones looks at have more opportunities.

He said, one of the biggest problems with which the city is faced with a lack of walking. A legacy of the state and related organizations that shoot long -term work during pandemic.

Harristown is aggressively working to fill vacancies and hired Bennett Williams Commercial Real Estate Company to pursue tenants. Mount Everest Nepali & Indian Cuisine, SCC -Tattoos and Denim coffee recently signed lease contracts.

One strategy is to convert free office buildings that were emptied in residential units during pandemic.

Harristown works with a Lancaster company to bring an eight-story, older, independent residential complex with 39 units that are estimated at $ 10 million in an existing office building in 112 Market St.

“We are very aggressive to do as much renovation for which we have the ability and we are working to attract other developers,” said Jones.

It is an idea that Todd Vander Woude, Managing Director of Downtown Improvement District, supports fully supports.

When pedestrian traffic has dropped, lunch went off in restaurants.

“If we get more residential buildings, it will help the restaurants or maybe some of these places that have decided to reopen again. I think it's a different kind of feeling. But if we can keep the positive flow going, I think that is the key,” he said.

The non-profit organization is responsible for beautification projects in the district and events such as the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the September Restaurant Week is responsible for beautification projects.

Vander Woude admits that there are challenges and changes will not take place overnight.

“How long does it take? It could take five to ten years. It will take some time for it to build up and the living component is done,” he said.

The developer Ralph Vartan, CEO of the VARTAN Group, admits that the abundance of vacancies and rent signs throughout the city is worrying, but even more is a lack of vision.

“We need a vision for everyone involved,” he said. “There should be a vision. There must be a score from which everyone reads, a hymn for everyone. It is an action that is needed,” said Vartan.

This includes state and local chosen officials, regional businesses and the local chamber that join together, he said.

Fred Clark, the former director in the early days of the restaurant series, agreed that the stakeholders have to develop a vision.

Clark's upscale vision for the city center is attributed to create the foundations for the rebirth of the city as the center for restaurants, bars and after-hour fun for adults.

“What has to happen is an aggressive plan to revitalize, engage, work together to have a lively center city in which people feel safe and excited,” he said.

Clark introduces a plan in which the national providers get in touch to work with the state government, to take into account companies in the city center, to carry out federal and state funds and to include local stakeholders.

“Yes, you need a cheerleader. It is even more important, you need someone who has a vision of what Center City War and what it can be again,” said Clark.

VARTAN said he would like to see how the regional business world in the city is in charge, be it the purchase of real estate, hosts or sponsoring events.

“I don't think it's okay for us to believe that the problem is solved by a chosen official or a sector of the business world,” said Vartan.

He is also a supporter of beautification projects that realizes that he plants trees, adds new sidewalks and lampposts, repaired buildings and repeated roads, would make a big contribution to making a difference.

Vartan said that many buildings in the city are in decay and parts of the city are neglected.

Its wish list contains the planting of trees on every block, not just in front of random companies.

“It has to look as if people are interested,” said Vartan.

Vander Woude claims that the street landscape of the Second Street could use some SpruCing -ups. He emphasized that the city was responsible for every curb and sidewalk replacement as well as for the stay of the street negotiation.

Sydney Musser pointed out to a flourishing area of ​​the city and said that Harristown had revived the Soma district in South Third Street by starting lights and stamping the sidewalk with Soma.

“You really worked on giving him his own personality,” said Musser. “You know where you are in the city center. You are in the Soma neighborhood and can see it.”

Vander Woude said that the did continue to promote the city and work with groups such as Open Stage, Gamut, Harrisburg Symphony and Art Association of Harrisburg to attract more visitors.

Jones said there was room for growth in the city's art and entertainment scene.

A district of Walkable Arts was launched last year by Visit Hershey & Harrisburg, a non-profit tourism marketing organization. Harristown organizes monthly indoor concerts in Strawberry Square.

This summer Dauphin County is organizing “DC Live! Summer Series in Riverfront Park” as a spinoff of the former concert series at Harrisburg University.

Jones is also a hopeful Browning venue could stimulate a restart.

“His big plans for the entertainment district will also be of crucial importance for the success of the restaurant area,” said Jones.

Browning said people need a reason to come to the city, which he wants to give with new venues.

The goal of the Capital City Music Hall is to create a destination in the city for various genres of live music such as heavy metal, punk, funk, folk and bluegrass.

“We hope that it could bring a fairly large number of people to the city that would otherwise not come here,” said Browning.

Ultimately, he said that people come out early to eat in the restaurants, stay for a concert and then go back to the bars.

There is potential that the event location will put on weekends and overnight stays in City Hotels and that visitors could increase with attractions such as museums, City Island and Broad Street Market, he said.

It is a model that the company's operating process, Michael McPhillips, said that he worked in Lovedraft's Brewing, a concert location and a brewery in the municipality of Hampden, which was closed in March.

About 50% of visitors came from outside the state like Maryland, Delaware and Virginia and stayed in hotels, he said.

“Live entertainment is an engine that brings people into play. It is tourism,” said McPhillips

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