State Hands Out Another $23M for Redevelopment

This represents a second round of RACP funding for projects in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, and it follows checks for more approximately $114 million handed out in other parts of the state in August. A $9-million RACP check for redevelopment of the 500 Lackawanna Ave. block in Scranton follows $4 million provided by the state earlier this year for development of the Medallion Garage there. Together, the funds spearhead a $20-million public-private partnership with the state, the city and the 500 Lackawanna Development Co. to transform the block into a mixed-use cultural center to include restaurants, boutiques, art studios and loft apartments, connected by landscaped green space. The block currently contains 13 partially or completely vacant buildings and two vacant lots.

An earlier $6-million state grant is joined by a $7-million RACP check for Wilkes-Barre's South Main Street Revitalization Project. The latest funds provide $2 million each for construction of two parking garages and $3 million for conversion of the now-vacant, once-prestigious Hotel Sterling Complex into a four-building, 180,000-sf complex of office and residential space.

Approximately $6.2 million is split among several Bucks County projects. Chief among them is the acquisition and rehabilitation of a 265-acre, blighted area in Morrisville that includes 65 acres of industrial brownfield property. An RACP check for $650,000 will be used to renovate the Greater Carbondale Chamber of Commerce building in the former Dime Building on the town's Main Street. The project calls for restoration of the building's original 1900 appearance, in collaboration with the historical society, along with an upgrading of its mechanical and electrical systems.