A very special guest came to the Lycoming County Commissioners Meeting on Thursday, July 28th — Lycoming College President, Kent Trachte. He came to ask the commissioners to approve a grant for a new 165-stall parking structure which is part of the East Third Street/Old City Revitalization Project. The presence of Dr. Trachte magnified the importance of this initiative, one that has been over a decade in the making.
It all goes back to the administration of Williamsport Mayor Gabe Campana. Inaugurated in his first term in 2008, Campana had a vision to address the blight that had plagued the city for decades and inspire investors to help develop the city. Campana firmly believed that private investors were the key to helping bring in new businesses that would increase the city’s tax base. A year into his administration, he found the former owner of the Basin Street Plaza, John Albarano, who shared his vision. Various improvements began taking shape in the downtown area, such as Kohl’s Department Store and the Liberty Arena and Kaos Fun Zone, but the East End also needed serious attention.
This concern was the nucleus of what would become Old City East Third Street Gateway Commission. It had officials from the county commissioners board, Williamsport city council, as well as property owners from the area. The goal was to develop a plan for what the revitalization of the East End or Old City area could become. The addition of the new Panera Bread and extension and access to the RiverWalk were gladly appreciated, but the plan itself that Williamsport City Council endorsed in 2015 sat quietly, waiting for funding to arrive to bring it to full fruition.
Dr. Trachte had been a member of the Gateway Commission and saw an opportunity as Lycoming College was just finishing up its new strategic plan. One of the core elements incorporated into that plan was a grand new entrance to the college along Basin Street. As Dr. Trachte reminded the commissioners, at the time, Basin was a narrow little one-way street, hardly a ‘grand entrance’ venue. He noted that since Williamsport City Council had approved the original plan, he encouraged the board of Lycoming College to move forward on their own.
With partners from the city, county, and commonwealth, Lycoming College was able, with their fundraising efforts and endowment funds, to put their new buildings in that particular area. This became the Krapf Gateway Center and a new music center, and worked with PennDOT and the city to improve the infrastructure on and around Basin Street.
The improvements have been significant, yet Lycoming College was not done yet. They are now partnering with Pine Ride Construction Management/Rivers Edge Capital to form an LLC that is called Old City Williamsport. This partnership will be used to build a new $20 million mixed-use facility that will include residential and commercial use that will anchor a section of the city that already has popular venues such as Woodrich furniture store, the John Ryan Brewery, and DiSalvo’s Restaurant. The new building will be a boost to the area of Basin Street, Third Street, Fourth Street, and Academy Street that it surrounds.
Dr. Trachte was asking the commissioners to approve the grant that would go toward the construction of the parking garage that Park Ridge Construction Management CEO Jerry Lariviere described as the ‘true catalyst’ to the $20 million mixed-use project. He stated that “without the parking garage, none of this has the ability to go forward.” The commissioners were already on board and passed the motion unanimously.
Commissioners Mussare and Mirabito voted to approve the request, Commissioner Scott Metzger was on vacation at the time. At the following meeting on August 4th, he made a strong comment at the end of the meeting that though he was also very supportive of the East End Gateway Project, he was genuinely upset about the process that took place in his absence. Metzger emphasized that this was not “good government.” In retrospect, both Commissioners Mussare and Mirabito admitted that they regretted the process that the action took.
In one sense, this snafu helps to appreciate the complexity of such large projects as this one. They take years and years of planning and more years of development to get them off the ground. There are literally hundreds who have had their fingers in reshaping the city in the direction it is now going. Whole books could be written about all the ins and outs of what it takes to make and shape community development projects like the one we are now witnessing on the East End of Williamsport.
Few can appreciate the complexity of such large projects as this. They take years and years of planning and more years of development and fundraising to get them off the ground. There are literally hundreds who have had their fingers in reshaping the city in the direction it is now going. Whole books could be written about all the ins and outs of what it takes to make and shape community development projects like the one we are now witnessing on the East End of Williamsport.
Yet none of this happens unless they are community LION leaders like Mayor Campana, who had a passion to see Williamsport turn the corner from blight-ness to brightness, and Dr. Kent Trachte, who has been relentless in improving his college while improving the city around it at the same time. As Napoleon said so profoundly, “If you build an army of 100 lions and their leader is a dog, in any fight, the lions will die like a dog. But if you build an army of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion, all dogs will fight like a lion.”
