Nine points to a triangle

Conservatively, the project will create 347 jobs and add at least 160 new residents of market-rate townhouses and condominiums. The Triangle will infuse downtown with a critical mass of homeowners, spending power, job creation, and recreational enhancements.

Groundbreaking is scheduled to occur by the summer of 2008.

Environmental clearance studies and engineering and utility studies have been underway for several months and will be completed by September. These studies will enable the RDA to demolish select structures and to secure grant dollars to efficiently clean the site in 2007 and 2008.

Nine Points To A Triangle

1. Only Market Rate, Mostly Owner-Occupied. The up to 125 townhouses and condominiums will be market-rate (i.e., what the market bear; middle-to-high income owners) and for owner-occupiers. Pending a housing feasibility study underway, the site may include a select number of market-rate rentals. The project does not include subsidized or low-income housing in any shape or form. Baltimore’s Enterprise Homes, which has a record of creating high quality homes in urban environments, will construct the projected townhouses and condominiums. The approximate cost of the townhouses is $200,000.

2. Triangle: Blank Canvas For Artist Homesteaders. The City of York Redevelopment Authority will pledge up to $50,000 for artist homesteaders who purchase live-above-work homes/studios/galleries on North Beaver Street within the Northwest Triangle. The objective is to incubate a small artist colony, foster small business creation and bolster the city’s newly designated cultural district.

3. Historic Smyser-Royer Gets A 21st Century Makeover. Kinsley Equities has begun work on rehabilitating the historic Smyser-Royer, a key gateway to the Triangle and a symbol of York’s turn-of-the-century industrial might. Smyser-Royer is a three-story, brick, Italianate-styled structure with decorative window hoods and decorative brick cornices located at 235 North Beaver Street, at the corner of Beaver and North Streets. This 39,400 square foot gem is comprised of six contiguous buildings that date to 1860. What later became the Smyser-Royer Company was an internationally known manufacturer of cast and wrought iron window frames and spandrels, spiral staircases, porch posts, lampposts, gazebos and statuaries. The famous Smyser-Royer cast-iron work can be seen in the cast-iron lampposts along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, the famous iron grillwork in New Orleans’ Latin Quarter, and the iron components of the Brooklyn Bridge.

4. Capital Budget Application For Seven Million Dollars Completed. The Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (“RACP”) application will be submitted in advance of the application deadline of Sept. 18. A copy of the application, which is quite large, will be available to the public for review at 49 East Market Street. A select number of copies will be available upon request.

5. Project Earns Key Designation As Official Brownfield Action Site. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania designated the Northwest Triangle in May of 2007 as a Brownfield Action Team site, meaning that the state Department of Environmental Protection will fast-track environmental remediation by providing expedited review of grant applications and expediting state permit approval.

6. Demolition Of Select Buildings Slated For Fall of 2007 to prepare the site for groundbreaking for rehabilitation and new construction in the spring and summer of 2008.

7. Property Acquisition Nearly Completed. Friendly settlements of seven of the nine total properties that are required for the project have been accomplished and are now owned and insured by the City of York Redevelopment Authority.

8. Deal On York Rail Parcels Nears. An amiable sales offer based on a certified appraisal has been made to York Rail for its parcels; the York Rail board of Directors is considering the offer this month, and we expect to hear affirmative word in the very near future.

9. Litigation To Acquire Ohio Blenders Continues This Fall. Ohio Blenders is located at the far north section of the Northwest Triangle. As such, litigation to acquire Ohio Blenders will not affect the environmental remediation, demolition, and other site preparation work that begin in September on the other footprint properties.

Matthew Jackson is the economic development director and the redevelopment authority coordinator for the city of York.