ERIE | Development Projects Thread

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Is Erie Insurance going to really build a "tower"? Maybe They could finally give Erie an actual skyline.

There's been no official announcement on that, only rumors as they've left that surface parking lot untouched while they've purchased properties and developed associated infrastructure and supporting operations facilities all around it. It stands to reason from a planning perspective (and considering the ever-growing company is one of the largest property and casualty insurance companies in the US) that they will develop that large lot. They've been moving towards consolidating much of their headquarters operations downtown over the past 10 years. so seeing a new tower rise there would be great to see. And by tower, it would likely mean a company-owned/occupied building around 15-20 stories (I wouldn't think much more given the company's conservative growth) - which would be a nice addition to Erie's "actual skyline".

Though it will be removed from the city's tax rolls, this building conversion to become part of Gannon University's business school should drastically improve its appearance and add a greater jolt of vibrant street life to State St.

Gannon University Receives Gift of Donated Downtown Building



- Image: http://www.yourerie.com/news/news-ar...00ehCrYZZ8bRlQ

Currently, the building houses several businesses not affiliated with Gannon.
But Gannon will handle their leases and support their transitions.

Over the next couple of years Gannon plans to pump more than 5 million dollars into the building.

The goal is to make it an integrated center featuring Dahlkemper School of Business, Gannon's Erie Technology Incubator and the Gannon University Small Business Development Center.

Happy to see a local company purchasing this building on Erie's W 12th Street industrial corridor. Skinner Engine was founded in 1868 and was one of the first and largest manufacturers of steam engines. Glad that this one won't meet the wrecking ball, as far too many massive, old manufacturing complexes in Erie have. It's a drab stretch, but I'm not so sure about the plans to paint it.

Erie's Logistics Plus buys former Skinner Engine factory


- Image: http://www.goerie.com/eries-logistic...ngine-factory#

One of Erie's newer businesses is expanding into an 83-year-old building complex on West 12th Street.

Logistics Plus Inc., based at Union Station and founded in 1996, has purchased the former Skinner Engine Co. factory at 337 W. 12th St.

Logistics Plus will use most of the 80,848 feet of space for warehousing and hopes to lease about 11,000 square feet of that space to other businesses for offices, said Jim Berlin, owner and chief executive of Logistics Plus, which provides logistical and shipping services to companies worldwide.

"Our business is growing," Berlin said. "It is a good, solid building, and it is in a good location."

Skinner Engine, founded as a steam engine company in 1868, was Erie County's oldest business when it filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

Berlin said he wants to have the former Skinner Engine Co. factory painted with eye-catching colors in a European style.

"We'll do the bright colors on the front, probably a mural on the east wall (there's a big billboard on the west wall)," Berlin said in an e-mail. "But even the painting on the front is more than painting. It will call up the fishermen houses of Copenhagen."

So there are 3 new hotels planned on Erie's Bayfront... 2 on the east by Scott Enterprises, as part of their Harbor Place development... and 1 on the west by the Erie County Convention Authority on the former GAF industrial property to complement the existing Sheraton Bayfront hotel connected to the convention center.

Scott battled with the Convention Center Authority a decade ago to build the convention center and hotel on his property -- he lost, he was x'd out of the deal, and it was built on the west bayfront with public funds. Now another publicly-funded hotel is being planned by the Authority.

Scott Enterprises lobbying County Council against new Convention Center hotel

Officials from Scott Enterprises Inc. -- which recently announced plans for a $150 million private waterfront development -- are lobbying Erie County Council in opposition of a multimillion-dollar bond guarantee for a proposed new publicly financed hotel adjacent to the Bayfront Convention Center.

Several council members said Scott Enterprises officials -- including the company's president, Nick Scott Sr., have met with members of the seven-member panel since Monday, both to explain their project and to ask council to consider whether another public hotel is necessary.

County Council agreed in February 2005 to guarantee the $48 million bond issue for the 200-room Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel, which is connected to the Convention Center via an overhead walkway. That hotel opened in April 2008 on West Dobbins Landing as part of the $100 million-plus Convention Center complex.

The Convention Center Authority is seeking the bond guarantee for either a long-term capital bond or bank financing, said Roger Richards, a Convention Center Authority board member who heads the authority's Strategic Planning Committee.

That financing would be used along with a $25 million state grant to fund the hotel. A county guarantee would allow the Convention Center Authority to obtain a lower interest rate on the debt.

Hope this will lead to more investment at the Erie GE plant.

http://www.goerie.com/new-joint-vent...ons-erie-plant

New joint venture to be housed at GE Transportation's Erie plant

Komatsu and GE Mining, a division of GE Transportation, have announced the formation of a new joint venture company that will be housed inside GE Transportation's Lawrence Park plant.

The company, Komatsu GE Mining Systems LLC, will work to develop next-generation mining equipment.

Komatsu, a heavy equipment maker with factories around the world, is a longtime customer of GE Transportation, which builds electric drive systems for use in Komatsu mining trucks.

This collaboration will focus on the development of underground mining equipment.

Just a nice winter pic of Presque Isle Bay.

With two (possibly 3) new hotels, condos, and the rest of the Harbor Place development, this view to the east bayfront will change dramatically.



Image: http://reprints.goerie.com/mycapture...tegoryID=60292

[Evergrey]

Wow... that is an awesome collection of winter photos, Perch!

First hurdle for new hotel on Sassafras St. Pier cleared!

Tired of the political games being played by the private developer Scott Enterprises regarding this issue. Scott Enterprises has owned a very large, prime parcel of bayfront land for going on 20 years now and they have done NOTHING with it. They released plans for a hotel development called "Harborside" in the late 1990s... nothing even materialized... and then they got involved in the convention center hotel deal, but Scott proved to be such a cheap pain in the ass that the Convention Center Authority dropped him as developer, he sued, lost, and came out looking bad when the case was just recently resolved... and about 3 years ago, Scott announced plans for a bayfront hotel to be built in Fall 2011... nothing.

So now that the Convention Center Authority releases solid plans for a second bayfront hotel in September 2013, Scott comes out with his "Harborplace" development in November 2013... including 2 hotels... and states that he has no problem with the Conv Ctr Auth hotel... then he says he does have a problem with it and goes on a public crusade to drum up opposition to it being guaranteed by public funds, all the while lobbying for public funding for his "private" hotels.

Scott has sat on his land for 20 years... holding much of the bayfront hostage to HIS dollar. There has been nothing preventing him from developing that land for nearly 2 decades, and now he is attempting to stifle development that he feels can affect his potential future development... which given his history on the bayfront, may never see the light of day.


Erie County Council OKs debt guarantee for bayfront hotel

http://www.goerie.com/erie-county-co...bayfront-hotel

A $65,000-a-year payment has been approved.

There's also a land swap, involving county government and the area's largest hotelier.

And Erie County Council -- after weeks of often bitter public debate -- approved a loan guarantee of up to $60 million, clearing the way for a new 191-room hotel adjacent to the Bayfront Convention Center.

At the end of a furious day of maneuvering on waterfront development, County Council on Tuesday night voted 4-2 in favor of the debt guarantee, which in recent weeks became one of the most contentious political issues seen locally in years.

The guarantee, requested by the Erie County Convention Center Authority, allows the authority to use county government's high-grade debt rating to save nearly $20 million in interest costs on either a long-term capital bond or bank financing to pay for the hotel.

Council members debated the issue for weeks. But a council majority was not secured until Tuesday morning, when the Erie County Convention Center Authority unanimously approved giving the county $65,000 a year in exchange for the loan guarantee over the life of the 30-year bonds needed for the hotel project, or an estimated $2 million.

The Convention Center Authority wants a new publicly owned, publicly funded hotel and parking garage adjacent to the Bayfront Convention Center on the Sassafras Street Pier. The authority secured a $25 million state grant for the project, in addition to the millions saved on financing.

County government would be at risk for repayment only if the authority defaulted on its loan.

The hotel could be open as soon as 2016.

In another move crucial to Tuesday's developments, the Convention Center Authority agreed to give the county a parcel of land, valued at $250,000, at the northeast corner of State Street and the Bayfront Parkway, so the county can swap that parcel with land that private developer Nick Scott Sr. owns near the county's Blasco Library.

His company, Scott Enterprises Inc., led opposition to the debt guarantee, claiming that a second publicly guaranteed hotel would hurt the Sheraton's revenues and that there is no reason to put taxpayers at risk when a private developer is willing to build nearby.

Scott Enterprises has also proposed Harbor Place, a $150 million waterfront development about one-half mile east of the Convention Center. The Scott project includes at least one hotel and would mostly be privately funded, though it is seeking a $12 million state grant.

They are working through the city of Erie to try to get a $12 million state grant to help build their hotel off lower State Street, and have made it clear the scope and schedule of their larger Harbor Place project could depend on it becoming eligible for major tax breaks under the state's Community Revitalization and Improvement Program.

In other words, the Scotts want the public to subsidize their plans as well. Their proposal for private investment has a lot of public expense built in.

New hotel renderings... I really like the situation of it... adjoining the convention center with an integrated parking garage/plaza... and the indoor-outdoor pools on the water. Will be a very nice and needed addition to Erie's Bayfront.









Images: ECCCA

Shouls be a very complementary addition to this site:


http://www.seahistory.org/annual-meeting-erie-pa/

Another "hotel" development on the Bayfront. Never heard of the Cobblestone Inn brand, but it looks like the same old generic budget hotel to me. To be built on the western end of the bayfront on a odd 3 acre parcel at the base of the bluff and fronting the Bayfront Parkway. Not quite sure how parking and access into and out of the property will work; seems it will cause traffic issues on an already inadequate (for its current use) roadway. the need for a more affordable hotel option is there, but I'm a bit skeptical about it will fit in on that piece of property (unless access is from the top of the bluff, which given the lower end brand of the hotel, I doubt that will happen).

Developer Tom Kennedy to build new hotel on Erie's bayfront


Interest in building hotels on Erie's bayfront continues to grow.

Developer Tom Kennedy, owner of Erie's Renaissance Centre, has announced plans to build a new Cobblestone Inn on the south side of the Bayfront Parkway near Liberty Park.

Kennedy, who unveiled plans last week to build a 37-room Cobblestone Inn on Route 6 in Corry, said this new hotel will be a three-story, 54-room hotel.

Kennedy said he expects work on the project to begin this fall, with completion expected in early 2015.

This announcement comes as the Erie County Convention Center Authority and Scott Enterprises are both developing plans for new hotels on the north side of the Bayfront Parkway near the Bayfront Convention Center.

Kennedy, who said he's been working on this project for months, doesn't expect his project will interfere with either of those plans.

"I don't think this will have any impact on them at all," Kennedy said.

"I think we are more of an alternative for people who are staying on the interstate," he added. "We are a small, 54-room boutique hotel."

He said the property, with room rates of $100 or less, will be geared toward boaters and their families, families of Gannon University students and people who have family members at UPMC Hamot.

Like Scott Enterprises, which has owned its bayfront property for 15 years, Kennedy said he has owned his three-acre property for about 10 years.

Kennedy said the hotel, located across from the Liberty Park amphitheater and Sloppy Duck restaurant, is compliant with existing zoning regulations.

Kennedy said he has signed on to develop five Cobblestone Inns, all within driving distance of Erie.

The other locations have not yet been announced.

http://www.goerie.com/article/201403...plate=rockerie

Pittsburgh-based restaurants to open locations in Erie.

Mad Mex and Primanti Brothers planning to open locations in Millcreek.

I would much rather see a Mad Mex location in downtown Erie, on the Bayfront (maybe in the future though), or along the Peninsula Drive/W 8th St. corridor, but I understand the great motivation in locating one at the Millcreek Mall. And I definitely like the fact that they will have outdoor seating. As for Primanti's... I can take it or leave it. I'll eat a sandwich at the Strip, Southside, or Oakland locations, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go to a suburban Primanti's location.

Also good to see an H&M store locating in Erie.

New stores, restaurants coming to Millcreek Mall

Two restaurants, a jewelry store and a handful of clothing stores were all confirmed Tuesday as part of a flurry of coming attractions at the Millcreek Mall.

Topping that list is a new location for Primanti Bros., an iconic Pittsburgh eatery famed for sandwiches stacked with coleslaw and french fries.

Another highlight is a new 23,000-square-foot H&M store that will be located near the mall's customer service center.

Joe Bell, spokesman for the Youngstown, Ohio-based Cafaro Co., which owns the mall, also talked Tuesday about the latest thinking on filling vacancies.

He said mall managers aren't looking for a major anchor tenant to fill the 90,000-square-foot space vacated by Burlington Coat Factory in 2011.

"Our real estate people didn't sense so much of a need for a big box like that," Bell said. "But they did feel the need for smaller tenant spaces."

To accommodate those needs, he said, the mall corridor will be extended through the middle of what had been the Burlington Coat Factory, making room for smaller tenants on either side of the corridor.

Two of those spaces will house a 4,700-square-foot Primanti Bros. and a new 6,300-square-foot Mad Mex restaurant, described as an American mash-up of Mexican food with Southeast Asian and West Coast influences.

The two restaurants, which are expected to be open by fall, will feature exterior entrances and patio dining, Bell said.

http://www.goerie.com/new-stores-res...millcreek-mall

[Evergrey]

Thanks for the updates, Perch. Looks like I'll be able to get a "taste of home" next time I visit Erie due to all these Pittsburgh restaurants opening there.

[Private Dick]

An Erie thread -- sweet! Thanks for posting this, Perch.

[Yorkie]

Yea Perch, I just caught this too..

Plans are in the works to rehab the Rothrock Building in downtown Erie. This building always reminded me of a college dorm or something. Glad it is going to be renovated for new office space. And it's too bad the city permitted the building to its east to be leveled and replaced with a parking lot and drive through bank a few years ago...




Images: http://www.kidderwachter.com/project...%2010th%20St_2

Rendering:

Image: http://issuu.com/eriemagazine/docs/e...e_oct-nov_2013

[ladsnine]

This seems like a cool project:

Erie County Historical Society Releases Details on $3 million Renovation at Watson-Curtze Mansion

A 123-year-old prominent piece of Erie history will soon get a new look, backed by a $3 million renovation and construction project.

The Erie County Historical Society on Wednesday released details on the future of the Watson-Curtze Mansion, 356 W. Sixth St., and a project that one lead official said will "create Erie's first integrative historical campus."

Six months ago the Historical Society announced plans to undertake the project to consolidate its holdings in the city of Erie, which includes the mansion and the society's Erie History Center, which houses a museum, offices and archives at 419 State St.

More than $1 million will be reinvested in the mechanical systems and structural integrity of the mansion, officials said. That includes rewiring, re-pointing and cleaning of the masonry, and the addition of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

"The building has 50 to 60 years of deferred maintenance. We're doing a complete overhaul and replacement of these systems," Pifer said. "The $1 million is the largest capital investment to the Watson-Curtze Mansion since it was built in 1891."

^^^ that's good to hear about. I really think this project has the potential to revtialize west 6th street into a much more vibrant place. Thanks for posting!

This is exciting news for Erie. A large dental school to go with one of the nation's largest medical schools. Lord Corp. moving to Summit Twp. Bringing more and more students and education to the Erie region.


Aerial view of LECOM campus on Upper Westside of Erie. Former Lord Corp. HQ and labs on right of photo; where dental school and clinic will be


LECOM announces plans for former Lord Corp. offices

Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine is building a massive dental clinic with 30 treatment rooms in one of the former Lord Technology Park buildings.

The dental clinic is the first of LECOM's four planned projects for the four-building, 28-acre property at 2000 West Grandview Blvd., which the medical school purchased from Lord Corp. in December 2011 for $18 million. Other plans include building a research center, classrooms and a communication center, with a tentative completion date of 2021.

LECOM is spending $5 million to turn the north building into a dental clinic, and an additional $1.4 million to purchase dental equipment. The clinic is expected to open in May 2015.

"That's when our first class of fourth-year dental students will be ready for group practice," Hirsch said.

The clinic will be divided into three group practices, each with 10 glass-enclosed treatment rooms surrounding a teaching station where instructors can observe. Each practice will also have its own digital X-ray machine.

Woohoo! 61 ft!!

In the case of Erie's Bayfront, I don't mind height limits... though 50 ft is pretty ridiculous. Any variance a developer asks for is granted, so the limit is rarely enforced since there hasn't been huge interest in development there yet anyway. Though, I think keeping bay views preserved is a wise move.

Erie Zoning Hearing Board approves height variance for proposed bayfront hotel

A proposed new $30 million hotel at the Bayfront Convention Center needs several approvals from the city of Erie to become a reality.

The project received one of them Tuesday.

The Erie Zoning Hearing Board voted 4-1 to grant a height-related zoning variance for the hotel, which would connect to the Bayfront Convention Center.

The hotel would stand 61 feet high. Zoning rules along Erie's bayfront, though, limit the height of structures to 50 feet.

The Erie County Convention Center Authority asked the Zoning Hearing Board to sign off on the variance so that the hotel can exceed the bayfront height restriction.

Local architect Jeff Kidder told the Zoning Hearing Board that the hotel must be built vertically, rather than horizontally, because of space limitations at the site. Kidder is working on the hotel project with the lead architectural firm, Denver-based Sink Combs Dethlefs.

The proposed 191-room Courtyard by Marriott would be built just west of the Convention Center, in an area that is currently an employee parking lot and loading area.

New renderings for Scott Enterprises' first of two hotels at their east bayfront Harbor Place development site.






Site plan:


All images: http://wmf-inc.com/portfolio/current-work/case-study-1/