Major downtown announcement scheduled at City Hall today
By R.A. WALKER rwalker@sungazette.comArticle Photos
Monday, the mayor continued to avoid publicly identifying the retail chain interested in a downtown location, but he promised the name and other details will be provided during an announcement ceremony at 10 a.m. in City Hall.
According to Campana, the announcement will be the first of its kind “in more than 60 years” based on research by his staff and those of the James V. Brown Library and Thomas Taber Museum, who confirmed the last similar store to open downtown was the now-gone Carroll House at the southwest corner of West Third and Pine streets.
The mayor described the planned new store as a national chain and a “full-fledged department store.”
The announcement will be made in the City Council meeting room on the second floor of City Hall and is open to the public.
The Williamsport Parking Authority, which plans to build a downtown parking deck on Church Street, has been involved in the negotiations that led up to today’s announcement. Several weeks ago the authority met in executive session with the mayor after he had received a document in the mail. That document has been identified as a detailed letter of intent, and Campana said he plans to sign it during this morning’s announcement.
The mayor also said he will be asking council to authorize engineering work connected with the project during the council meeting Thursday night.
The exact location of the new store has yet to be confirmed but it is known that at least one building at or near the corner of William and West Third streets recently was sold and negotiations or interest has been shown about acquisition of others.
There also is speculation that William Street south West Third Street might be closed to traffic to help facilitate development of the new department store and other projects, plus additional parking and a possible expansion of Wegmans.
The mayor is upbeat about the downtown and has been saying repeatedly that there are a lot of projects in the works. Monday, for example, he promised to be back soon with other “major” announcements involving the downtown.
“This is the first,” he said.
