A $2 million addition and renovation project at DiSalvo’s Restaurant in the Old City section is moving forward following approval by the Lycoming County Commissioners of a Redevelopment Assistant Capital Program matching grant of $1 million.

The owners of the restaurant will provide the additional matching funds from their own money.

“We’re very excited about it,” said Vince DiSalvo, who runs the restaurant and wine bar. “I’m in the midst of doing a redevelopment, trying to become cohesive with the balance of the developments going on in the Basin Street Corridor.”

“The goal is to create more of a mixed use facility, bring in some other businesses to that area as well to try and foster a more neighborhood type deal, which is I think the overall goal of all the contracts that are actually in play currently,” DiSalvo said.

DiSalvo said that another goal is to “create a destination.”

“Currently, we have people who are traveling an hour or more to come down and visit, especially over the summer. If we could enhance that, it could bring more people and more dollars into the city,” DiSalvo said.

DiSalvo, who runs the restaurant with his sister, Marisa, shared some of his family’s history, beginning from the time that his grandfather emigrated to this country from Italy in 1903 with a shoemaker’s bag in his hand.

“My mom came here with a suitcase from Florence. Somehow, they made it work. There’s opportunity if you know where to look for it,” DiSalvo said.

The restaurant is located in the East Fourth Street/Basin Street area of the city.

Approximately eight years ago, “visionaries” as Commissioner Tony Mussare described them, a group of officials and property owners had put in motion the Old City or Gateway Project. Lycoming College was also a big player in shaping the area with the completion of the Krapf Gateway Center and the current construction of a new music building. Basin Street had been realigned to open that section up for visitors to the area exiting the Beltway.

“That is the gateway to our community,” Mussare said. “And it’s going to continue to grow.”

The county will enter into a sub-recipient agreement with DiSalvo’s for the state grant money which passes through the county to DiSalvo’s project.

“That $2 million project is going to be creating jobs for people in our community at prevailing wages, with supplies from our local suppliers and U.S. steel,” Commissioner Rick Mirabito said. “It’s a good turn of events all around.”

Commissioner Scott Metzger said that in the next few years, “that part of the community will be a nice place to take your family, take a walk for all kinds of activities.”