RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Participants in a groundbreaking ceremony for the next phase of the Old City Development Project are shown on Tuesday, July 26, 2022 in Williamsport. The Lycoming College owned property at Basin and E. Third Streets will see the construction of a mixed-use building that will house retail, office and residential units.

The excitement was palpable Tuesday as a groundbreaking took place for what has been described as a transformational $20 million investment in the Old City section of Williamsport.

Pine Ridge Construction Management/Rivers Edge Capital is building what it called the “Old City Williamsport Development Project.”

This is a building at 255 E. Third St. along Basin Street that incorporates residential, retail, dining and commercial spaces in a mixed-use concept.

It is in the East Third Street/Old City Revitalization Project section of the city east of Market Street.

It is designed to enhance the area and blur Lycoming College campus borders, creating destinations for students and city residents alike.

Jerry Lariviere, CEO of Pine Ridge Construction Management/Rivers Edge Capital, sounded a bit Shakespearean prior to shovels hitting the ground in a short speech beneath a luxurious tent and a catered evening with guests listening on high top tables covered in white cloth.

“What can be and what will be,” he said of this three-story design and public-private partnership that is meant to be a spark that jolts the rest of the neighborhood and other developers.

For Lariviere, the most important part of the start of this construction is that he gets to come back to Williamsport and do something for his community of family and friends and united partners.

These individuals include state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, who Lariviere said came to his company to help it to develop a strategy for funding the project and then worked with Delta Development Group, the consulting firm that also does economic work for the city, to implement the strategy.

These also included the developer, the city of Williamsport, Mayor Derek Slaughter and his administration, City Council, Lycoming College and its board of trustees, Lycoming County commissioners and the consulting firm, Delta Development Group, among others such as state and federal lawmakers and agencies such as Williamsport Municipal Water and Sanitary Authority.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kent Trachte, president of Lycoming College, was “pushing all along,” Lariviere said.

Trachte spoke a bit about the institutional vision that was in line with others wanting to see a revitalization and transformation of Old City.

Pine Ridge officials also credited and received assistance from three county commissioners, City Council and Slaughter — all of whom expressed a shared belief in the project.

“I’d like to believe that tonight is the combination of a lot of hard work, but it truly is just the start of what the old city can be and will be, Lariviere said.

Five years down the road

Hopefully, this will be a “true remake of a great portion of the city,” Lariviere said.

Not only for walking the streets with better sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic lights, period lamps but for the economic development potential.

Old City, which Pat Marty, chief of staff at Pennsylvania College of Technology, said was named, initially, for being the area first settled by Williamsport founder Michael Ross, has started to take on an improved look with its investors, restaurateurs, and residents choosing to make this neighborhood near Lycoming College, the four-year liberal arts institution that calls Williamsport home, their home, too.

As Marty noted, “aesthetics saved this neighborhood.”

Once a bumpy, one-way street, Basin Street is, as Trachte described, now a “two-way boulevard.”

It is beautified by plants flourishing in the median during growing season, lined by period lamps illuminating the evening hours for pedestrians and shining a light on the newly laid sidewalks and brick paver crosswalks.

It is just two blocks from Via Bella, where Rick Mahonski’s River Valley Plaza is expected to get a makeover and the signature coffee house, Starbucks, will likely get two lanes in the drive-thru next year — if Mahonski’s plans come to fruition.

Additionally, Basin Street, which intersects with the eastern end of Willow Street, a rather nondescript street running parallel between East Third and East Fourth streets, is going to be transformed into a environmentally friendlier, green pathway for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Basin Street also goes south to Via Bella, linking to the on ramp at Interstate 180, where efforts are underway to link the sidewalk for pedestrians and bicyclists to the popular Susquehanna River Walk.

A reflection of the old and what it can become

Old City Williamsport is an example of a present-day improvement, years in the making, and a reflection of what the city is aiming for from an economic development perspective.

Chip Edmonds, executive director of Lycoming College, acknowledged as much in his opening remarks.

“The Old City Redevelopment Project will enhance this section of Williamsport building its tax base to create better quality of life and establish a destination for our community including current and future residents and contribute to Lycoming College’s reputation as a national liberal arts and sciences institution,” Edmonds said.

Besides Lycoming College’s Krapf Gateway Center and a college music facility under construction, Old City Williamsport will be the first building developed in a public-private unified partnership.

A vision that began 11 years ago

In a vision that gained traction after local business owner and developer of the former Basin Street Plaza, John Albarano, approached the former city administration, asking that more thought and planning be put into buildings and streets east of Market Street.

Thus, what resulted was the formation of the East Third Street Old City Gateway Revitalization Commission, an informal group of governmental and business officials, which piqued the interest of Trachte.

Trachte, before arriving at his post in Williamsport, said he had also worked with officials in Lancaster at Franklin and Marshall College on a similar type of neighborhood improvement project. An independent study using input from neighbors and city residents, business owners and others was commenced that also provided guidance toward the ultimate goal of improving the neighborhood.

Mayor impressed

As he looked out into the audience gathered beneath a large tent prior to the groundbreaking, Slaughter said one can’t help but notice significant improvements that have occurred the last many years from the Krapf Gateway Center, the music building, Woodrich, John Ryan Brewery and DiSalvo’s and this development and all of the other improvements.

“The previous, current and future private and public investment have transformed a once stagnant area into a vibrant modern destination that will continue to grow,” Slaughter said.

The city has been a proud partner over the years and “I want to reiterate my administration’s commitment to not just Old City but to redevelopment and economic development throughout all of Williamsport,” Slaughter said.

“These projects require a vision, collaboration and a plan to make them happen,” he said.

These partnerships include colleagues from the city, state and federal levels — all of which are able to leverage funding opportunities along with private support from places such as the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania, to see these projects come to fruition.

With redevelopment of Old City, Williamsport is positioning as a city and location where people want to remain and to relocate, the mayor said.

“The momentum is contagious and I truly believe we are only getting started,” he said.

A model project for the rest of the city

“Yes, this can be a model, so long as the private and the public partnership both see a reciprocal benefit,” said City Councilman Eric Beiter, chairman of the economic revitalization committee.

Currently, he noted, there are a lot of “big asks that the private entities have for the public entities,” Beiter said. “And we need to make sure that everything is going to be mutually beneficial.

“Once the city hashes out those final details we’re going to see some enormous growth opportunities and then we can have a model,” Beiter said.

Long time coming

“It’s exciting to see and I think it’s been a long time coming,” said Council President Adam Yoder. “I think the initial discussions occurred with the committee formed a while ago, but good things take a while to come to fruition,” he said.

Many items lined up to make it happen.

“We’re seeing the fruits of that now, which is good.

“I think this is a really good example of the value that public-partner private partnerships can bring to economic development,” Yoder said.

You’ve multiple governmental stakeholders at the table, you have a private institution of higher education and you’ve got a private developer and we’re all working together to make this part of Williamsport a more vibrant place and in a better position for the future,” Yoder said.

“It is a model that we can learn from and apply, hopefully, to other areas in the city,” he said.

Before the shovels hit the dirt, Lariviere said he felt like the vision remained in focus.

“I feel fortunate to say that through all the conversations the vision has stayed straight and narrow,” Lariviere said.

In unison, these like-minded individuals said, “‘Let’s redevelop the East End, save a section of the city that we all believed in for so long that once was so vital and make that what it could be again and what it will be’,” Lariviere said.