Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal, January 2020

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Business Journal NORTHEAST

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January 2020 VOL. 35 NO. 1

WILKES-BARRE FOCUS

Wilkes-Barre economic update by Dave Gardner

Diversity, investment and a push for urban renewal are the trends as conditions within the river-bound City of Wilkes-Barre flow into 2020. New Mayor George Brown, a Wilkes-Barre native, BROWN is committed to promoting a message that Wilkes-Barre can become an inviting place, inviting to raise kids and grandchildren, as well as a location for the continuation of successful investment. Before his election, Brown worked as a regional HR and organizational management specialist in both the financial and manufacturing sectors, where he promoted team philosophies that were workforce-oriented. Central to Brown’s approach are his plans to continue listening to the desires expressed by the city’s residents. This list now includes deterrence of neighborhood crime, cleanup of the city itself, removal of condemned structures, pothole repair and solutions to the city’s street-bound homeless. “These all are typical urban problems,” said the optimistic Brown. “My job is to make progress with these issues and sell the city and its various neighborhoods.” Brown is acutely aware of the investment that has already been achieved within the downtown. Business organizations that include Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies and Mc-

Carthy Tire Service operate headquarters there, and opportunities for entrepreneurs continue to multiply as the downtown morphs into a hybrid business and residential district. “There actually is a waiting list for housing within the renovated high rises that offer loft and luxury apartments,” said Brown. According to Brown, as mayor he will create advisory panels for five city-locale districts, offer meet the mayor days and push for increasing transparency with local press access. He calls this a public approach to governing and will include transparency of public meetings. Brown has also voiced concerns about the municipal debt situation in Wilkes-Barre, where the city’s four employee pensions are only financed in the 56%-58% range. Keeping these pensions solvent therefore is one of the biggest fiscal challenges facing city hall as he also strives for creation of an urban environment that is safe, clean and well-kept. “We will promote a message that this is the place to invest, and that we are not an Act 47 distressed city,” said Brown. “This is not the WilkesBarre of decades ago that was a declining former coal town.” Downtown investment Teri Ooms, executive director with The Institute for Public Policy & Economic Development, was hesitant to cite census data from Wilkes-Barre because the information is now almost a decade old, but she readily pointed to downtown investment as a

key feature of the advancing Wilkes-Barre economy. Specifics of this now include creation of a private business accelerator, as well as capital development on the campuses of King’s College and Wilkes University. “Hospitality and storefront investment within the city are similar to what’s been happening for a while in Scranton, although Scranton OOMS is a little farther ahead with this transition,” said Ooms. Ooms added that few developers or civic officials forecasted the current appetite for downtown residences in both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. However, the availability of older commercial building to renovate into housing has played right into satisfying this demand. Wilkes-Barre has been among numerous American cities with downtowns struggling from the cumulative effects of business loss, declining population and a lack of investment, noted Larry Newman, executive director of the Diamond City Partnership. However, Newman is now eyeing new realities for Wilkes-Barre, where the painful out-migration of the coal-scarred city’s historic settlers is replaced by new groups and varied ethnic populations. “Opportunity now exists,” said Newman. “Our Please see Update, Page 19

BANKING & FINANCE: SEE PAGES 4-5

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