Lancaster, Pennsylvania
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April M. Koppenhaver For over the past three years I have been passionately working to enlighten the citizens of Lancaster city and county of what we have affectionately called Plan B. Plan B consists of several alternative uses for the Watt & Shand site. Each of these plans incorporate individual home ownership through residential condominiums, which would generate tax income for the city of Lancaster, school district of Lancaster, and county of Lancaster. Also, through these plans we feel the projects would serve the citizens of our city and county, as well as provide interest to the visitors of our community by keeping the building size within a scale that encourages foot traffic and individuals participating on a daily basis with the site. By encouraging foot traffic to be the catalyst for economic revitalization, we would eliminate the need for hundreds of additional parking spaces required for a hotel and convention center. Through the enlightenment of citizens, our goal was to apply pressure to the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Lancaster, Lancaster City Council, Penn Square Partners and the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority. We wanted to change the proposed hotel convention center project, which Tom Smithgall and Nevin Cooley of Penn Square Partners termed "The Loss Leader", to a project that would serve our community at large without requiring taxpaying citizen guarantees or a hotel bed tax. Over the past eight years I have seen the project mutate from a private/public endeavor (involving a small amount of public money), to a much larger, much different public/private endeavor, with limited private money and an exorbitant amount of public money. To be specific, in 1999 the public was told that Penn Square Partners (consisting of the Fulton Bank, the Lancaster Newspapers, and an affiliate of High Industries) would be responsible for 45 million dollars of the cost and the public would be responsible for 30 million. In 2006 the project was estimated to be 170 million, with 35 million dollars coming from Penn Square Partners (11 million dollars cash, and 24 million over the next twenty years from hotel profits... a promise of money not yet earned) and 135 million from public sources. I was instrumental in forming LancasterFirst.org, a group that has the best interest for the city of Lancaster first and foremost in its vision for the future. Many citizens attended the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority meetings, City Council meetings and Redevelopment Authority meetings and brought up logistical and financial concerns, most of which fell on deaf ears. In this report are several discussions on alternative uses of the Watt & Shand site, which could have been built at a fraction of the cost and make more sense in the context of our community. What would immediately need to be disbanded is the cash cow, the hotel bed tax as well as the city and county guarantees for repayment of the debt. Throughout the past several weeks, in the Master Planning course, many concepts were detailed which had already been incorporated in the various versions of Plan B. A few of those concepts are as follows: Victor Capecce's plan kept the Oblender store intact. By having continual streetscape buildings, foot traffic would become a natural progression up Queen Street and towards the center of town. Mr. Capecce's plan incorporates restaurants, retail, tradeshow pods, exhibit spaces, and a nightclub that could be accessed in the rear from the existing bridge from the parking lot. It also would include a museum and heritage store that would be used to retrofit the Thaddeus Stevens' home and the Lydia Smith residence. Both bridges over Lennox/Christian Street would have remained as well. The Watt & Shand building would have been kept intact, and converted into retail, restaurant, exhibit space, and residential units. The restaurant would have a carousel theme and an attached carousel themed store. The carousel would be the original carousel from Rocky Springs Park, and would be placed outside in an open park setting. The unique and historic interior of the Watt & Shand department store, including the art deco lighting fixtures, brass staircase railings and cast iron steps for emergency exits, ornate plaster and tin ceilings, and wonderful wide wood trim, would have been highlighted instead of destroyed. Architect Tom Despard shared with LancasterFirst and other community members what he entitled Penn Square Plan B. As seen in his aerial view, there were six main components to this idea, which are listed below: 1. The Watt & Shand building would utilize four levels: 2. Montgomery House: mixed-use commercial My personal suggestions for this site was to feature an international foods restaurant on the first level of the Watt & Shand building and convert all remaining space to high brow condominiums with an affordable overtone. This would include underground and convenient onsite parking, door greeters, valet parking, and top security. The condominiums would be priced according to the number of windows in each condo, with those facing the monument and on the highest level bringing the top dollar. Individuals have approached me saying they would be delighted to buy a condo in the Watt & Shand site from anywhere from $350,000 to one million dollars. The lot behind the Watt & Shand building I believe would have been an ideal size to house the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, which requires 44,000 square feet. It gives me goose bumps to picture the orchestra members walking downtown on an ongoing basis in their black tuxedos and long black skirts to entertain our citizens and guests. Can you think of a more beautiful sight? Also, because the orchestra would be exempt from paying taxes due to their 501( c ) (3) status I feel it would have been an agreement between the city, county, and symphony to offer several performances and special seminars to city and county school students to encourage their participation in the musical arts, and to develop their tastes as a future audience. With space permitting, the North Museum as well as the community YMCA could find their home also at this site. The activity that one, two, or all three of these entities would generate would in itself bring an abundance of people, vitality, and financial stability to our town. In conclusion, the hotel convention center business has been on a decline for the past decade. Taxpaying citizens all over America are at the affect of previous bad decisions encroaching on their tax dollars. I believe that investing our future and our current tax dollars on a hotel and convention center for the size of Lancaster city is absolute criminal. The Plan B proposals offered in this document should be given serious concern to turn a losing proposition into an abundant, happy, healthy, and diverse community.
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