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THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED |
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‘18-STORY, $35 MILLION OFFICE TOWER SET FOR HARRISBURG
Mayor Stephen R. Reed today cut the ribbon to officially dedicate the Pearl Hair & Nail Salon at 310 Reily Street in Midtown. Mayor Stephen R. Reed today announced plans for an 18-story, $35 million office tower complex for Harrisburg, to be built on a downtown parcel that had been set aside to specifically spawn development. Its construction will add to the City’s already-dramatic skyline. Reed said the facility will be 229,000 square feet and will include 13 floors of Class A office space, much of which will have commanding views of the downtown, the Susquehanna River and places beyond the City. The facility, expected to be completed in 2010, will also include a first floor retail area of 8,114 square feet and three floors of interior parking for 60 vehicles. At least 225 construction jobs will be created by the project. Reed said the occupancy rate for the City-based Class A office space has been consistently running above 95%, creating demand for additional space. “There are some prospective tenants, as well as existing tenants needing to expand, wanting to be in the City, whose space needs cannot be accommodated. The trend for Harrisburg’s further resurgence and progress is consistent and strong, which gives rise to this further major investment in Harrisburg.” “Harrisburg has evolved to a whole new level of investment in commercial, educational, arts and related facilities and amenities, in very sharp contrast to the history of the serious decline in the decades before the current era,” said the Mayor. The completed building will be 237 feet high, not counting the mechanical systems on the roof, making it not only amongst the tallest three structures in Harrisburg but amongst the tallest five buildings in Pennsylvania between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The structure is being developed by 210 North Second Street Associates, LLC, whose principals are Andrew Giorgione, Esq., Greg Rothman, Rick Galiardo, and Sil Lutkewitte. The architect for the project is EwingCole, based in Philadelphia. EwingCole has designed mixed-use buildings, sports venues, and parking facilities around the world. Some of EwingCole’s nearby projects have included the design of the PricewaterhouseCooper’s Regional Practice Office, the Sanofi Pasteur Administrative Office Building and Vaccine Development Facility, the Penn National Gaming Casino in Grantville and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. “As a native son of Harrisburg, this project is more special than any I’ve worked on,” said Donald Dissinger, AIA, leader of EwingCole’s Sports and Entertainment Practice which includes the hospitality market. “This will be the first building I’ve designed in my hometown.” Primary construction materials will be a glass curtain wall with metal panel architectural features on the Second Street side of the building. The project will include preservation of the Donaldson Building façade and the Harrisburg Historic District streetscape on Locust Street. Reed said the opportunity for this latest office tower project stems to when planning for the recently-completed River Street Parking Garage was occurring. “It was this office’s policy position that rather than having the parking garage stretch from Second to Front Streets at five or so stories in height, on the entire land tract the Parking Authority had acquired, that it instead would be set back into the middle of the tract, at greater height, so as to allow land areas on both Front and Second Street to eventually be built.” “The benefit of the decision is now being fully realized. On the first tract, the 183,000 square foot Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency was built. Now, on the Second Street tract, this new facility will occur,” said the Mayor. “We did not want a parking garage fronting out onto major streets as it creates ‘dead space’ that disrupts the streetscape and the continuity of commercial activity. It is this type of largely-unpublicized land use decision that is very much central to the City’s continued economic development progress both downtown and Citywide.” Reed noted that this proposed building comes amidst dozens of other major development projects, including construction of the 16-story Harrisburg University of Science and Technology Academic Center at 4th and Market Streets, the Commonwealth Judicial Center, the planned Aloft Hotel at N. Second and State Streets, the Third and State Streets Hotel across from the Capitol, residential projects, the Midtown Commercial Corridor projects, the new Staybridge Suites Hotel on Wildwood Drive, and others. For more information on the proposed office tower, Greg Rothman, Broker at RSR REALTORS, is handling leasing and may be reached at (717) 763-1212.
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