HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Harrisburg Regional Chamber and CREDC is giving an old plot of land that dates back to WWII a face lift.
They are hoping to revitalize two acres of land between Herr Street and the State Street bridge in Harrisburg.
“It’s essentially an abandoned site, which is good in some regards because it’s a completely empty palette, so we can do something a little different with it, or someone else can do something a little bit different with it," said David Black, CREDC president & CEO.
The old industrial site, formally owned by HARSCO Corporation will first need to go through an environmental evaluation and cleaned before a potential developer comes into the picture.
“Hopefully we can get it a little cleaner and maybe it can be used for something mixed use, commercial office, possibly even residential, who knows," added Black.
Cleanup will take about two years, after that they hope to sell the property to someone who can do some kind of development on it.
“We have great confidence in CREDC and its ability to run these kind of projects, they have great experience with this taking under a vacant piece of land and turning it into a real project," said Brad Jones, president & CEO of Harristown Enterprises.
Brad Jones with Harristown, who is involved in helping downtown Harrisburg grow, says you don’t have to look very far to see the potential.
“This new project could create hundreds of new jobs for the community and create thousands and thousands of dollars of new tax revenues for the city, for the county, for the school district," added Jones.
“I think we can clean it up and make it for valuable for long-term valuable use to the city and I think that’s the thing. We want to bring value to the site, we want to bring value to the city and hopefully create some jobs in the process," said Black.
