LANCASTER, Pa. — The Lancaster City Alliance on Thursday announced several façade improvement grant projects happening on the 200 block of W. King Street in the city.
A total of five façade improvements are underway and poised to compliment the "significant" investment occurring on this critical block on the edge of downtown, the Alliance said in a press release.
“A cluster of project improvements in one block is an extraordinary opportunity for our community and is helping to ensure the successful implementation of a key recommendation of Building On Strength, the City’s economic development plan,” said Marshall W. Snively, President of the Lancaster City Alliance. “The transformation of each property will enhance the neighborhood and lay the foundation for continued investment in this section of the city."
Façade improvements are specific to the needs of each property, the Alliance said.
Since much of the City is part of the National Register of Historic Places, the Lancaster City Alliance staff, in partnership with on-site contractors, are working to ensure that the historic integrity of the buildings are preserved or restored.
Improvements at each site include the following:
- 209-211 W. King St. – uplighting, gooseneck storefront lighting, painting of cornice, storefront trim, entry doors and upper-floor windows.
- 221 W. King St. – same as above, and restoration of the early 20th Century storefront.
- 244 W. King St. - uplighting.
- 257 W. King St. – uplighting, painting of entire façade with a multicolor paint scheme nodding to the building’s Gothic-style architecture by adopting colors from the interior of the Gothic-style Christ Lutheran Church at West King and Strawberry streets; and restoring architectural details destroyed in 1993.
- 259 W. King St. – uplighting, gooseneck storefront lighting, painting of entire façade with a multicolor paint scheme, new handrails, new storefront entry doors, decorative wood paneling below storefront windows, reinstallation of transom glass above storefront windows.
The façade improvement grant program is administered by the Lancaster City Alliance, and the project focuses on "restoring and refreshing property facades in underserved areas of the city," the Alliance said.
The program has completed 107 projects since 2019 and employed 75 contractors, 30 percent of which are city-based, 13 percent BIPOC-owned, and 7 percent women-owned.
“Lancaster City Alliance staff work closely with the property owner and contractors to implement the work, providing guidance and oversight along the way, said Jeremy Young, Director of Community and Economic Development with the Lancaster City Alliance. “Our focus is to not only provide quality upgrades to the façade, but for those upgrades to be historically accurate, and to employ city-based contractors."
This same block is also the site of the nearly complete Landis Place on King, a new apartment complex for adults 55 years of age and older.
The Landis Place project "helped to increase interest in this area of the city and provided the right environment for projects like that façade improvement project to thrive," the Alliance said.
Façade projects are funded through donations to the non-profit Lancaster City Alliance and neighborhood revitalization partner SoWe/Tenfold.
Property owners provide a funding match, the Alliance said.
Major donors include the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation, Truist Economic Growth Fund at the Lancaster County Community Foundation, High Foundation and Steinman Foundation.
The project at 259 W. King Street also received funding support from the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone (CRIZ) Authority’s Small Business Financial Assistance Program.
