Reading Redevelopment Authority board starts setting priorities for industrial site

CITY REDEVELOPMENT: Authority starts talking about priorities for site

At its first meeting after paying $1.655 million for a 50-acre industrial tract, the Reading Redevelopment Authority board started setting out priorities to prepare the site for redevelopment, or for resale.

Dennis Witwer Jr., executive assistant to Adam Mukerji, executive director, said the unfinished Berkshire Bottling Works site adjacent to Buttonwood gateway industrial park was bought at sheriff's sale the previous Friday with money from a loan from retailer Albert R. Boscov.

"We couldn't pass it up," said Chairman Tod Auman. "It's the biggest unimpeded lot in the city."

Reading Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer noted the state's "Act 47 master plan for financially troubled cities calls on us to get control of sites with 30-or-more acres."

"This site has a lot of potential, and I'm excited that we're seeing the pieces of the plan coming together," he said.

Mukerji said the property is ideal for bringing manufacturing jobs to Reading.

The tract already has a large industrial cement pad with steel beams, a 30-inch water main underground, sewer laterals, electricity and a road going through it, he said.

"We're still trying to get our arms around an action plan of what needs to be done right away to make the site more presentable to potential investors and developers, which I think could be done in about five months," Mukerji said.

Authority members Michelle Lauter and Jim Radwanski said the site first needs to be secured and have its fences mended.

Member Daniel F. Luckey said the tract also needs to be graded and cleared of brush, with a lot of soil added at one corner to level it.

Auman noted that the authority is networking with industry experts such as TRF Reinvestment Fund of Philadelphia, which last year did a market value analysis of the property.

"We want to be more scientific in how best to leverage our tax dollars," Auman said.

Also on Wednesday, the authority welcomed new board member Chris W. Heinly, owner of L&H Cos. at Third and Buttonwood streets.

Heinly, 49, will serve a five-year term and replaces Phillip S. Coles, who left to pursue a doctorate in entomology.

In other business, Mukerji said the authority is assisting the Miller Valentine Group of Cleveland, Ohio, in buying the city's former Hillside Swimming Pool site on North 14th Street. The firm wants to build and own a 51-unit age-restricted development there, possibly next summer.

And Mukerji said he is waiting for the U.S. Navy to convey the former Naval Marine Center at Kenhorst and Pershing boulevards to the authority.

"We will try to lease it and create a mixed-use development," he said.

Source: Reading Eagle.com