The developer who wants to
bring a 300-employee state call center to East Hempfield Township has
competition.
Another developer wants to
put the state Department of Public Welfare facility in Columbia Borough.
Bill Roberts of IBS
Development is proposing to expand and renovate a firestation at 137 S. Front
St. for the DPW offices.
The project would cost more
than $7 million, he said.
“It’s more of an urban
renewal project than just building space for the state,” said Roberts.
“I’m sure nobody else would
have to do what we’d have to do to create space.”
The fire company there,
Columbia No. 1, has agreed to merge with Susquehanna Fire & Rescue.
They would consolidate at
Susquehanna’s fire station at Tenth and Manor streets.
“The borough is very excited
about (the DPW proposal)...,” said Borough Manager Sam Sulkosky.
“It would be the biggest
thing to happen economically as a single project in at least 50 years. It would
be a game-changer for Columbia.”
The IBS proposal joins a bid
from Falling Creek Investments, a Monroe County firm.
As was previously reported,
Falling Creek has agreed to buy a 31,300-square-foot county office building at
2270 Erin Court for $2.895 million.
Falling Creek then would
outfit the building for DPW and lease it to the state.
The IBS and Falling Creek
proposals are among eight submitted to the Department of General Services for
the call center.
DGS spokesman Troy Thompson
declined to identify the bidders or the sites they proposed before the state’s
April 7 deadline.
DGS, which handles real
estate used by the state, has not set a timetable for its selection.
Whoever wins would lease the
building to DGS for 10 years. The lease would come with a pair of five-year
renewal options.
Eligible were sites in a
horizontal swath of Lancaster County, reaching from Columbia through nearly all
of East Lampeter Township.
A decision will need to come
soon, though, as DGS wants the first wave of 100 workers in the new DPW
facility by Oct. 1.
The location of the IBS
property could have an advantage.
The DGS solicitation for
proposals said the agency will give “preference” to “downtown building sites.”
To assemble a site big enough
for the DPW facility, IBS would buy the firestation property (owned by the
borough) and the firestation building.
It also would buy six adjoining
sites (five vacant lots and one house).
Roberts, founder and
president of IBS, said his firm has sales agreements on all of them.
IBS would finalize the
acquisitions if it wins the job.
The 18,000-square-foot fire
station consists of an older section, which Sulkosky believes dates to the
1950s, and a newer section built in 2001.
IBS would raze the older
6,000-square-foot section and remodel the newer 12,000-square-foot section.
The firm also would construct
24,000 square feet, according to Roberts, giving the facility a total of 36,000
square feet.
After subtracting staircases,
heating and air conditioning rooms and other areas, the building would have
32,900 “usable” square feet.
That’s the amount sought by
DGS.
The building plan was
designed by Ganflec Architects and Engineers of Camp Hill.
IBS would keep the
firestation’s 24 parking spaces and use the six adjoining sites to provide 232
more, for a total of 256.
The need to create parking
would trigger the demolition of a Front Street house built in 1808, noted
Christopher Vera.
Vera, president of the
Columbia Historic Preservation Societ, expressed “concern” over the potential
loss of the house.
But he said it’s acceptable
because the state project would be so positive for the borough and the region.
“This would be a great thing
for Columbia,” he said. “You have to go forward.”
Vera said there’s been no discussion of moving
the two-story house to preserve it.
He explained that its stone
base would make a move extremely challenging and expensive, costing perhaps
$100,000.
Sulkosky said the call center
would have a profound benefit for the borough and Columbia School District,
especially by boosting property-tax revenue.
The firestation site, owned
by the borough, is tax exempt. The borough is leasing the land to the fire
company for $1 a year. IBS would pay property taxes.
The arrival of DPW employees
would be good news too, since they would pay earned income tax, buy houses and
patronize local businesses, observed Sulkosky.
Roberts, of Newport, Perry
County, has been a developer in Lancaster County for years.
His projects include creating
the Turkey Hill Experience in a vacant Columbia silk mill, renovating the
former fire and police station in downtown Lancaster into office and retail
space, and creating a headquarters for Eastern Insurance out of a former
Hamilton Watch warehouse on Race Avenue.
Source: Lancasteronline
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