York's Redevelopment Authority on Wednesday approved a
60-day option for a Mechanicsburg real estate development firm to explore
buying the Citizens Bank building on Continental Square and two York apartment
buildings, including the Pullman apartments.
Brickbox Enterprises wants to redevelop the former
Citizens Bank branch into a restaurant-bar, up to 10 residential units and
gallery space for local artists, Derek Dilks, Brickbox's vice president of
property development, told the RDA board at its meeting Wednesday. The company
also wants to acquire from the RDA the 22-unit Pullman apartment building at
238 N. George St. and the 44-unit Elm Terrace Apartments at 450 Madison Ave.
Brickbox is offering $1.03 million for the three
buildings, including $178,000 for the Citizens Bank building. The company paid
just more than $10,000 for the option, which gives it 60 days to perform due
diligence in order to decide whether to go forward with a purchase of the three
buildings.
Brickbox won out over a competing bid from businessmen
Thaddeus Shaw and Ryan Davis who offered $800,000 for the Citizens Bank and
Pullman buildings. The two wanted to redevelop the Citizens Bank building into
a "cyber integration center" with classroom space for training people
for high-tech jobs. The project would bring students and others to downtown
York, Shaw and Davis said.
Dilks said his preference would be to turn the Pullman
into condominiums. Market demand would determine whether the company would sell
the units as condominiums or keep them as rental apartments, Dilks said. If the
building were converted to condos, current tenants would get the first
opportunity to buy them, he said. Brickbox might provide some form of
relocation assistance or subsidy to help affected tenants, Dilks said.
As for the Citizens Bank building, Dilks said he has
already talked to one restaurant, which he declined to identify, about opening
there.
The Redevelopment Authority purchased the former bank
building earlier this year for $515,000 from a unit of Inland Real Estate of
Companies. Selling the property would return it to the tax rolls and bring in
tenants that would hire employees and bring visitors who would spend money in
the city.
The Citizens Bank building would not be the first
commercial property Brickbox has converted into residential. The company
redeveloped an office building in downtown Harrisburg into the 42-unit Lux
condominiums. One-bedroom units there are priced for between $89,000 and
$225,000 and average $150,000. If Brickbox decides to develop condominiums in
York, they would likely sell in the range of $75,000 to $125,000, Dilks said.
In other news, the Redevelopment Authority on Wednesday
approved an agreement enabling Royal Square Development to proceed with
redeveloping the building on South Duke Street that formerly housed Allison's
bar.
Royal Square Development plans to bring a restaurant into
space on the ground floor. Royal Square Development's Joshua Hankey declined to
say which restaurant group the company is talking with about moving into the
space.
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