Erie Progress 2019

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ERIE 2019 OUR MARQUEE MOMENT

OUR ANNUAL ECONOMIC REPORT FEB. 17, 2019

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Kevin Berdis sets a concrete block in place on a stairwell wall he was building in October at the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel that is under construction on Erie’s bayfront.

The $20 million, eight-story hotel is part of the first phase of Scott Enterprises’ $160 million Harbor Place bayfront development. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

ERIE’S TIME: SEIZING THE MOMENT

By Jim Martin

jmartin@timesnews.com

“T

his is our time.”

Words to that effect became a rallying cry for Erie during 2018.

Erie Mayor Joe Schember, Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper and Erie Insurance CEO Tim NeCastro have all expressed this seize-the-day sentiment over the last year.

And when the Erie Community Foundation held its annual meeting in June, the group announced the event under the headline: “Our time is now.”

The suggestion seems clear.

Erie is a community-focused, perhaps as never before, on reinventing itself. It is working to preserve a still-strong manufacturing base while attempting to build something new— a smart city centered on cybersecurity and a downtown built around the creation of new housing units, commercial development and, equally important, activity.

We’ve dreamed big dreams before.

But aspirations have a way of changing. Five years ago found these pages focused on the promise of the Erie Inland Project, a concept built on the idea of capitalizing on Erie’s strengths — its port, its highways, railroads, natural gas and water.

The idea failed in headline-grabbing fashion.

It is easy to find fault in hindsight, but the concept of the port captured the imagination of a community eager to build something on a foundation that already was in place.

Today, as these words are written, the focus of our collective dreams seems to have shifted.

The beginning of 2019 finds Erie bent on rebuilding its core, building this time on a different set of assets, including the strength of some big investments by large corporations and a network of universities that have signaled an interest in playing a role in an economic rebirth.

The past year could one day be seen as having a series of notable milestones, or— at the very least — ambitious attempts to rewrite the narrative of a community that’s been in decline.

Here’s a look at some highlights of 2018: • Work continued on a $115 million emergency department and new operating rooms at Saint Vincent Hospital; and Erie Insurance moved

Karl Sanchack, left, CEO of the Erie Innovation District, and Joel Deuterman, Velocity Network CEO, stand on the third floor of a facility that the Erie Innovation District and Velocity Network now share. [JIM MARTIN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Pete Zaphiris, owner of Great Lakes Insurance Co. in Erie, is in the process of renovating the former Metropolitan Club, 144 W. 13th St. Zaphiris plans to create at least 16 apartments in the 33,000 square-foot building, which was built around 1920. The work is part of a larger redevelopment plan that will take at least three years to complete. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

ahead with its $135 million downtown office building.

• The Erie Downtown Development Corp. became something more than an idea. The EDDC hired a staff of three, assembled an equity fund of nearly $30 million and made its first real estate investment, paying $2.95 million for properties along State Street and North Park Row. • The Erie Innovation District, backed by Mercyhurst University began its quest to make Erie a magnet for high-tech talent. The Innovation District sponsored its first accelerator program, attracting nine technology-based upstart companies from around the world.

Five of those companies have decided to put down roots in Erie.

• Gannon University announced it will launch two new majors in cyber-engineering and cybersecurity and transform the six-story former Verizon building into laboratories and classroom space where students will learn about hacking and cybersecurity. The building will also provide space for commercial tenants.

• Velocity Network moved into a newly renovated state-of-the-art building at 121 W. 10th St., where the company is now renting space to the Erie Innovation District.

• Robert Graham announced the

Spirit of Erie Fund, which is aimed at raising $10 million to $15 million to invest in early-stage Erie businesses.

• Pete Zaphiris, owner of Eriebased Great Lakes Insurance Services Group, has assembled a series of properties along West 12th Street, including the Citizens Bank Building, the former Metropolitan Dance Club and the former Erie General Tire. He plans to invest millions of dollars in a development that he hopes will bring new housing and commercial tenants to West 12th Street.

• The Erie Community Foundation said it would make $15 million in new gifts and endowment income available as part of a broader plan to invest $30 million over the next five years to help transform the local economy.

•The Northwest Pennsylvania Innovation Beehive Network, which includes all four universities in Erie County, is offering its expertise in different facets of business development. So far, the universities have worked with more than 100 clients and drafted more than 100 business plans.

• Hero BX opened a $ 1 million lab at the Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Center at Penn State Behrend’s Knowledge Park.

• It was also a year for grand openings and groundbreakings.

Both Penn State Behrend and Mercyhurst University opened expansive new residence halls.

Meanwhile, work began on the new $111 million UPMC Hamot patient tower as well as Scott Enterprises’ new Bayfront hotel that figures to be part of the sprawling $160 million Harbor Place development.

A strong performance

In a year of growth for the national economy, Erie’s economy seemed to reflect that strength.

Business boomed for Eriez Manufacturing, while the growth continued at Viking Plastics in Corry. Smith Provision Co. made more hot dogs than ever.

Perhaps nowhere was the growth more pronounced than at Lord Corp., which crafted an enviable timeline of accomplishments over just the past year.

In 12 months time, the company announced an expansion of its Cambridge Springs plant, signed a contract with Boeing that is the largest in the company’s history, See TIME, K4

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Region’s economic indicators

Service employment

Service industries include fast food, banking, insurance and other jobs.

A brief look at the state of Erie County and Crawford County.

Gross domestic product

105,000

in December

The verdict:

Manufacturing Erie County: 18,600 employment Manufacturing remains a key employment sector.

Erie County: $11.14 billion in 2017, up from $11.08 billion in 2016.

The verdict:

Erie County:

in December

Crawford County: 7,400

in December

A slight increase means the economy is growing

The verdict:

Down from 18,800 in December 2017 Unchanged from December 2017

Manufacturing jobs are not growing in Erie region.

Unemployment Employment is one of the most important indicators of economic well-being.

The verdict:

Erie County:

4.7%

Down from 5.5 percent a year earlier.

Crawford Down from County: 5.4 percent.

4.7%

Crawford County: 22,000

in December

Bankruptcy filings, all chapters

Western District of Pennsylvania, including court in Erie Third quarter of 2018: 1,795, down from 1,811 in third quarter of 2017.

The verdict:

Erie County: Fourth quarter, 2019: $138,333, up from $136,833 a year earlier Rising home values is good news for home owners.

Unchanged from December 2017.

The verdict:

Unemployment rates are down.

Average home sale price

The verdict:

Down from 106,300 in December 2017.

Fewer bankruptcies is a sign of economic health.

Gasoline prices Park visitors Visitors help drive local tourism.

Presque Isle State Park attendance in 2018: 3.7 million

Down from 4.09 million in 2017.

The verdict:

Lower attendance means fewer tourists visiting Erie.

Flights

The number of people boarding planes at Erie International Airport is a reflection of business and leisure travel.

The verdict:

Sources: Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, AAA, Presque Isle State Park, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Erie International Airport and the Greater Erie Board of Realtors.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in Erie was $2.48 as of Feb. 1, down from $2.82 a year earlier.

Erie International Airport in 2017: 95,136 Up from 85,580 in 2017.

More flights is good news for the local airport.

The verdict:

Lower prices mean our dollars go further.

GATEHOUSE MEDIA

TIME From Page K2

kicked off an $80 million expansion of its Saegertown plant and, most recently, announced the company had surpassed $1 billion in annual revenues.

But the forces of the economy, it seemed, could not reverse history at General Electric, where financial woes forced the once-great conglomerate to unload its long profitable locomotive manufacturing business.

Some are hopeful about the future of GE Transportation under new leadership.

In a broader sense, Ken Louie, professor of economics at Penn State Behrend and director of the Economic Research Institute of Erie at Behrend, said he doesn’t expect manufacturing will ever reclaim the status it once held in Erie.

When Louie arrived in Erie in 1984, more than 36,000 people worked in manufacturing, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry. Today, 18,600 make things in our factories and shops.

“It’s been rather discouraging over the course of my career to see the steady loss of high-paying jobs,” Louie said.

But recent events, including work to cultivate Erie as a cybersecurity center and the development of the Erie Innovation District, have him feeling optimistic.

“It takes a lot of hard work and there is no guarantee of success,” Louie said. “But if we can sustain it, and if these really take root, I think we are set.”

Rob Lavin, at right, welcomes guests to the Security Operations Center at the new Cyber Education Center at Mercyhurst University on Aug. 2. Lavin works for Cleveland cyber security firm MCPc and is supervisor of the SOC, which employs Mercyhurst students.

‘This is our time’ So what is it that locals mean when they say, “This is our time?”

There is more than one answer to that question.

For Tim NeCastro, CEO of Erie Insurance, it means handing the mantle of responsibility from one generation to the next.

“There is a generation of people who have done a lot for this community,” he said. “It is their time to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

It’s my generation’s time to follow those great footsteps.”

And what does NeCastro see the leaders of his generation doing with this opportunity?

“I think we are going to see unprecedented — at least over the last 25 years — recovery, community stabilization and improved quality of life for everyone in Erie,” he said.

On the heels of a good year for the economy— and a year filled with activity in Erie, local leaders caution that Erie has made strides, but still has a long way to go.

“I want to make sure that people know we still have a lot of work to do.

Change does not happen overnight,” said John

Persinger, CEO of the EDDC. “We are not going after small wins or lowhanging fruit. We signed up for transformational work. That process is going to take time.”

Persinger said recently that he expects it will take the EDDC five years to finish work in its 12-block footprint. But if his group succeeds, the change will be dramatic. The EDDC has a stated goal of developing 750 market-rate housing units.

Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper remembers feeling hopeful that the Inland Port project would yield results.

But she’s feeling more optimistic about the current wave of technology- and real estate-focused initiatives, coupled with the early leadership Erie has shown in the area of federal Opportunity Zones, which the legislature envisioned as a tax-advantaged way to attract investments to low-income areas.

She especially likes that so many more people are involved and are working together this time around.

Dahlkemper said she thinks Erie County is also in a better position to attract outside interest

Walter Iwanenko Jr. shows off the sixth floor of the Knight Tower, 131 W. Ninth St. in Erie. In November, Gannon University announced a new cybersecurity education program. The Institute for Health and Cyber Knowledge or, IHACK, will be housed at the six-story Knight Tower. [PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

with exposure created by its new data center that allows visitors to quickly learn about Erie and what it has to offer.

Like other local leaders, Dahlkemper said she believes Erie is on to something.

“We are in the very early stages of a lot of this work, but I think that this is big,” she said.

James Grunke thought Erie had a bright future when he came here last year to serve as the CEO of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership.

The realities on the ground and some cold winter days have done nothing to shake that enthusiasm, he said.

“I think we are going to be successful in building a successful and robust economic development effort,” he said.

Grunke doesn’t mince words. That’s going to take money, perhaps a substantial amount.

He said: “2019 is very much going to be a bridge year for us as we organize and build the structure to fund this.

That is going to take most of the year. “ The scope of the work Erie decides to tackle will determine the amount of money needed. Grunke said he believes Erie should and will step up its game at a time when so many other efforts are moving forward.

“This is what we need to do,” he said.

The list of efforts to lift up Erie, some of them detailed in the pages of this publication, seems to be getting longer all the time.

Some argue that the key is agreeing on priorities and working together. Others suggest that good things will happen as long as we’re all working.

And that might just be the key.

Talk to a few dozen local people who are taking leadership roles or investing in Erie and a common theme emerges: There is a feeling that something good is going to happen in Erie and that they want to be part of it.

We heard it from

Hannah Kirby when she left her job as an engineer to open Ember + Forge, her State Street coffee shop.

We heard it from Gannon University President Keith Taylor when he announced the multimillion investment in a new cybersecurity initiative.

We heard it from the Plastek Group when it pledged $2.5 million to the EDDC’s Erie Equity Fund.

And we heard it from Erie insurance agency owner and businessman Pete Zaphiris when he talked about investing millions of dollars along West 12th Street to develop an office building, apartments and commercial space.

“It’s because I believe in Erie,” he said in a November interview.

“I think Erie is ready to make a monumental change.”

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNMartin.

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Medical marijuana brings jobs to region

By David Bruce david.bruce@timesnews.com

M

edical marijuana is a growing business in Erie.

Calypso Enterprises is preparing to open its growing and processing facility on May 1 at 910 Downing Ave. Calypso, led by Erie businessman Samuel “Pat” Black, will employ up to 30 people at that point and plans to hire a total of 65 within the next two years.

Rise Erie, the region’s first medical marijuana dispensary, began selling its products to customers in April.

The business, located at 2108 W. Eighth St., currently employs 15 people and officials said they might hire one or two more employees in the near future.

“We have been seeing increased sales since we opened,” said Tim Hawkins, president of Rise Erie’s parent company, GTI of Pennsylvania. “There is a need for this product in the Erie region.”

Medical marijuana became legal in Pennsylvania after Gov. Tom Wolf signed the Medical Marijuana Act in April 2017. Rise Erie and Calypso each went through an extensive licensing process to be

able to receive permits to operate.

Legalizing medical marijuana has allowed people with any of 21 diseases or medical conditions to buy the flowers, ointments, vaping liquids, creams and pills as long as they have a medical marijuana identity card from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The economic impact has also been felt.

More than 1,500 people applied for Calypso’s first 20 job postings.

“A lot of people are interested in the long hours and hard work involved in getting a company off the ground,” said Laura Guncheon, vice president of the project management office at Erie Management Group, which includes Calypso.

That includes people with connections to northwestern Pennsylvania. All six managers Calypso hired through mid-December have ties to Erie, including General Manager Adam Montanye — who has worked in Erie’s retail industry for the past 20 years.

“We found our general manager here and we even found our cultivation manager in Erie,” Guncheon

Rise Erie, the region’s first medical marijuana dispensary, began selling its products to customers in April 2018. The business, located at 2108 W. Eighth St. in Erie, employs 15 people and officials said they might hire one or two more employees in the near future. [PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

said in December. “We didn’t know if we could find anyone with cannabis experience here but the Erie person we found had experience with a company in California.”

Guncheon said the company is looking to hire more local people.

Calypso has attended several area job fairs, including ones at the JFK Center, Booker T. Washington Center, MLK Center and Boys & Girls Club.

Calypso is also using local contractors to build its $14.5

million facility. The 51,200-square-foot building will be used for growing and processing marijuana plants, security and administration.

Rise Erie also has made an impact on other local businesses.

Two medical offices opened in 2018 that specialize in certifying people for the medical marijuana ID card.

Compassionate Certification Centers is located across the street from Rise Erie at 2063 W. Eighth St., and PA Green Medical is located at 5050 W.

Ridge Road in Millcreek Township.

“We also order all of our employee uniforms from Iron Empire, which is an Erie business,” Hawkins said.

“We plan to use them for some uniforms for all of our dispensaries in Pennsylvania. We have four dispensaries that will open by the end of 2019 and we plan to have up to 15.”

David Bruce can be reached at 870-1736 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNbruce.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health now approves medical marijuana for treating 21 diseases and conditions: • Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis • Autism • Cancer • Crohn’s disease • Damage to the nervous tissue of the central nervous system and other associated neuropathies • Dyskinetic and spastic movement disorders • Epilepsy • Glaucoma • HIV/AIDS • Huntington’s disease • Inflammatory bowel disease • Intractable seizures • Multiple sclerosis • Neurodegenerative diseases • Neuropathies • Opioid use disorder • Parkinson’s disease • Post-traumatic stress disorder • Chronic pain • Sickle cell anemia • Terminal illness

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Erie Insurance is top employer, surpassing GE

In shift, restaurants now rank as dominant sector

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

N

ot a single restaurant ranks among Erie County's top 50 employers, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry.

But as a group, restaurants and eating places — from small mom-and-pop diners to upscale eateries and ballpark concession stands— rank as Erie County's No. 1 employment sector based on total number of employees, both full- and part-time.

In other words, more of us work in the restaurant industry than in any other part of the economy.

It might not seem like progress in a community once dominated by family-sustaining manufacturing jobs, but statistics suggest it's at least part of our changing reality.

The state Labor Department offers a couple of different ways to look at where we work, listing both the top 50 employers by county and the top 50 employment sectors.

This year, for the first time in memory, Erie County's list of top employers is led

by Erie Insurance, not General Electric, parent company of GE Transportation.

GE Transportation, due to merge by the end of February with Wabtec Corp., has about 2,500 Erie-based employees.

Erie Insurance has about 3,600 Erie-based employees and continues to grow.

Rounding out the top 10 employers are two hospitals, three forms of government — state, federal and county — Walmart, the Erie School District and the Barber National Center.

Crawford County's list of top employers was led by Meadville Medical Center, followed by state and county government, Crawford Central School District and Allegheny College.

While Erie County has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in recent years, manufacturing employment in Crawford County has been relatively unchanged.

Only three manufacturers appear among the top 20 employers in Erie County, but six make the list in Crawford County.

One of those companies, Lord Corp., ranks as Crawford County's 14th largest employer and as the 19th largest in Erie County.

Plastics product manufacturing ranks as the No. 5 sector in Erie County, while railroad rolling stock manufacturing ranks as No. 11.

No other manufacturing sectors crack the top 20 in Erie County.

It's a different picture in Crawford County, where metalworking machinery manufacturing is the fourth most common employment category in a county where there are five manufacturing sectors among the top 20.

Beyond the list of the top employers and the top employment sectors,

FAST FACT

The top 50 rankings don't tell the whole story.

Scott Enterprises Inc., for instance, doesn't rank among Erie County's top 50 employers, but if the employees from its individual restaurants, hotels and Splash Lagoon Indoor Water Park were added together, the company would easily rank among Erie's 15 largest employers.

Ken Louie, professor of economics at Penn State Behrend and director of Economic Research Institue at Behrend, sees a broader shift as the local economy continues to move away from manufacturing and toward greater diversity.

For now, he said, manufacturing accounts for more than $2 billion, or fully one-fifth of Erie's gross domestic product.

But in real, inflation-adjusted terms, manufacturing output is declining, falling 25 percent in Erie County between 2001 and 2017, Louie said.

As of now, manufacturing remains the biggest single contributor to the local economy.

But with the continued growth of the health care sector — which has expanded 30 percent since 2001 — "in the not-so-distant future we are likely to see health care take over," he said.

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNMartin.

Erie County

Top employers for first quarter, 2018 Rank

Employer

Rank

Employer

1

Erie Indemnity Co

26

Infinity Resources Inc

2

General Electric Company

27

Wegmans Food Markets Inc

3

UPMC Hamot

28

Erie Homes for Children & Adults

4

Saint Vincent Health Center

29

Dr. Gertrude A. Barber in Home Services

5

State Government

30

Erie County Convention Center Auth

6

Wal-Mart Associates Inc

31

The Tamarkin Company

7

School District of the City of Erie

32

Saint Mary’s Home of Erie

8

Federal Government

33

Port Erie Plastics Inc

9

Barber National Center

34

General McLane School District

10

Erie County

35

Career Concepts Staffing Services Inc

11

Regional Health Services Inc

36

Presbyterian Senior Care

12

Millcreek Township School District

37

Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine

13

Pennsylvania State University

38

Bay Valley Foods LLC

14

Gannon University

39

Associated Clinical Laboratories LP

15

Country Fair Inc

40

Sarah A Reed Children's Center

16

PA State System of Higher Education

41

Stairways Behavioral Health

17

Presque Isle Downs Inc

42

Pleasant Ridge Manor

18

Plastek Industries Inc

43

Fort LeBoeuf School District

19

Lord Corporation

44

Lowe’s Home Centers LLC

20

City of Erie

45

Welch Foods Inc

21

Mercyhurst University

46

Harbor Creek School District

22

Saint Vincent Med Ed & Research Inst

47

Northwest Tri-County Int Unit

23

YMCA of Greater Erie

48

Metz Culinary Management Inc

24

Millcreek Community Hospital

49

Lakeshore Community Services Inc

25

Voices for Independence

50

C A Curtze Company

Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages

GATEHOUSE MEDIA

Crawford County Top employers for first quarter, 2018 Rank

Employer

1

Meadville Medical Center

Rank 26

Employer J M Manufacturing Company Inc

2

State Government

27

Molded Fiber Glass Companies

3

Crawford County

28

Pipeline Systems Inc

4

Crawford Central School District

29

MacLean-Fogg Company

5

Allegheny College

30

YMCA of Meadville

6

Wal-Mart Associates Inc

31

Career Concepts Staffing Services Inc

7

Acutec Precision Machining Inc

32

Park Avenue Rehab Center LLC

8

Ainsworth Pet Nutrition LLC

33

BSI Financial Services

9

Penncrest School District

34

Bethesda Children’s Home

10

Wesbury United Methodist Community

35

Prism Plastics Inc

11

Greenleaf Corporation

36

Home Depot USA Inc

12

Channellock Inc

37

City of Meadville

13

C&J Industries Inc

38

Metz Culinary Management Inc

14

Lord Corporation

39

Leech Industries Inc

15

The Arc Crawford Warren and Forest

40

AC School Services Inc

16

Meadville Forging Company Inc

41

Eat’n Park Hospitality Group

17

Titusville Area School District

42

Harrington Management Inc

18

Conneaut School District

43

Fluid Delivery Solutions LLC

19

Federal Government

44

Fast Food Enterprises 3

20

Rolling Fields Inc

45

Hazlett Tree Service Inc

21

Advanced Cast Products Inc

46

Dolgencorp LLC

22

Pittsburgh Glass Works LLC

47

CBOCS Pennsylvania LLC

23

Titusville Hospital

48

Baillie Lumber Co L P

24

Universal Pressure Pumping Inc

49

Meadville Giant Eagle

25

Viking Tool & Gage Inc

50

Titusville Healthcare and Rehabilit

Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages

GATEHOUSE MEDIA

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Erie casino doubles down Ownership change highlights big year for Presque Isle Downs & Casino

By Matthew Rink matthew.rink@timesnews.com

I

f 2018 was any indicator, more big developments could be on the horizon for Presque Isle Downs & Casino, which started last year with a new general manager and ended it with a new owner.

"2019 has already seen a lot of developments and we’re just a month into the new year," Kevin O'Sullivan, general manager, said.

"Since Jan. 11, when the transaction closed with Churchill Downs Inc., we've rebranded our upstairs restaurant to Churchill’s Bourbon & Brew Bar and Grille. And we just launched our new Presque Isle Downs and Casino Players Club."

The Summit Township racino is preparing to launch its own sports book — a move made possible by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the spring of 2017 and the preemptive action of state lawmakers who legalized sports betting in Pennsylvania in the fall of 2017 in anticipation of that court decision.

Here's a look at some of the changes and developments that happened in 2018 at Presque Isle Downs & Casino.

A new leader A year ago, the South Africa-born O'Sullivan was named general manager of Presque Isle Downs & Casino,

succeedingJeff Favre, brother of Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.

O'Sullivan, 59,joined Eldorado Resorts in 2012 as the senior director of operations for Scioto Downs in Columbus, Ohio. After a stint at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort in West Virginia, he came to Presque Isle Downs & Casino as an assistant general manager, overseeing table games, slots, player development, security, maintenance and food and beverage operations.

The sale Weeks after O'Sullivan was named general manager, Eldorado Resorts announced it had reached a deal to sell the casino to Churchill Downs for $178.9 million.

The sale was made official in early January following a series of license transfers granted by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Originally, the deal was supposed to include Eldorado's Lady Luck Casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi, for an additional $50.6 million, but that was scrapped in July due to anti-trust concerns.

Instead, Churchill Downs assumed the operations of Eldorado's Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin in Farmington, Pennsylvania.

The Gaming Control Board gave preliminary approval to the sale in

PRESQUE ISLE DOWNS & CASINO:

BY THE NUMBERS $178.9 million: Amount Churchill Downs paid to acquire casino from Eldorado Resorts.

800: Number of employees.

1,597: Slot machines. $115.5 million: Gross terminal revenue from slot machines in the 2018 calendar year.

40: Table games. $14.5 million: Table game revenue for the 2018 calendar year.

August in exchange for a change-of-control fee of $3.75 million.

Presque Isle Downs & Casino opened in February 2007 under MTR Gaming. In 2014, MTR Gaming merged with Eldorado Resorts.

Sports betting In November, the Gaming Control Board granted Presque Isle Downs & Casino an interactive-gaming certificate, allowing it to offer non-peer-topeer interactive online games that simulate table games and slot machines. It will operate online gaming under the brand BetAmerica.

"I-gaming has the potential to be a strong revenue stream for our property, which will also benefit our county through gaming taxes," O'Sullivan said. "Although you can’t beat the bricks and mortar for the

Kevin O’Sullivan, 59, was named vice president and general manager of Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Summit Township in 2018, replacing Jeff Favre. O’Sullivan is overseeing several changes at the casino, including a change of ownership from Eldorado Resorts to Churchill Downs. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

entertainment environment that people enjoy while on property, I do feel that this will be a positive addition.

Besides, you can’t get your free burger sitting in your living room on your computer."

Though Presque Isle Downs officials did not provide a launch date to the Gaming Control Board at the time the certificate was granted, a Gaming Control Board official said that casinos with interactive-gaming certificates are expected to start online gaming no sooner than early 2019.

It was Presque Isle Downs & Casino's first foray into new forms of gaming that state legislators approved in 2017. The second came in early December

when the casino applied for a license to have sports betting at both the casino itself and online. This month, it became the fifth casino in Pennsylvania to be granted a certificate for sports betting.

The casino plans to offer sports wagering on everything from football to cricket and from darts to rowing, on both professional and (in some cases) collegiate levels.

O'Sullivan said Churchill Downs brings expertise to the table when it comes to interactive gaming and sports betting.

"They have tremendous knowledge, not only in regards to racing but also with online wagering through their

Twinspires platform advance-deposit wagering service," he said. "They’ve also implemented sports wagering in two of their Mississippi properties and have a partnership with a casino in Atlantic City to facilitate their sports wagering as well.

Their expertise and knowledge will certainly assist us as we enter this next phase of gaming at Presque Isle Downs."

Eatery overhaul O'Sullivan touted a menu makeover at the casino's LBV Steakhouse when a who's who of business leaders and elected officials gathered for a See GAMING, K10

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Merger brings hope for new start

By Jim Martin

jim.martin@timesnews.com

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all it a merger.

Call it a sale.

Whatever name we put to it, a long era in Erie history is due to come to an end soon as a wounded General Electric Co. unloads GE Transportation, a business based in Erie for its first 100 years.

Men and women in Erie developed and built thousands of locomotives, sent kits around the world to build more of them, crafted components for off-highway trucks and wind turbines and represented the core of a business that accounted for a staggering share of the local economy.

The buildings, the machinery, the land— and the future of about 2,500 Erie-based employees— is expected to be in new hands by the end of February as GE Transportation becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Wabtec Corp.

It is a significant change where tens of thousands of people have worked over the generations for General Electric.

GAMING From Page K9

meet-and- greet with him last year. It included new, affordable specials aimed at drawing new customers.

Another eatery, Brew Brothers, which opened in 2016 following the renovation of a second-floor clubhouse and the addition of an

But it’s a change that’s come quietly for most of the community.

After years of uncertainty, the loss of thousands of jobs, the loss of headquarters status to Chicago and the creation of what was billed as an overflow locomotive plant in Fort Worth, Texas, some are ready to see someone else at the helm.

Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper, whose father worked in finance at the company, began looking forward from the moment she heard about the Wabtec merger.

“The GE of the past has been gone for a long time,” she said. “The GE of today is not the GE my father worked for. I think he would have been dismayed.”

In a community that’s relied so heavily on GE for so long, hope that new ownership might bring better times is a surprisingly common sentiment.

Just a few weeks ago, Gerri Newara, president of the Greater Erie Board of Realtors, said she believed there was a new sense of hope in Erie as

the community contemplated new ownership.

Scott Slawson, president of Local 506 of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America at GE Transportation, has expressed a similar sentiment on more than one occasion.

When the merger was first announced, Slawson said: “I think we always look at this in a positive light. At this point, we have no reason to look at this any differently.”

Wabtec recently announced plans to conclude the merger on Feb. 25.

Slawson did relay a message through an Erie Times-News story in late December that he would propose a one-year extension of the existing contract with the union.

The company recently reached out to the local union to begin talks.

Wabtec has not responded to calls or emails from the Erie Times-News.

As the merger date draws near, perhaps it is easy or at least convenient to forget the good General Electric did for Erie, from the $15 million the GE

escalator, not only got a new menu, but also a new name. Brew Brothers is a trademark of former owner Eldorado Resorts, so the name could no longer be used. The place is now called Churchill's Bourbon & Brew Bar & Grille and features items like burnt steak ends, nachos, Nashville chicken, wings, sandwiches, loaded potatoes, meatloaf and pizza.

New revenue Through the first half of the 2018-2019 fiscal year, (July through December) the casino was on pace to record more slot machine revenue than in the two previous years and more table game revenue than last fiscal year. Through six months, slot revenue was $57.5 million, while table game revenue was $7.1 million.

For the calendar year,

The future of about 2,500 Eriebased employees is expected to be in new hands by the end of February.

Locomotives can be seen in a rail yard at GE Transportation in Lawrence Park Township on May 21, 2018. GE Transportation, based in Erie for most of its 110 years, is merging with Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE FILE PHOTO/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Foundation gave to the Erie School District to the opportunities provided to thousands of employees and hundreds of companies who did business with the industrial giant.

Slawson said no small number of long-term employees have decided that after working for years as General Electric employees that they will retire as GE employees.

A new group of retirees is announced every week, said Slawson, whose union represents an active workforce of about 1,600.

For many others,

though, recent years have brought more bad news than good.

For some, like Ron Flowers, president of the Retirees Association of General Electric, concerns center on cuts to retiree health care benefits, the falling value of the company stock and slashing quarterly dividends. For 3,000 others, the last few years have brought lost jobs and the threat of further cuts.

Slawson said there is some anxiety associated with the change. But for the most part, he said

that he believes the mood of the workforce matches the feeling of a community that's ready to turn the page.

"We have been sailing into the unknown for the last eight years since 2011 when they (GE) announced the Fort Worth facility," Slawson said. "The problem is when you have nothing but negative coming at you, eventually you get immune to it. This is a fresh start with a new employer. I think that's how a lot of people are viewing it."

slot revenue was $115.5 million and table game revenue was just under $14.5 million.

The casino has seen a drop off in overall revenue since 2012-2013, a period that coincided with the opening of several casinos in neighboring Ohio, where voters legalized gambling in 2009.

Where Presque Isle Downs & Casino made its largest gains was on the Tapeta-surface racetrack, where in its 11th

full season of thoroughbred racing it surpassed its total 2017 handle by more than $11 million.

Its off-track handle, a record $78.1 million, paired with $4.9 million of live on-track and state handle for a total handle of $83 million, which was an increase of 15.5 percent over 2017's handle of nearly $72 million.

O'Sullivan said there's a renewed interest in gaming.

"Gaming did see an

uptick in Pennsylvania during 2018," he said. "A lot of that has to do with the expanded gaming opportunities that were passed not just in Pennsylvania but nationwide.

The legalization of sports betting and I-gaming sparked a lot of interest in casino gambling."

Matthew Rink can be reached at 870-1884 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.

Twitter.com/ETNrink

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

Construction continues Jan. 29 on the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute at Saint Vincent. [PHOTOS BY JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Hospitals undergo major expansions, renovations Our two largest hospitals each have $100 million-plus projects underway

By David Bruce david.bruce@timesnews.com

S

aint Vincent Hospital President Chris Clark, D.O., plans to attend so many ribbon-cutting ceremonies in 2019 that he should keep a pair of oversized scissors in his office.

Over the next 11 months, the Erie hospital plans to open its renovated women’s and infants unit, Health + Wellness Pavilion East Side, a new emergency department, expanded operating rooms and the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute at Saint Vincent.

“It seems like every season we will be completing one of our major projects,” Clark said.

“Altogether, the cost is $130 million.”

Saint Vincent isn’t the only Erie hospital undergoing massive expansion in 2019.

UPMC Hamot is building a $111 million, seven-story patient tower where the UPMC Hamot Professional Building used to stand at 104 E. Second St. — the largest single construction project in the hospital’s history.

It will also renovate the current Regional Cancer Center building at 2500 W. 12th St. and relocate all of its outpatient cancer services there.

The construction is taking place as a consent decree between the hospitals’ parent organizations, Highmark and UPMC, is set to expire June 30. After that date, most people with Highmark or UPMC Health Plan insurance will not have in-network coverage at most, if not all, of the other health system’s hospitals and physician offices.

It would appear that each hospital is undergoing monumental expansions in an effort to draw more patients to their respective health system.

Hamot President David Gibbons said competition plays a role but the main reason for his hospital’s construction is to accommodate new medical services.

“We have added or are adding many new services: kidney transplants, neurological expansion, a comprehensive stroke center, the addition of cardiac surgeons and cardiologists, and cardiac MRI,” Gibbons said. “We want to keep patients local and adding these services requires the expansion.”

Hamot’s new patient tower will house 22 intensive care unit beds, increasing the hospital’s total number of ICU

Candra Downs of Millcreek Township, left, receives a chemotherapy treatment at UPMC Hamot’s infusion center with the help of Donelle Akin, an oncology certified registered nurse.

beds to 64. The tower will also include space for Hamot’s expanded emergency and medical imaging departments.

About two floors will be left vacant for future growth, Gibbons said.

“We didn’t want to be in the position, say, two years from now that we need to build two additional floors to the tower,” Gibbons said.

“Since there are ICU beds in the tower, you can’t really have construction going on above them due to all the sensitive medical equipment being used.”

Saint Vincent’s expansion will increase its number of emergency treatment bays from 36 to 45 and add four operating rooms, Clark said.

“Our new ORs are designed for joint replacement and the equipment needed to perform them,” Clark said. “These are stateof-the-art ORs.” The competition for cancer patients will begin in earnest in late 2018 or early 2019 when Saint Vincent opens its $25.6 million cancer center at the intersection of West 25th and Myrtle streets. The RCC, a joint venture created

by Hamot and Saint Vincent in 1987, will officially close and the building will house the Hillman Cancer Center at UPMC Hamot after $7.6 million worth of renovations.

Gibbons and Clark both said that having two cancer centers in Erie will not result in unnecessarily duplicative cancer services.

“We know right now that patients are traveling out of town for cancer services that we will provide here at Saint Vincent,” Clark said.

“Procedures like stereotactic radiosurgery for

BY THE NUMBERS Here is a look at how current renovation and expansion projects will change UPMC Hamot and Saint Vincent Hospital: Number of intensive care unit beds at Hamot will increase: 42 to 64 Number of emergency room bays at Saint Vincent will increase: 36 to 45 Number of infusion bays at Saint Vincent will increase: 16 to 20 Number of infusion bays at UPMC Hamot will increase: 14 to 24 Sources: Saint Vincent Hospital, UPMC Hamot

brain tumors.”

“Patients will have access to more clinical trials through the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center than they do right now at the RCC,” Gibbons said.

Hamot and Saint Vincent aren’t the only hospitals undergoing significant renovations and expansions. Erie Veterans Affairs Medical Center is in the midst of projects that date back to 2008 and will continue through the end of the year under a five-year, $35 million plan.

Construction continues on a 22-room Community Living Center, which is scheduled to open this spring and house veterans who currently live in the hospital. Workers are also converting the hospital’s third-floor operating rooms into a new, expanded dental clinic, and the hospital’s new entrance will open on West 38th Street after a traffic light is installed this spring.

David Bruce can be reached at 870-1736 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNbruce.

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ERIE 2019: POSITIVE SIGNS

LEADING FROM THE TOP Erie Insurance drives creation of Erie Downtown Development Corp., other change in city it calls home

Tim NeCastro, CEO of Erie Insurance, stands on the roof of the company’s Perry Square headquarters in downtown Erie. Behind him, still under construction, is Erie Insurance’s seven-floor, 346,000-square-foot $135 million office building. It’s scheduled to open in the spring of 2020. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

S

ome things never change at Erie Insurance.

The company still has a website that references the Golden Rule and a motto that dates back to the early days of the 95-year-old insurer. It’s a message that talks about providing policyholders with near perfect protection and near perfect service at the lowest possible cost.

But spend some time talking to the leadership of Erie’s largest employer and it becomes clear that’s not the company’s only mission.

Erie Insurance has made a

not-so-subtle decision to use its power, its influence and its money to rebuild its hometown.

“There is more of a communityfirst attitude than there has ever been,” said Tim NeCastro, CEO of the only Erie-based Fortune 500 company.

The company was the driving force behind the creation of the Erie Downtown Development Corp., investing the first $5 million to start the equity fund that is now investing in downtown property.

But Erie Insurance’s focused outreach didn’t start there.

This neighborhood-building effort has been gathering steam for some time.

The company, which has

purchased and renovated a long and growing list of properties in its eastside neighborhood, invested millions of dollars on the naming rights to the Erie Insurance Arena, the construction of a technical learning center and a new parking garage.

The largest investment of all is taking shape now, just south of its main office building, where construction workers are building a 346,000-square-foot $135 million office building that’s expected to be complete in mid-2020, providing space for an expanding Erie workforce that numbers about 3,600.

The company is also working with Eagles Nest Inc. to train

disadvantaged young people for construction jobs in the building trades.

There is more.

Erie Insurance helped fund a recent study by the Urban Land Institute, provided space for accelerator companies who came to Erie through the Erie Innovation District and then invested in two of those companies.

From the beginning, NeCastro has acknowledged that Erie Insurance has its own interests at heart as it works to improve the community. He has said that efforts to recruit top talent are dependent on showing prospective employees a See INSURANCE, L2

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Construction continues on the new Erie Insurance office building. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

INSURANCE From Page L1

company headquarters set in an attractive, safe community.

The fight is also personal for NeCastro, who grew up in Erie’s Little Italy neighborhood.

“I am from Erie,” he said. “I want to make this a better place.”

Old ways that work The ability to lead Erie’s revitalization effort— providing not just a bully pulpit and lots of free administrative help— could only be the work of a company flush with success.

The numbers show just how successful.

In one three-month period, ending in October, Erie Insurance earned a profit of $80.4 million. During the first nine months of the year, the company earned $225.9 million.

Those numbers were built on more than $7 billion paid in annual insurance premiums on more than 5 million policies.

NeCastro Jokes that the company’s success catches some by surprise.

“We have been this kind of quiet company,” he said. “People are saying, ‘When did this happen? Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?’”

He’s kidding, of course, but Erie Insurance has been quiet in its ascent to become the nation’s ninth largest homeowners insurer and 11th largest auto insurer.

It’s all been done while working in just 12 states and without the benefit of a recognizable reptilian spokesman, hummable jingle or memorable advertising campaign.

While the company sponsors events and buys a certain amount of corporate advertising, insurance buyers shouldn’t expect to see a relentless advertising

Erie Insurance CEO Tim NeCastro walks through the work site of his company’s office building in downtown Erie. In addition to this huge construction project, NeCastro’s company was the driving force behind the creation of the Erie Downtown Development Corp., investing the first $5 million to start the equity fund that is now investing in downtown property. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

campaign from Erie Insurance anytime soon.

“Advertising is important to educate consumers on the need for insurance,” NeCastro said. “But it turns our product into a commodity and tries to make it completely price sensitive, when, in fact, it’s anything but that. If something goes wrong and we take really good care of you, that is all the advertising we need.”

Unlike insurance companies that can sell insurance for only one company, all 12,000 Erie Insurance agents are independent and can sell insurance from any of the companies they represent.

“We take that money we could use to advertise and we invest in a really solid relationship with our customers and our agents,” NeCastro said.

It seems to be

working.

“Over half of our agents place over 90 percent of their business with us and over 90 percent of our agents place over half of their business with us,” NeCastro said.

The company has made changes.

For years, most customers made payments by walking into the offices of their insurance agents.

The company, NeCastro said, recognizes that it can maintain its human touch without making life inconvenient for its customers. Paying at the agent’s office is still an option, but now customers can pay in any number of ways, including electronic methods.

There are still circumstances, however, when doing business with Erie Insurance means doing business face-to-face.

“We are gaining confidence (that) it’s OK to migrate away from the human touch in certain circumstances,” NeCastro said. “But if you are going to get a homeowners policy, we want you to have a relationship with an agent who understands you, makes sure you are a suitable risk and are comfortable with what you are getting.”

NeCastro doesn’t expect that to change.

“That is important to us,” he said. “But that will slow our growth compared to companies that don’t have that relationship.”

One would be hard pressed to find evidence of any slowdown.

It is that success that is enabling the company to build its new office building, invest in its learning center and launch the EDDC, which has set a goal of creating 750 new housing units within 10 years.

There’s widespread agreement that the EDDC wouldn’t have happened without Erie Insurance standing behind the effort.

“I don’t think you can overstate the value of their leadership. It’s critical to where we are headed as a community,” said Mike Batchelor, president of the Erie Community Foundation. “They are also very sensitive to working collaboratively with everyone.

It’s not their way or the highway.”

Erie Insurance not only provided the needed leadership, but it also helped build the critical mass, Batchelor said.

It’s become clear, though, that NeCastro — and the company by extension — have embraced a broader mission of helping rebuild Erie’s population, pride, and its economy.

A long and growing

list of political, civic and business leaders have publicly applauded the company for its leadership.

What’s motivating the company? It’s more than a profit motive, Erie Insurance Chairman Tom Hagen said in a 2017 interview. At the same time, he said, he’s convinced that what’s good for Erie is also good for the company.

For his part, NeCastro said he’s looking patiently forward to the day when all of these efforts to change and improve Erie will pay a dividend.

“Erieites are some of the nicest people in the world,” he said.

“They are also some of the most skeptical. I want the skeptics to be turned.”

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNMartin.

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‘We think it’s time’

Erie-area nonprofits back revitalization, entrepreneurship

By John Guerriero Contributing writer

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he Erie Community Foundation has received about 25 “big idea” white papers.

One or more of those proposals — which must attract partners and provide significant matching dollars — will move from ideas on paper to concrete projects that would be another step toward reinventing Erie.

For that project, the 83-year-old Community Foundation is taking $15 million in new gifts and endowment income as part of a plan to provide $30 million over the next five years to help transform the local economy, Erie’s downtown and its neighborhoods.

Putting new gifts right into use is a funding departure for the foundation, which traditionally awarded grants from the money earned on its $259 million endowment without touching the principal.

But these aren’t ordinary times for Erie, the private sector and other nonprofits as the community seizes the momentum toward economic renewal.

“We’ve transitioned from a reactive grant maker to now one that is swinging for the fences. We think it’s time.

Our community needs this. If we keep doing the same thing over and over again, we’re not going to make a real change,” said Mike Batchelor, foundation president, who added his group hopes to make one of those grant awards this year.

“And donors are supporting this work. We’ve dipped our toe into this kind of work over the last six or seven years and had some success. It’s time to ramp it up and put it on steroids,” he said.

In addition to the $15 million for transformational projects, the Community Foundation is Batchelor using principal from the endowment — another departure from past practice — to provide up to $10 million in mission-related investments to improve Erie (for projects not easily financed in the conventional marketplace); and doubled its budget for nonprofits from $500,000 to $1 million (for a total of $5 million over five years) with endowment income.

The Community Foundation isn’t alone among nonprofits making a big splash.

The United Way of Erie County sharpened its focus, putting money into breaking the cycle of poverty. Its current fiscal-year funding — one that will continue in the foreseeable future — puts $3.2 million toward student success from birth, and emphasizes family stability. Bill Jackson, the United Way’s president and chief professional officer, said the agency wants to “crush poverty.”

The United Way is investing $1.5 million into its community schools model, which includes indirect investments to nonprofits that will provide services in United Way’s community schools: Strong Vincent and East middle schools; Edison, McKinley,

Perry Wood, at podium, executive director of the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority, announces more than $800,000 in annual grants to more than 40 local nonprofits in November. From left are: State Sen. Dan Laughlin, of Millcreek, R-49th Dist.; Wood; County Councilman Carl Anderson; Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper; and Mike Paris, chairman of ECGRA. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE FILE PHOTO/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

and Pfeiffer-Burleigh elementary schools (with Diehl Elementary soon to join); Iroquois Elementary School; and Elk Valley Elementary School.

The United Way is also funding these annual programs: another $300,000 into its Imagination Library, which provides free books to any child under age 5; $223,000 for the tax-assistance program Erie Free Taxes; and $114,000 into its 2-1-1 call center that offers help for daily needs and crisis situations.

“We see exciting things happening in our community in terms of economic development. But if we don’t have a home-grown, educated, motivated workforce, it will be all for naught,” Jackson said, stressing the importance of education initiatives.

The Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority hasn’t changed its mission to invest in economic and community development programs — a total of $55.8 million since 2008. But the authority, which receives about $4.5 million annually in slots revenue from Presque Isle Downs & Casino,

ramped things up in 2018 with new programs to respond to the Erie Refocused and Emerge 2040 plans and its own strategic plan, said Perry Wood, the agency’s executive director.

ECGRA is contributing $2.5 million for a low-interest loan fund that will be matched dollar-for-dollar

by Pittsburgh-based Bridgeway Capital, a not-for-profit lender. The $5 million in loans, called the Erie Inclusive Fund, will be made in Erie County over the next three years for distressed neighborhoods to create jobs and revitalize those areas, Wood said. Half of the total will be invested in minority-owned businesses.

This is the second fund for ECGRA and Bridgeway.

The authority put $1 million into what’s called the Erie Growth Fund, which Bridgeway matched with $6 million, Wood said. Already, 26 businesses have received loans through the Growth Fund, he said.

ECGRA also invested $1 million in five innovation spaces where faculty and students can help entrepreneurs to develop

ideas, Wood said. Those spaces are run by Gannon University, Mercyhurst University, Penn State Behrend, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and the Idea Lab at the Blasco Library.

ECGRA also put $400,000 into the Erie Innovation District; $200,000 for the International Institute of Erie to fund immigrant-based businesses; and $1.3 million into the Ben Franklin Technology Partners to help tech companies start and grow.

“I love this community and I want to see it thrive. And the revitalization process requires investment. The places that need investment are the distressed corridors and neighborhoods all across Erie County,” Wood said.

Batchelor said that thanks to investments by Erie Insurance, UPMC, Allegheny Health Network, Scott Enterprises and others, Erie faces a unique moment in its history.

“People are investing in Erie and working together like never before, and it’s philanthropy’s job to be a part of that,” he said.

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Donald Crenshaw, managing member of Blue Rock construction, oversees the work at Parade Street Commons East in Erie on Jan. 22. The $12 million housing development — located between East 19th and 20th streets, just off Parade Street — will cater to low- and moderate-income Erie families. [PHOTOS BY JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Erie’s changing landscape Developer creates affordable housing on city’s east side

By Kevin Flowers kevin.flowers@timesnews.com

T

he city’s east side has always felt like home to Shaquille Gaines.

That’s why Gaines is proud to spend his days working to make a $12 million housing development — located between East 19th and 20th streets, just off Parade Street — into a reality for low- and moderate-income Erie families.

“I like this work, and it just feels good to be a part of something like this,” said Gaines, 24, who is installing insulation and cabinets, hanging drywall and handling various maintenance tasks as 40 affordable housing units take shape at a 5.9-acre property being developed

by PSC East LLC, an affiliate of GMA Management Development Group and Mstick Construction.

The project is unique because it employs what are known as “passive housing” standards for energy efficiency, using features such as extra insulation, high-quality windows, mechanical ventilation and heat recovery.

The aim is to maintain constant inside temperatures in the buildings, which helps to keep occupants’ utility costs down.

Gaines, who wants to be a maintenance technician, has been working with developer Donald Crenshaw for about four years.

“I like this work,” he said. “Feels good to work on this.”

The $12 million project, spearheaded

by Crenshaw, will be known as Parade Street Commons East.

It is a companion to the 36-unit Parade Street Commons, which Crenshaw also developed. That project was completed in 2013 and features

Construction continues at Parade Street Commons East in Erie.

Donald Crenshaw talks on the phone with suppliers at the Parade Street Commons East job site.

four-bedroom units.

Parade Street Commons East, which Crenshaw hopes will be finished by June, will include two-bedroom and three-bedroom units, as well as eight apartments designed for handicapped livability. The cost of rent will range between $230 a month to $850 a month.

Rent will be based on several factors, including income, Crenshaw said.

“We’ll also have energy efficient ovens, refrigerators, heating systems, even dryers,” Crenshaw said. He has noted that residents can expect the

combined cost of their utilities to run about $900 a year.

“That way people can keep the cost of their utilities down,” Crenshaw said. “We didn’t just want to build ‘affordable housing.’ We went to passive housing — the most modern type of housing available in terms of energy efficiency. Individuals who are low- to moderate-income need to have access to this, so that their money isn’t all being spent on utilities.”

The project is being financed via housing tax credits through the Pennsylvania Housing

Juan Alcala, a contractor for Blue Rock Construction, hangs drywall inside an apartment at Parade Street Commons East in Erie on Jan. 22.

Finance Agency, as well as $10 million in financing from Citizens Bank.

Crenshaw said the rationale behind the development is a simple one: Erie needs more modern, affordable housing.

“What we decided to do was venture out and try to use the latest technology to give people a good housing option in this part of the city,” Crenshaw said.

“It’s worked well for us across the street, where we’re almost at full

occupancy. We expect these to do well also.”

Erie electrician Joe Dobrich is working on Parade Street Commons East with several of his employees. Dobrich said the development takes a once-vacant tract of land and creates “a nice, peaceful property where someone can wake up to the sunshine and feel good about the future.”

Chris Groner, the city of Erie’s economic development director,

said Parade Street Commons East is also evidence of the redevelopment momentum happening within city limits.

“We have the private sector willing to invest dollars into the city, into the east side,” Groner said. “We certainly want to support that effort.”

Kevin Flowers can be reached at 870-1693 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter. com/ETNflowers.

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Laith Wardi: Don’t get comfortable yet in economic development in any serious way for the last 35 years. We are so far behind our peer group that it’s not even funny. There is a lot going on in Erie right now, but people need to understand we have a lot of catching up do on a variety of levels. We have come 10 percent of the way, but we have 90 percent of the way to go.

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

W

arren native Laith Wardi, who moved to Erie to attend what’s now Mercyhurst University, has spent most of his adult life working in economic development, holding jobs in both the public and private sector since the 1990s.

Since 2000, he’s been the owner and president of Eriebased Executive Pulse, which has worked with and trained economic development professionals across the country.

Closer to home, he serves as vice chairman of the steering committee for Emerge 2040, Erie County’s longrange master plan.

Wardi, 57, sat down with the Erie TimesNews to share his thoughts on recent developments in the community. His comments have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: What are some of the deficits we should be focused on?

A: I am not tryi

ng to pick on the airport, but think about it. If you are somebody who comes into this community for the first time and you are looking at the Erie airport for the first time and the amenities that we have are not on par with communities that are much smaller than we are throughout the United States. We are not ready for prime time. These companies will tell you they are following talent. We are importing all of these college kids every year, but most of these kids are not staying here.

Right now, we don’t have an inventory of shovel-ready sites or spec buildings. There is a whole lot of these due diligence points that we need to focus on. I am trying to look at this clinically. We have a lot of work to do.

Q: When we last talked, you said Erie was decades behind where it should be in terms of economic development. Do you still feel that way?

A: There is a doubleedged sword about the great stuff happening in Erie. I think it gives people a false sense of comfort. OK. We don’t have General Electric to lean on anymore, but now we have Erie Insurance and UPMC and Saint Vincent. We are going to be OK. We have neglected investment

Q: Like what? What should we focus on?

A: We need sustained investment in economic development. I love

WHAT IS IT? The Emerge 2040 Steering Committee is a group of Erie County leaders who are working to help the community achieve the goals of the Destination Erie strategy.

what the EDDC (Erie Downtown Development Corp.) and all these different initiatives are doing. These are all slivers of economic development.

Real economic development is the retention of existing business, the recruiting of businesses from outside the market and business startups from entrepreneurial development. We are not marketing. We are not attending trade shows. There is a whole host and layer of things that are going to start to happen, but I don’t want people to think its OK. We have a long way to go. We have a huge catchup to do here.

Q: There seems to be an unprecedented number of initiatives taking place right now from the EDDC to the Erie Innovation District and two different efforts to develop cybersecurity programs. Is there any particular effort that has you encouraged?

A: They are all critical. What I don’t like is when I hear people in the community say people are doing something on their own and it doesn’t dovetail with the rest. It doesn’t matter. Let’s throw as much paint on the wall as we can. Let’s have as many different initiatives that show

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momentum. Things will coalesce over time. But all the things you just mentioned are critical even if they don’t all work out. The bigger issue is they show the outside world that we are changing the narrative, that the people in this community look at itself and its position in the world in a very different way. I heard it when I am at board meetings. ‘These guys aren’t doing things in lockstep with the rest of us.’ It’s immaterial. It doesn’t matter.

These are the greatest problems in the world to have.

Q: Is there one looming change in Erie that has you particularly excited?

A: I think we have to play to our strengths. I think what is happening on the bayfront is really a differentiator for us. In Erie, if we are not exploiting that we are missing the boat.

That is something like how you look at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Altoona doesn’t have an Inner Harbor.

The investment that is happening and the quality of the investment on the harbor is a big deal. I love what I am seeing. I get the naysayers. I get the inconvenience. People want more public

Laith Wardi is president of Erie-based Executive Pulse, which trains economic development officials across the country. Wardi is positive about Erie’s current development initiatives, but says there is still a lot of work to be done. “There is a lot going on in Erie right now, but people need to understand we have a lot of catching up do on a variety of levels. We have come 10 percent of the way, but we have 90 percent of the way to go.” [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

access, but generally speaking — the Sheraton, the Marriott — you look at the quality of what’s happening down there and it’s pretty impressive.

Q: Has Erie turned a corner?

differently. People are holding themselves and others accountable for the first time. And I think you have some new people coming into the community with cool ideas. And that is one thing we have lacked for 50 years.

A: Oh God, yeah. We are starting. We are starting to look at ourselves differently We are defining ourselves

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNMartin.

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Brenda Sandberg, left, Daria Devlin and Jill Crable are shown at Emerson-Gridley School in Erie. Crable is the principal of the Erie School District’s alternativeeducation programs that are held at Emerson-Gridley. Devlin is the executive director of the newly-created Erie Center for Arts and Technology. The nonprofit will provide job training for adults and will offer after-school arts programs for at-risk high school students like those who attend the Emerson-Gridley programs. Sandberg, who is the executive director of the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority, and Crable are also board members of the Center for Arts and Technology. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

‘Thinking big’ New Erie Center for Arts and Technology aims to build hope

By Ed Palattella ed.palattella@timesnews.com

I

n five years at the Erie School District, Daria Devlin worked to reshape the district as part of its budget-driven reconfiguration.

In her new job, she is more directly involved in reshaping the lives of Erie School District students— as well as unemployed and underemployed adults in the city of Erie.

Devlin, the Erie School District’s former coordinator of grants and community relations, is executive director of the newly created Erie Center for Arts and Technology, a nonprofit and an affiliate of the nationally known Manchester Bidwell Corp., of Pittsburgh.

At a time when numerous other nonprofits have formed or been re-energized to assist in the city of Erie’s redevelopment, Devlin said ECAT is designed to address unmet needs: those of at-risk high school students who desire to learn about the arts, and those of adults who need specialized job training to get out of poverty.

ECAT will provide the programs at no cost to the participants.

“As Erie is moving forward and all these wonderful things are happening, I think it is really important to find a way to make sure no one gets left behind,” said Devlin, whose first day as executive director was Jan. 15.

ECAT will have plenty of guidance as it establishes its program. It is designed after the Manchester Bidwell Corp., an arts and career-training initiative founded in Pittsburgh in 1968.

The Erie center is an affiliate of the National Center for Arts and

WHAT’S NEXT The Erie Center for Arts and Technology is just getting started. It is looking for a building, said its executive director, Daria Devlin, who started in the job on Jan. 15.

She said the center intends to launch its arts and technology programs for at-risk high school students at a temporary location this summer. In 18 months, she said, the center plans to start its job-training program for adults.

All the center’s programs will be provided at no cost.

For now, Devlin is working out of the offices of the Hamot Health Foundation, 302 French St. She said she eventually will have a staff of 12, including instructors.

Technology, which Manchester Bidwell created to replicate its model. The NCAT has 12 affiliates, 11 of which are in the United States, including in Cleveland, Buffalo and Brockway, in Jefferson County.

Another affiliate is in Israel.

The centers are different but are similar in their goals. They emphasize job training and other instruction to aid the participants to stay in school and get jobs that provide a living wage.

“A living wage and permanent employment: These are the value propositions that are really critical to the model,” said William Strickland, 70, who founded Manchester Bidwell Corp. and remains an adviser to the corporation and NCAT. Strickland in 1968 started Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, a ceramic studio that provided arts instruction to inner-city teens in Pittsburgh. Five years later he joined the guild with the Bidwell Cultural and Training Center, which provided job training to adults. The combination of ventures set the template for the NCAT organizations nationwide, including ECAT. Strickland called Devlin, 41, “a winner, that’s for sure.” He

said his best advice for ECAT is not to try to succeed on its own.

“Stay in touch with Pittsburgh,” Strickland said.

‘A model that works’ ECAT plans to stay in touch. The main reason many in the Erie community decided to support ECAT, which has about $300,000 in private donations to get started, is because the ECAT model has worked elsewhere and for so long, said Charles “Boo” Hagerty, president of Hamot Health Foundation and chairman of the ECAT’s 11-member board of directors, all from the Erie area.

“This is a battletested model that works,” Hagerty said.

“There can’t be enough organizations like this in town,” he said. “There is a lot of capacity to be out there to help people.”

With a push from then-state Sen. Sean Wiley, of Millcreek Township, D-49th Dist., and the Erie Chamber and Growth Partnership, a group of community leaders in Erie four years ago started exploring bringing a Manchester Bidwell Corp. program to Erie. The See CENTER, L11

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Business Building 101 Erie program teaches entrepreneurs how to build on an idea

By Kara Murphy Contributing writer

Jennifer Rzodkiewicz dreamed of owning a cooking school. She’d gone so far as to purchase a curriculum and go through training.

But she’d stalled after that, unsure of the next steps in making her dream a reality.

“I wasn’t sure how to take the reins and actually do it,” she said.

That was when she heard about Co.Starters, a series of nine classes designed to teach entrepreneurs the mechanics of vetting an idea and then launching a business.

“That was just what I needed to see if I could make this idea work,” she said.

She signed up — a $250 commitment — and quickly realized she was in the right place. Not only were the speakers knowledgeable and interesting each week, but the support and interest of her classmates gave her the confidence she needed to finally start Family Measures Cooking School.

“Co.Starters created this environment that allows a group of new entrepreneurs to truly support one another,” she said. “I knew I was in the right place because people were just as excited for me to do something as I was.”

A proven model Beth Zimmer, managing director of

Jennifer Rzodkiewicz conducts a class at the Whole Foods Co-Op in Erie. [GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

the Innovation Collaborative, brought Co.Starters to Erie in 2018. The program, started in Chattanooga, Tenn., by an artist who struggled to bring his work to the marketplace, is now in more than 100 cities around the world.

“If someone has an idea they’ve been knocking around in their mind, or have drawn out on a napkin, or been tinkering around with it in the garage, they can come to this nonthreatening program where

everyone else in the room is in a similar boat and find out — before they invest too much time and other resources — if they have something there that they can move forward on,” Zimmer said.

Penny MechleyPorter, a licensed professional counselor, is part of the current Co.Starters class. Her business idea is to start a co-working space for therapists.

“I moved here in 2004 and felt like Erie was sort of at a standstill,” she said.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED Participants pay $250 to be part of CO.STARTERS. The next class will begin in May. You can apply at https://innovationcollaborators.com/costarters/.

CO.STARTERS is paid for through a sustainability grant from the FirstEnergy Foundation, while Erie Arts & Culture, the Innovation Collaborative, and the Erie Regional Library Foundation are the 2019 Licensing Partners for the program.

Ben Franklin is also a supporter, and, along with the Innovation Collaborative, Bridgeway, Erie Regional Library Foundation, Tech Tank, and Erie Arts & Culture, was one of the founding licensing partners for 2018.

“But now it feels like Erie is going through this renaissance and renewal and I want to be a part of that. Things are changing and growing and in Co.Starters I’m meeting other

people who are successful entrepreneurs in Erie who want to help those of us who are new to this. It just feels very collaborative and supportive.”

Guest speakers each

week include “practical” advisers, such as marketing experts, lawyers, accountants. But there are also more experienced See BUSINESS, L11

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Chamber helped secure a $150,000 feasibility study — separate from the $300,000 startup funding — that propelled the project as Wiley and others visited the Manchester Bidwell site in Pittsburgh.

“It is really rewarding to see this all coming to fruition,” Wiley said.

“It provides so much hope to young people.”

Wiley, now the institutional director of public engagement at LECOM, is on the ECAT board. So is Gary Clark, the CEO of Reed Manufacturing in Erie.

Clark, who also has been to the Manchester Bidwell site, said ECAT will provide underprivileged Erie residents the skills to get jobs.

“It is about coming up with ways to reduce poverty through education and job training,” Clark said.

Another board

BUSINESS From Page L10

entrepreneurs involved.

Entrepreneurs facilitate the group and are invited to speak.

“There’s nothing like having an entrepreneur who was once where you are willing to talk to you about their experience and what mistakes they made so you don’t have to make the same ones,” Zimmer said.

About 40 people have gone through the nineweek courses. Their

member is Brenda Sandberg, executive director of the ErieWestern Pennsylvania Port Authority. She said ECAT has a unique mission for Erie — reaching at-risk students through the arts and technology. The goal is to get students interested in the arts so they can realize their talents and get on track to graduate on time.

“It is using the arts and technology to engage a student population that doesn’t traditionally have that in their school system,” Sandberg said.

ECAT’s initial jobtraining programs will provide instruction for unemployed and underemployed adults to get certificates as medical assistants and in other medical careers. Erie’s large health-care industry led the board to choose the medical field first, Devlin said.

Setting up the adult-training program, including getting approval from the

state, will take about 18 months, Devlin said.

While Devlin pursues that aspect of ECAT, she intends to get an arts program in place this summer for high schools students at risk of not graduating.

That program, Devlin said, will start in a temporary site as ECAT searches for a permanent location. Devlin also must put together a staff that is expected to be as large as 12, including instructors. She is now working out of the offices of the Hamot Health Foundation, 302 French St. The arts program will work with Erie School District students.

ECAT will encourage teachers to direct students to ECAT, where they will get after-school instruction in such digital arts as video production and photography.

“We will really rely on a relationship with Erie’s public schools to identify kids who would benefit from this program,” Devlin

said. “It is targeted recruitment.”

Potential ECAT participants, Devlin said, are students in the Erie School District’s alternative-education programs, based at the former EmersonGridley School building across from Gridley Park. The principal for the programs is Jill Crable, who is also on the ECAT board. Crable said many of the 165 students in alternativeeducation programs could benefit from ECAT, including after they graduate and could enroll in job training.

“It is another opportunity for our students to obtain a career and prepare for life in an up-and-coming field: health care,” Crable said.

ideas for businesses have run the gamut from app development and art therapy to manufactured products, she said.

“Anyone with an idea is welcome,” Zimmer said.

Max Rankin, a real estate agent with Marsha Marsh, went through the program, in part, to vet an idea for an app to help millennials walk through the process of buying a home.

“It was just extremely valuable to be surrounded by people who dream of making what they love their

occupation,” he said.

“It’sabsolutely great just to see the life that’s being breathed into Erie, all these self-starters out there that really make you see what kind of great things are happening here.”

Young companies driving job creation But why focus on small start-up ideas that might not go anywhere rather than working to attract larger, proven businesses to Erie?

Zimmer says just look at the statistics.

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Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito, Devlin’s former boss, said he welcomes the opportunity to get students enrolled in

ECAT’s after-school programs.

“We have a lot of atrisk students,” Polito said. “Any opportunity for these kids to have contact with the arts and work on challenges and be more successful in school is a good thing.”

He said Devlin is ideal for leading ECAT. “She is the right person for that job,” Polito said. “She’s very motivated. She clearly wants to help those who are struggling in the city, and she has a lot of great connections in the community.”

As Hagerty, Clark and others said, fundraising is likely to be ECAT’s biggest challenge, though Devlin said she has been encouraged by the commitments ECAT has already received from local businesses and organizations.

Strickland, the founder of Manchester Bidwell Corp., said establishing the NCAT model “is not as easy as I made it look”, but he

said he has found Erie ready to embrace ECAT and its mission.

“It is a very engaging community with a corporate leadership that really cares about the place,” Strickland said.

Speaking about both ECAT and the city, Strickland said: “There is a lot of excitement about Erie. We believe it is going to be an asset to the growth in Erie. I am really excited about this thing.”

As the city follows Erie Refocused and other community blueprints to plot its advancement, ECAT represents another form of an investment in the future, Devlin said. She said ECAT will add to Erie’s attitude of “thinking big.”

“That is what we need,” Devlin said.

“That is what Erie needs now.”

New and young companies are the primary source of job creation in the American economy, according to the Kauffman Foundation.

Their research shows companies less than five years old have created almost 100 percent of the net new jobs per year over the past three decades in the United States.

“Every community on the globe is competing in the business attraction game, but a lot of small to midsize markets — like Erie— have forgotten that our communities were

built by entrepreneurs, and encouraging that development should absolutely be a priority for economic development to be successful,” Zimmer said. “The Innovation Collaborative has been advocating for more of a focus on entrepreneurship since 2012 and we are very pleased that so much is happening now. The focus and challenge now is how to build more capacity around it and sustain it. Programs like Co.Starters are going to help us do that.”

Family Measures

Cooking School is still in its early days. The mobile cooking school offers a few classes each month, but is growing steadily and Jennifer Rzodkiewicz, 46, is excited for its future.

“Co.Starters gave me the confidence and the business building tools to get started,” Rzodkiewicz said. “It’s a challenge to be an entrepreneur, and having that kind of support and accountability made all the difference.”

‘What Erie needs now’

Ed Palattella can be reached at 870-1813 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter. com/ETNpalattella.

Kara Murphy is a freelance writer who lives in Erie.

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ERIE 2019: NEXT STEPS

UNCOMMON INNOVATION

PENN STATE LAB PAIRS STUDENTS, ENTREPRENEURS

Penn State Behrend graduate assistant John Nowakowski, of Erie, operates a 3D scanner at Behrend’s Innovations Commons Lab on Jan. 16. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

J

ason Wokutch, a local house flipper, had an idea and a sketch for a device that would help a single person frame a straight wall without assistance.

But Wokutch needed help bringing the product to market. He found it at Penn State Behrend’s Innovation Commons.

By the time he finished meeting with students, he had applied for a patent and had a fully functional prototype in hand for the Fast Framer, a product he has since sold to Erie-based F3 Metalworx, which is now producing the product for retail sale.

Michael Paul, a senior electrical engineering major from Butler, is one of the Behrend students who had a hand in creating that product — and a growing list of others.

He’s one of nine Behrend students this semester who will earn school credit and a paycheck from Behrend as they help entrepreneurs transform their ideas into printed 3D prototypes in a lab

established three years ago inside Behrend’s Burke Center.

The paycheck isn’t the only benefit, he said.

“Alongside really valuable experience, I am named on four patents and am working on six more,” he said. “The ability to help people is something else I get out of this. It connects us to people. We can help them make things they wouldn’t normally be able to make.”

To most outsiders, the language spoken inside this lab is as technical as the equipment, which includes a laser and 11 3D printers, which can build plastic prototypes, one thin layer at a time in a process that seems at first like printing.

The engineering might be complex, but Jacob Marsh, industry relations coordinator at Behrend, sees the mission as straightforward.

“The primary goal is to lower the barrier for innovation regionally for individuals and for industry,” Marsh said. “We’re trying to de-risk experimental projects or inventing new projects. If you

have an idea but have hit a point where you can’t go any further yourself you come here. You meet with our students and they help you get over that barrier.”

The lab, which was developed with funding from Penn State and a handful of other sources, serves a role in the community that’s working to establish new businesses.

“If you are the client, you don’t pay anything,” Marsh said. “The purpose is economic development.”

Amy Bridger, senior director of corporate strategy and external engagement at Behrend, sees another role.

“It’s all about the students,” she said. “The students are going to graduate being named as inventors on several patents. You are not going to find that anywhere else.

That experience is really unusual for an undergraduate student, even for a graduate student.”

The track record is growing.

Inventor Evan Rumbaugh had an idea for a hand-held motorized device to clean the faces of golf

INNOVATION COMMONS

BY THE NUMBERS • 136 total projects • 94 entrepreneurs served • 57 development projects • 7 patent applications • 6 products on the market • 3 companies started Source: Penn State Behrend

clubs. With help from Behrend students and six prototypes, he’s building a partnership with a local manufacturer.

Grizzly Innovations had an idea for an illuminated barricade to be used at accident scenes that would use foldable legs for ease of transport. Behrend students developed an LED-lit and battery-powered pod that can fit into a trunk.

John Nowakowski, of Erie, a graduate assistant who is working on a master’s degree in manufacturing, has been involved in those See INNOVATION, M2

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Penn State Behrend students Michael Gibilterra, left, of Hershey, and graduate assistant John Nowakowski, right, of Erie, operate a 3D printer at Behrend’s Innovations Commons Lab. Students there help entrepreneurs transform their ideas into printed 3D prototypes in a lab established three years ago inside Behrend’s Burke Center. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

INNOVATION From Page M1

projects and others since the Innovation Commons opened three years ago. He is an original employee and the student lab manager.

Nowakowski said there’s no simple way to describe the people who come looking for help.

“There really is no demographic,” he said. “It’s really all over the place. If someone has that kind of spark in their mind, they have it. It doesn’t matter who you are.”

One of his favorites, he said, was working with Lake Erie Rubber and Manufacturing to develop a line of rubber dog toys.

“Everything is really unique in its own way,” he said. “Working with the team is a big thing, being with the guys.”

Some clients start out nervous, not knowing what to expect.

Eventually, he said, most quickly realize that “these guys are here to help,” Nowakowski said.

In some circumstances, relationships between students and their clients — who don’t pay for the service — have a chance to develop other time.

Nowakowski said one client has been waiting 15 months for students to design and then build a recently completely 3D printer large enough to build his prototype. The resulting printer, he said, is one of the largest in the Erie area.

Other relationships are more fleeting.

“We have had clients who come in and six hours later we have something on the machine done and they can take it away and take it to a patent attorney,” Nowakowski said.

It’s not by accident that there are few clock watchers in this comparatively small space stocked with high-tech equipment, lasers, like-minded thinkers and what looks for all the world like a transporter from Star Trek. Nowakowski says it’s a scanner, equipped with 90 cameras, that’s capable of scanning a 3D imaging of something nine feet across

Amy Bridger, senior director of corporate strategy and external engagement at Penn State Behrend, says the school’s Innovations Commons Lab will give students the opportunity to be named as inventors on patents. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

“There really is no demographic. It’s really all over the place. If someone has that kind of spark in their mind, they have it.

It doesn’t matter who you are.”

John Nowakowski, graduate assistant

and just as tall.

It’s a space that invites lingering for the students who gather here to build or repair machines, do their homework or brainstorm when there are no clients to help.

The body of students and the work they do at Innovation Commons is expected to expand over the next few months as students will begin developing apps for smartphones.

“We have had a lot of requests,” Bridger said. “It will be a different group of students helping a different group of individuals. We are always looking to make it better.”

Michael Gibilterra, a junior from Hershey who is majoring in computer engineering

Penn State Behrend students show some of the objects made on their 3D scanner at Behrend’s Innovations Commons Lab. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

and computational physics, figures he spent more than 70 hours over two weeks in the Innovation Commons Lab as he and his fellow students finished work building the largest of the 3D printers.

Gibilterra said he savored the experience of building an

$80,000 printer for the price of about $14,000 in parts.

Even more, he said, he’s savoring the opportunity of being able to use what he’s learned.

“I’ve been trying to make a lot of contacts,” he said. “Just getting to meet

entrepreneurs. It’s just an opportunity I don’t know if anyone outside this room is going to get.”

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www. twitter.com/ETNMartin.

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New leaders step forward in 2018

number of individuals stepped into key leadership roles in Erie County during 2018. Here’s a look at a few of them:

JAMES GRUNKE, 54, CEO of Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership

James Grunke was met in Erie when he started in his new job in September with a clear set of expectations.

Community leaders, including chamber board members, had come to an agreement that Erie needed a single point person to serve as its economic development leader.

And they thought that person should be the chamber’s new CEO. Grunke had a successful run as the CEO of the Missoula Economic Partnership. The region added 10,000 new jobs and attracted nearly $1 billion in capital investment during his time at the helm.

Last month, Grunke created a new position at the chamber, hoping to spur some investment in Erie.

He named Brett Wiler to serve as director of capital formation with the Flagship Opportunity Zone Development Corp., a division of the chamber.

Grunke, who took over for Barbara Chaffee, who left the chamber in October 2017 after nearly seven years, has stressed that he sees a role for a wide range of groups and people in economic development.

Derek Martin is the executive director of Erie International Airport.

James Grunke is CEO of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership. He is shown outside the Intermodal Center on Erie’s bayfront. [CHRISTOPHER

[VALERIE MYERS/ERIE TIMES-

MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

NEWS]

“You have to have the private sector, education and public sector working in unison,” he said. “Erie is very much aligned with all those three together.

My role is to put my arms around it and say, ‘I understand what Erie needs to be. I understand what Erie sees itself as.’”

— Jim Martin BRODY HOWARD, 33, executive director of Corry Higher Education Council

Former teacher Brody Howard is getting an education in employer and community needs.

Howard began work with the Corry Higher Education Council on Nov. 5 and stepped into the organization’s top post when longtime Executive Director Steve Bishop retired in December.

The Higher Education

Council was incorporated in 1991 to help the city cope with the closing of two major employers and 22 percent unemployment.

The council offers job training, computer classes, college courses and other programs to help workers train for new jobs or advance in the jobs they have.

“We’re not only training people for specific jobs but (training them) in the soft skills they need to build a resume and be successful,” Howard said.

The council is in the first phase of a community assessment that will include a survey of public needs.

“The Higher Education Council does very well with what it offers, but it will be great to learn what more we can be doing for the community,” Howard said.

“From now until early spring I’ll be sitting down with businesses, manufacturers and hiring managers to find out what it is they

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need,” Howard said.

Howard, a Corry native, previously taught high school social studies at public and private schools in Georgia.

— Valerie Myers DEREK MARTIN, 56, executive director of Erie International Airport

Derek Martin recently met a woman at an Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership event who summarized what he sees as a challenge for Erie’s airport — Erie travelers who mostly bypass it.

The woman told Martin that her husband is a frequent business traveler and flies from Cleveland or Pittsburgh.

“She said that he had never looked at flying from Erie until we announced Charlotte service,” Martin said.

American Airlines will offer service to and from the North Carolina city, as well as a daily flight to Chicago, beginning May 3.

John Persinger is CEO of the Erie Downtown Development Corp., which purchased the former Park Place bar in Erie. [GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

“People who look find competitive pricing here. And it’s obviously more convenient to fly from Erie than to drive somewhere else and get on a plane,” Martin said.

Martin was hired by the Erie Regional Airport Authority, replacing George Doughty, in August.

He previously was vice president of operations and maintenance for the Wayne County Airport Authority, which operates the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and Willow Run Airport, near Ypsilanti, Michigan. Martin also was general manager for New York Stewart International Airport.

At Erie International Airport, passenger numbers in 2018 climbed to their highest levels since 2014.

And Martin said he sees continued growth as Erie travelers take advantage of additional flights and destinations

and additional seats on larger regional jets.

“The projections are exciting,” he said.

— Valerie Myers JOHN PERSINGER, 37, CEO of Erie Downtown Development Corp.

In a city with a strong Democratic voter edge, Republican John Persinger came within 6 percentage points of winning the mayor’s post on Nov. 7, 2017.

But Persinger, a lawyer who previously worked as an attache to the U.S. Ambassador to Australia and as an executive assistant to the White House Deputy Counsel, apparently wasn’t destined to slip from public view.

On Feb. 28, 2018, less than four months after the election, he was named the first CEO of the EDDC, which is working to purchase and redevelop See LEADERS, M7

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Sunday, February 17, 2019

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

BUILDING ON HISTORY National Register listing could boost Corry businesses

By Valerie Myers

LEFT: Cherie Dickey is the treasurer of the Corry Area Historical Society. Shown at the northwest corner of North Center and Washington streets on Jan. 14, Dickey is a proponent of the Impact Corry plan for the revitalization and recognition of historic properties in downtown Corry.

valerie.myers@timesnews.com

C

BELOW: Sandy McClellan shows off empty hotel rooms on an unused upper floor of the Corry Higher Education Council building, 221 N. Center St. in Corry. The building was opened in the early 1920s as the Corrian Hotel. McClellan is the program manager of the CHEC and the treasurer of Impact Corry. [PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

The Corry Post Office at 101 S. Center St. opened in 1915.

Jane Roche discovered firsthand in recent years when they renovated their Italianate-style, three-story brick commercial building on North Center Street, the heart of Corry’s commercial district since the 1880s. The building through the years has housed a dentist’s office, commercial print shop and a number of other businesses, Bill Roche said. Its ground floor today is occupied

by Epiphany’s Emporium and Painted Finch Gallery.

The Roches’ improvements to the building included contracting with an Erie company to blast away layers of paint to expose the original brick exterior.

“It cost us 10 times what we had estimated to renovate the building because of a lot of problems with (city building) code compliance,” Bill Roche said. “We still have no occupancy permit for the two upper floors to be used for public access. We would need two new stairwells and an elevator for that.”

Corry’s downtown commercial district, like the city itself, traces its origins to two main events: Edwin Drake’s drilling of the first commercial oil well in nearby Titusville in 1859 and the 1861 convergence of two railroads in what today is Corry.

Businesses soon began setting up shop in the area, workers followed and the city grew almost overnight. Corry was incorporated as a borough in 1863 and as a city in 1866.

Early industries included United States Radiator Company, McInnes Steel Co., Corry Condensed Milk Co., Corry Chair Co., NuBone Corset Co. and Corry Brick and Tile Co. Other early industries were Raymond Manufacturing, now Associated Spring, and Corry Metal Products Company, now Corry Contract, both located within the proposed historic district.

Another legacy industry was the Climax Manufacturing Co. Located just outside the proposed historic

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orry development officials are looking to the city’s past to boost its future.

Impact Corry, the city’s development agency, commissioned a historical survey of downtown Corry for an application for National Register of Historic Places designation.

The designation would help building owners preserve and renovate their properties and could promote tourism, development officials said.

“I think the big thing it will promote is community pride and an understanding of how Corry came to be,” said Mandi Johnson, who chairs Impact Corry’s historical preservation committee. “But it’s also about getting businesses to stay here and invest here. And I believe with the historic designation, some people will seek out Corry and maybe spend a day or more here.”

Historical tourism would benefit a number of local businesses, including antique shops, other specialty shops, restaurants, and bed and breakfast inns, including the Ottaway Inn at 26 W. Church St. The inn, now owned by the Ottaway family, originally was the home of A.P. Mount, the architect who designed a number of early Corry homes and businesses, including the Elks’ Club, Corry municipal building, the earliest buildings of Associated Spring and the former Carnegie library. Mount also designed Johnson’s 111-year-old home on East Smith Street.

“My thoughts are that if we are able to get people here because of history, this inn would definitely benefit,” innkeeper Kathy Daniels said. “The man who built this house and lived here was a big part of Corry history.”

Mount built the home/inn in 1870, Daniels said.

Historic designation also can help owners improve properties.

Building owners may be eligible for a tax credit of up to 20 percent of the cost of improvements to help offset the often staggering cost to renovate old buildings.

It’s a cost that Bill and

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district, the company was founded in 1868 to make agricultural machinery and tools but by 1882 was manufacturing the Climax locomotive.

The Corry downtown historical survey was recently completed by Markosky Engineering Group consultants and will be submitted to the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Board for consideration. If approved, the application will go on to the National Parks Service for approval. The National Parks Service oversees the National Register of Historic Places.

The historical survey was funded by a $12,000 Keystone Historic Preservation Grant and matching funds from the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority and Corry Community Foundation. The survey considered more than 300 downtown properties, including

The Painted Finch Gallery, along with neighboring Epiphany’s Emporium (not shown), are the featured businesses in this building, located at 32-34 N. Center St. in Corry. The building, built in 1909, was restored about 10 years ago by owners Bill and Jane Roche. The restoration and development of historic buildings like this could benefit from the Impact Corry plan for the revitalization and recognition of historic properties in downtown Corry.

residential, commercial and industrial structures and public parks.

The proposed historic district roughly extends from Smith Street to Church Street and for a block or two blocks on either side of Center Street, said Johnson, of Impact Corry.

Only one Corry

building, the former state armory on Washington Street, is currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Valerie Myers can be reached at 878-1913 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNmyers.

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

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Sunday, February 17, 2019

M5

Urban farming proponents see ‘unlimited potential’

C

arrie Sachse saw a need for locally grown produce in Erie.

Gary Horton sees a need for jobs and fresh food in communities on the city’s east side.

Both believe urban agriculture can serve those needs.

“How can you go wrong with food and feeding people?”

Horton said.

Sachse has made her vision for an urban farm into a reality at French and East 22nd streets, where she launched French Street Farms on vacant lots she purchased from the Erie Redevelopment Authority.

Horton’s idea for urban farming is still in the early planning stages. He would like to see a commercial farming facility built on theJoyce A. Savocchio Business Park, which the Urban Erie Community Development Corporation purchased in January.

Horton, who is the director of the Urban Erie Community Development Corp., said the group is considering options that could allow for growing produce even in the winter months, such as hydroponic farming.

“That’s the goal: to grow food year-round, to have fresh vegetables available, locally grown, year-round,” Horton said.

A timeline for the project is still in the works, Horton said. He sees urban farming as a way

to tap into the skills of neighborhood residents who have experience growing food.

“We’re out in the second-poorest neighborhood in the city, populated by people from various countries around the world and people who live in public housing and people who face many barriers and challenges, but people who are gifted at growing food,” Horton said.

Sachse’s venture, which is headed into its second growing season, offers a look at the economics of a fledgling urban farm. Sachse said she sold out all of the available shares in her community-supported agriculture crop-sharing program in her first year and in the upcoming year.

She hopes to offer more produce at farm stands this year. Trouble with getting water access meant she could only use half of the land she purchased to grow food last summer.

Sachse bought the four formerly vacant lots from the Erie Redevelopment Authority in 2017 for $950. Buying the land so cheaply helped her avoid going into debt to build the business, she said.

“That’s huge for my business’s bottom line,” Sachse said.

She also won a $5,000 start-up grant from the Idea Fund to help launch her business.

While she continues to build the farm, Sachse is keeping her day job at the Erie County courthouse. She hopes to begin hiring her own employees in

the next few years, she said.

“There’s no question in my mind that the biggest obstacle right now is just capital investment, and just not having the money to invest in the infrastructure that I need, but as I continue to invest what I can over time, the sky is the limit in terms of demand for local produce,” she said.

Urban farming in Erie became more possible after Erie City Council voted in June 2017 to amend city zoning rules to allow small-crop farming on residential properties and vacant lots.

Scott Henry, the executive director of the Redevelopment Authority, said he has received few inquiries about urban farming on Erie’s vacant lots in the past year. But he believes there is still interest in urban farming in the community.

“I certainly think there’s some people watching French Street Farms to see how that progresses,” Henry said.

He also pointed to the Erie Food Policy Advisory Council, a new group organized

by Lauren Azotea, an AmeriCorps volunteer who serves with the Erie County Department of Health.

The council, which is made up of stakeholders in the local food system, is developing an urban agriculture tool kit, Azotea said.

The tool kit would provide useful information about resources that could be helpful

Carrie Sachse, of Erie, checks on some of the produce growing in her commercial urban garden, French Street Farms, on May 30. The half-acre garden is located on the southeast corner of East 22nd and French Streets in Erie. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

to anyone interested in urban farming, she said.

“Trying to put it all in one place to make it as easy as possible,” Azotea said. She said she has heard from a few people who are interested in urban farming and even more who are interested in setting up community gardens in the city.

The tool kit is still being developed, but will be made available on the Food Policy Advisory Council’s Facebook page when it is complete, Azotea said.

Not everyone is optimistic about urban farming’s potential.

Mike Bailey, a Penn State Extension master gardener who helps run the Emmaus Grove garden in Erie, said he has doubts about the viability of commercial farming in the city.

“It requires a lot of attention and there’s a

lot of money required, even for a startup venture for something like that,” he said. “I don’t want to discourage anybody from trying this, but it’s not a real easy task.”

He said the cost of remediating land in the city for farming could be prohibitive in some circumstances, and that it could be difficult to compete against larger operations that can grow and sell produce more cheaply.

He pointed to his work at Emmaus Grove, which produces 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of produce annually for the Emmaus Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry.

“If you look at the number of hours that we put in to those gardens and the community support that we have for some of those gardens, how would you have to price

the produce coming out of those facilities to cover those costs, if we didn’t have free labor, community support, financial donations?” Bailey asked. “We couldn’t be competitive.”

But Sachse said she sees “unlimited potential” for urban farming and the need for locally grown produce. She said the demand for produce from French Street Farms far outpaced her growing capacity during her first summer.

“A lot of people could do exactly what I’m doing and we still wouldn’t be saturating the market,” she said.

“I think there’s tons of potential.”

Madeleine O’Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www. twitter.com/ETNoneill.

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By Madeleine O’Neill

M6

Sunday, February 17, 2019

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

Take U Pick Bay House, Brew House make Erie home

jennie.geisler@timesnews.com

I

f someone told you they were opening a restaurant in a parking garage, you might wonder if they’d gone, say, a bit daft.

But this is going to be no ordinary restaurant. While its basic steel doors now open up to nothing more than a concrete floor and a cavernous, twostory space with fresh drywall and exposed beams for a ceiling, it’s hard not to gape at the sweeping— nearly 180-degree— view of a frozen Presque Isle Bay. Bay House, named to fit into the family of restaurants owned by John Melody and Russel Stachewicz (Tap House, Public House, Harbor House and — also coming this year — Brew House) will otherwise feature a completely different menu and concept from the others.

“With an oyster bar, a raw bar, the emphasis will be on seafood,” Melody said. “That won’t be all we have, but the emphasis will be on seafood.”

While it will carry the new John Russel Brewing Co.’s beer, it will be “wine- and cocktailheavy,” Stachewicz said, comparing Bay House to Firebirds.

The interior of Bay House, which will seat 140 inside on a lower level as well as a mezzanine, will feature an open wood-fired

Argentine grill on pulleys to allow the cooks to raise and lower the heat level on the food.

Melody and Stachewicz pointed to spray painted lines on the floor indicating where the wet bar and the raw bar will sit, as well as the outdoor “sight lines” where no one else can build and obstruct the view.

The restaurant will also feature a roof-top component with its own kitchen, menu and bar.

“That will be more comfort food, more bar food,” Stachewicz said.

All told, their investment in Bay House will be “into seven figures,” Melody said. When they brought the bankers in to see the space, Stachewicz said, the Brig Niagara floated by in full sail.

“It was like John had ordered it to happen,” Stachewicz said with a laugh. “It was his Irish luck. But we could say, ‘Hey, this is Erie.’”

The restaurant, which will probably open late summer or early fall, is just one bright and shiny example of the commitment the two business partners have made to Erie’s revitalization.

It’s a big year for their business, which will also see the opening of a 6,000-square-foot brewpub on Upper Peach, where their U Pick 6 Beer Store sits now. But it’s also a big year for the city.

“It is exciting,” Melody said.

John Melody, left, and Russ Stachewicz, owners of the four U Pick 6 locations, show the future home of their new restaurant, Bay House, which they plan to open in late summer in the parking garage for the Courtyard Erie Bayfront Hotel. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

“We’re nervously excited,” Stachewicz said. “We love Erie.

We’re going to stay in Erie. We believe in what’s going on in this town.”

That’s not a commercial. In late 2018, the business partners donated $25,000 to the Erie Downtown Development Corp., an organization using donated funds to implement the Erie Refocused comprehensive plan.

“It was something we wanted to do and we were able to do,” Melody said. “It’s one thing to say you believe (in downtown). It’s another thing to do it.

And we’re going to be here a lot more years.”

John Persinger, executive director of the EDDC, said he was “absolutely thrilled” when he learned about

A new restaurant called Bay House is scheduled to open in late summer 2019 in the parking garage for the Courtyard Erie Bayfront Hotel. [JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

the donation.

“I was thrilled because it’s great to get the additional contributions,” he said. “But what was more important was the vote of confidence.

They’ve been operating downtown for years.

For them to talk about the EDDC bringing a new level of excitement and optimism about the future was great for us to hear.

“From our understanding, they said they’d never seen this

much energy and optimism downtown and they wanted to be a part of it,” Persinger said.

Meanwhile, Melody and Stachewicz say they’ve landed a See PUBS, M7

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By Jennie Geisler

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

LEADERS From Page M3

Beer is poured at U Pick 6 Tap House in Erie. [GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

PUBS From Page M6

brewmaster for their other current project, John Russel Brewing Co. Brew House on upper Peach Street. It’s a name Erie beer connoisseurs probably know, the former owner of VooDoo Brewing Co., Matt Allyn.

“I’ve had a good relationship with Russ since I owned VooDoo,” Allyn said. “They always carried our beer. He’s proposed over the years doing something like this, but it was always kind of a back burner set up.”

Allyn sold his majority stake in VooDoo because he was tired of running the business side of things, but has been wanting to get back to making beer.

“About two years ago, it started to become pretty serious that they wanted to do this,” Allyn said. “We were looking at locations and a year ago, they bought equipment, they secured a location and we’re moving forward.”

He said construction is underway and he can be brewing in less than a month.

“I’ll be brewing,” Allyn said. “I won’t be owning anything.

I won’t be stuck in an office, doing sales, procuring cans and bottles.

I’ll be in there 9 to 5 making beer and that’s what I want to get back to. I miss the day-today brewing aspect.”

He has plans for 10 beers and “lots of one-offs.” Melody said they plan to open the restaurant and roll out a selection of six beers, including India Pale Ales, lagers, pilsners.

“We’ll probably work in an Irish stout,” Ireland native Melody interjected. Russ wants a Mexican lager. Depending on construction and licensing, they hope to open early this summer and put those on tap at their other U Pick 6 locations, as well as at Bay House when it opens.

“Russ from Day One has been very involved in what he felt the craft movement was,” Allyn said. “From the day they opened the Beer Store, they only had craft beers. Anybody who would commit to that quality is somebody I want to work with.”

Melody and Stachewicz, in business together since Melody opened Molly Branigans on State Street (which they have since sold) met when Melody was running the Cornerstone, his first restaurant and bar at East 38th Street and Pine Avenue.

“I was selling them food,” Stachewicz said.

“I saw his vision and love for the restaurant business and I bought into that.”

Nothing has changed in two decades. They laugh when Stachewicz said they’re “yin and yang.” They also steal each other’s schtick.

When asked what prompted their EDDC donation, Stachewicz said “I’ll steal John’s line: ‘It’s always the right time to do the right thing.’”

It’s definitely the right time to be a restaurant and bar lover in Erie.

“It’s nice to be a part of that,” Melody said.

Jennie Geisler can be reached at 870-1885 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNgeisler.

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real estate in an area extending fromPerry Square north to Third Street and from Sassafras Street east to Holland Street.

The group closed its first real estate deal in September, paying $2.95 million to buy eight properties that front State Steet and face Perry Square along North Park Row. Persinger said he’s satisfied with how things turned out.

“Having the title of mayor was never an aspiration for me,” he said. “What I wanted to do was make a difference in the community, help turn around 60 years of economic and population decline. The results (of the election) didn’t turn as we had hoped. But I am grateful to the (EDDC) board to be in a position where I can make a difference.”

— Jim Martin

|

Sunday, February 17, 2019

M7

JOE SCHEMBER, 68, Erie mayor

A little more than a year into his first fouryear term as the city of Erie’s chief executive, Democrat Joe Schember says he’s as energized and hopeful as ever about the city’s future.

“My staff and I have been through a steep learning curve. But we’ve learned the pace, and we have the experience to make better decisions for the city,” Schember said.

The retired PNC Bank vice president and former member of Erie City Council was elected Erie’s 48th mayor in November 2017. Schember said he’s committing to leading Erie’s economic, cultural and quality of life renaissance, while also facing tough issues such as blight, poverty, crime and multimillion-dollar budget deficits.

“I think that is what the public expects of me, or should expect of me,” Schember said in a recent interview.

Schember said much of his focus,

Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper, at left, and Erie Mayor Joe Schember, have made an effort to work together during Schember’s first year in office.

[CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

particularly for early 2019, is guiding the city’s plan to enter the state’s Early Intervention Program for financially-struggling cities. The program provides grants that help municipalities hire consultants to help with long-term fiscal planning.

In addition, Schember said he will continue to negotiate with officials from the Erie School District and Erie County

government regarding his proposed expansion of citywide tax breaks as part of the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program.

That move, Schember believes, could spur significant development.

“I’m always going to make decisions with the citizens in mind, and I hope and expect to get better at this job every year,” Schember said.

— Kevin Flowers

Sunday, February 17, 2019

|

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

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M8

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 17, 2019

ERIE 2019: LIFE HERE

Five family members currently work at Smith Provision Co. in Erie. John Weber, who is president of the company, is surrounded by his daughters. From left are: Liz Weber, 36, assistant plant manager; Mary Weber, 38, chef and smokehouse trainee; John Weber, 61; Emily LaCour, 41, plant manager; and Sara Kallner, 43, vice president of sales and marketing. [PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

‘WE THINK WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE’ Slow and steady growth continues at Smith Provision

By Ron Leonardi ron.leonardi@timesnews.com

R

ows of hot dogs, mounds of bacon and an assortment of hams, fully cooked and just out of the smokehouse, awaited packaging during a recent weekday shift inside Smith Provision Co.’s 73,660-square-foot facility in the 1800 block of West 20th Street.

Growth at the 92-year-old Erie business hovered in the 3 percent to 4 percent range during 2018, according to company president John Weber, 61, a third-generation family member who began working full-time at the company in 1980.

“Our strategic plan proposes that our growth won’t be greater than 5 percent a year,” Weber said of his fourth-generation, family-owned company. “We’ve been laughed at for that multiple times because, in business, that’s really considered no growth. I would argue the opposite.

If a company can grow 5 percent a year, in less than 15 years, they will have doubled their size.

“In business, from an investor’s point of view, nobody is interested in a company that is going to grow 5 percent or less a year,’’ he said. “We believe we can manage that growth and maintain every bit of quality if our growth is 5 percent a year or less.”

Weber said the company he has overseen as president since 2016 doesn’t need to be on “that list of the 100 fastest-growing companies in America.”

He’d rather see Smith Provision, which currently employs 51 fulltime workers and an additional 10 to 12 seasonal summer workers, on a list of companies that will soon be celebrating their 100th anniversary.

“That, to us, is more important,” Weber said. “We don’t need to be superstars. If we can be profitable at a 2 to 2½ percent rate, we are very pleased.”

Sara Kallner, 43, and three of her sisters are fourth-generation family employees at Smith Provision. Kallner, Smith Provision’s vice president of sales and marketing, traces her employment roots with the company to when she was a teenager.

“The company is ingrained and part of the way that my sisters and I grew up,” Kallner said. Her father, Mike Weber, retired as president of the company a few years ago.

“When I was 14, I was lucky

Mary Weber, chef and smokehouse trainee, checks racks of natural casing wieners in the smoker.

Erie butcher William Smith, who sold his business in 1949 to Tony Weber. That business became Smith Provision Co., which was named for William Smith. [CONTRIBUTED PHOTO]

enough and begged for a summer job, where I started making boxes,” Kallner said. “Later that summer, I was promoted to work in the packaging department, where I started packing hot dogs. Every summer See SMITH’S, N2

Tony Vygovskiy packages bacon at Smith Provision Co. in Erie on Jan. 22.

MORE ONLINE See more photos from Smith Provision Co. in Erie: www.GoErie.com/Photos See video of the bacon packaging process at Smith Provision Co. in Erie: www.GoErie.com/Videos

N1

N2

Sunday, February 17, 2019

|

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

SMITH’S From Page N1

Kyle Giewont, left, Larrisha Sanders and Victoria Slaughen-Haupt make kielbasa sausage. [PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

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West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.

“We’ve spent a significant amount of time diversifying our business among a variety of customers,” Weber said.

“Most people recognize us for the Smith brand, which is a huge part of our business, and they tend to see that brand in retail— a Country Fair store, Giant Eagle, Wegmans or Tops. But we also sell our products into food service, and we have also tried to diversify by producing products for retail customers but under their brand.”

Smith’s brand products are generally sold as far east as Rochester in New York, as far south as the greater Pittsburgh region, and as far west as Indiana.

Promotional agreements have also enabled Smith Provision to expand its brand in the Pittsburgh region in the past decade.

Smith Provision is the official hot dog, kielbasa and deli meats of the Pittsburgh Penguins and PPG Paints Arena, and the official hot dog and

18/=C9K)*)J

been our family’s life since my parents moved to Erie in 1949.”

Many Erieites associate a Smith’s hot dog as a trademark identity of Erie, and consider the company’s natural casing and skinless wieners as a source of community pride.

“You can go to a lot of places and find less expensive products than what we produce, and there are many cheaper products out there,” Weber said. “We have families who have moved out of Erie who call us or email us and ask us to ship our products to them in their new communities so they can remember some of the tastes of home.

“I think that contributes to the reason why we’re one of the core foundational industrial supports of Erie because we care about our employees, we care about our customers, we care about producing the finest product we possibly can,” Weber said. “I think Erie people recognize that.”

Smith’s brand products are sold in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Indiana.

Private label products are sold in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York,

Ron Leonardi can be reached at 870-1680 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/ETNLeonardi.

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Racks of skinless wieners are ready to be packaged at Smith Provision Co. in Erie.

official kielbasa at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

“Our philosophy has always been if we could give someone the opportunity to taste our product for the first time, we believe they will become a customer for life,” Kallner said.

“We believe it’s that good, it’s that quality.

It’s just getting them to try it.”

“It’s a marketing opportunity to get potential customers in a very sports-centric community familiar with our brand name,” Weber said. “Erie since the 1960s has not been a growing community, so we’ve looked for some of our growth outside the city. We’ve put a big concentration on growing the business in Pittsburgh and eastern Ohio. We don’t just rely on Erie customers even though Erie is still the core of our business.”

That business is handled from the company’s two Erie locations.

Smith Provision’s West 20th Street operation includes 27,000 square feet of production and processing space. The remainder of the facility is used for offices, storage and warehousing.

All of Smith Provision’s product shipping and sales have been handled at the company’s 38,000-square-foot distribution center in the 1300 block of Cranberry Street since 2006.

The company moved its manufacturing operation from Millcreek Township to its West 20th Street manufacturing center in 2012— an $8 million renovation project that streamlined production while maintaining food-safety

much like we are a family, where people stay here for decades,” Weber said. “That’s intentional because we feel that not only is it the right thing to do, but it also benefits our products and our customers.

We have people who retire after 40 years of employment. ... We have less than 55 full-time employees, but for those families, we think we can make a difference.”

*)%$'!&#"&(

In 2018, Smith Provision Co. sold: • 21 million hot dogs • 3 million sausages • 125,000 hams • 500,000 pounds of bacon

standards.

“We have great product flow,” Weber said.

“Product flows from one end of the building to the other. It’s a state-ofthe-art food processing facility. It’s spotlessly clean, it’s efficient and we constantly invest every year in upgrading equipment, but we never forget that it’s the people who are operating that equipment who really make the difference in our products.”

Many of those workers end up making a career at the Erie facilities.

“Our goal is to create a family of employees,

18/=C9K)-J;

BY THE NUMBERS

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through high school and college, like all of my sisters, I worked in the plant and learned the business. I packaged hot dogs, learned how to stuff hot dogs, learned how to make hams. We all wear many, many hats, and there’s no job that’s too small. We all do everything.”

After graduating from Allegheny College, Kallner spent several years as a financial adviser in Erie, then returned to the family business.

“The Erie community has been so nurturing to us as a business,” Kallner said. “We are committed to giving back. In 92 years we have never had a layoff, which is something we are incredibly proud of. People tend to ask us on occasion why we’re not expanding or growing faster, and I think the answer is we’re cautious and that because what we’re doing has worked. We’re cautious in our growth.”

Inside a conference room at the company’s West 20th Street Erie production facility is a framed photo of William Smith, who opened his retail butcher shop, Smith’s, in Erie in 1927.

John Weber’s grandfather, Anton Weber, purchased the shop from Smith in 1949.

“One way or another, I think Smith’s has grown up within and with Erie,” Weber said. “We’ve been here for a long, long time, and there were other manufacturers similar to us at one time in Erie and for one reason or another, they’ve gone by the wayside. I think in part it’s because their ownership and management didn’t have the same commitment to the workforce that this company’s ownership and management has always had. My grandfather and father cared deeply about the people that they were working with.”

Weber has fond childhood memories visiting with his father the company’s thenheadquarters on West 23rd Street in Millcreek Township.

“I started washing and cleaning and scrubbing,” Weber said. “I learned the business from the bottom up.

From my perspective, this business has always been a part of our family’s lives. Because of the commitment that my grandfather and father had in ownership, it was a 24-hour thing. ... We grew up with the business, inside the business, wrapped around the business. It’s

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 17, 2019

N3

Tourism sector continues to grow It now amounts to more than $1 billion annually

By Jim Martin jim.martin@timesnews.com

E

rie's greatest asset as a tourist destination— miles of beach and boating and access to Lake Erie — are gifts that no amount of money could provide.

Building on those offerings — from wineries and brewpubs to Splash Lagoon Indoor Water Park, and millions of dollars invested by Waldameer Park & Water World, new hotels, a casino and a long list of other attractions — has helped transform local tourism into a billiondollar industry.

In the view of John Oliver, president of VisitErie, Erie County's tourism promotion agency, the ability to promote Erie outside the area has helped make the difference.

Just five years ago,

The historic fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard will return this summer for more sails on Presque Isle Bay. Its pressence here in 2018 was well received by locals and tourists. [GREG WOHLFORD FILE PHOTO/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Members of an out-of-town bachelorette party taste wines at Penn Shore Winery and Vineyards in North East Township. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Oliver said Erie County's tourism-promotion efforts, funded by a 1 percent hotel bed tax, were focused on attending some trade shows and promotion to AAA. There were no television commercials.

Expanding the hotel bed tax from 1 percent to 3 percent changed that.

Today, with an annual budget of more than $2 million, VisitErie runs regular newspaper ads

in Pittsburgh and over the past five years has run more than 25,000 television ads in Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, while increasing its outreach into Columbus.

Oliver said funding the Erie Sports Commission also represented an important change for his organization.

"You are looking at close to 60 events," he said. "Some of those have been major things that we

have done."

Here — using statistics provided by VisitErie — is a look at how at how tourism and its importance to the local economy has changed over the years.

Visitor spending: • 2001 — $463 million

•2016 — $1.2 billion

Tourism-related employment • 2001 — 10,000

•2018 — 17,000

Wages

• 2001 — $187 million • 2016 — $404 million

Hotel room sales

• 2006 — $43.4 million • 2018 — $87.8 million While Erie's tourism industry has grown in recent years, Oliver said he expects the statewide tourism industry to benefit from a bill signed last year by Gov. Tom Wolf.

That bill closed a loophole that enabled discount travel websites to pay tax

on the wholesale price they paid for a room— not the price a traveler paid for the room.

Act 109 of 2018, which was supported by the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, is expected to generate an extra $23.8 million in tax revenue a year, all of which will be used to promote Pennsylvania tourism.

"The state's tourism office will go from a budget of $4 million to more than $24 million," Oliver said. "This is going to allow the state to do some really extensive advertising and to promote Pennsylvania as a place to come and visit."

Building that base will be good news for Erie, he said.

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNMartin.

Erie International Airport rides an updraft

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Valerie Myers can be reached at 878-1913 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNmyers.

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by early May will drop its fare to compete with American ticket prices, according to information on the airlines’ websites.

Erie International Airport also offers service to Detroit via Delta Air Lines.

Martin is lobbying airline officials to add more destinations for Erie travelers. Increasing passenger numbers help make the case, he said.

“Airport projections are good,” Martin said.

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and Erie passengers are filling the extra seats, Martin said.

The new Charlotte service and extra Chicago flight will add about 14,000 more passenger seats on flights to and from Erie, he said.

“We should break the 200,000 passengers mark this year,” Martin said.

American Airlines will launch the Charlotte service as well as a daily Chicago flight May 3.

The airline will ground its Erie-Philadelphia service the day prior.

United Airlines already offers two daily flights to and from Chicago and

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available, Martin said.

Airlines serving Erie have switched from 37-seat commuter planes to 50-seat regional jets,

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disembarking in Erie: 94,323, compared to 84,817 in 2017.

The increase is partly due to more seats

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A Delta flight to Detroit takes off from the Erie International Airport in Millcreek Township. The number of passengers boarding flights from the airport climbed more than 11 percent in 2018 from 2017, when 85,580 people boarded planes in Erie. That number increased to 95,136 in 2018. [CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

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usiness at Erie International Airport is taking off.

Passenger numbers are up. And with Charlotte, North Carolina, service and an additional Chicago flight coming this spring, airport Executive Director Derek Martin expects more than 200,000 passengers to board or disembark in Erie in 2019.

“People are taking another look at Erie’s airport,” Martin said.

What they see, Martin said, will be more than additional listings on the flight boards.

The airport plans to reconfigure its cafe to accommodate passengers after they clear security. Terminal improvements, including new flooring, also are planned.

“We have opportunities to do some things this year,” Martin said.

The ERI Cafe currently is accessible only from the terminal’s public lobby. Passengers who have gone through Transportation Security Administration screenings cannot enter.

The airport plans to add a controlled entrance from the passenger area of the airport to the cafe. The cafe would be expanded to accommodate them, most likely in what currently is a conference room at the rear of the cafe.

Construction is expected to begin as early

as spring pending TSA approval, Martin said.

The airport parking lot also will be reconfigured.

Rental car spaces will be relocated to provide additional terminal parking, Martin said.

“We’re having flow issues,” Martin said.

“We need space.”

More people are using the airport, and that’s fueling the flow issues.

Passenger numbers increased 11.7 percent in 2018, to the highest numbers since 2014.

Last year, 95,136 people boarded flights in Erie, up from 85,580 in 2017. There also were more air travelers

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By Valerie Myers valerie.myers@timesnews.com

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Sunday, February 17, 2019

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Erie Times-News | GoErie.com

Waldameer Park & Water World owner Paul Nelson talks about the history of the Millcreek Township park. [PHOTOS BY JACK HANRAHAN/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Waldameer’s transformation Park has evolved from picnic spot to top attraction

By Dana Massing

WALDAMEER PARK & WATER WORLD’S 2019 SEASON

dana.massing@timesnews.com

C

haos is coming to Waldameer and it’s being welcomed by owner Paul Nelson as the latest in more than three decades of improvements that have turned the amusement park into one of Erie County’s top attractions. And Nelson isn’t done yet.

“We plan long range,” he said.

Nelson, the owner and CEO of Waldameer Park & Water World, and Steve Gorman, the president and general manager, said they recently completed one 10-year plan and are just starting another with more than $50 million in improvements expected to take place over the next decade.

In 2019, that means the arrival of Chaos, a spinning swinging thrill ride that will be the first at Waldameer to take riders upside down and will cost more than $1 million to complete in a spot next to the park’s train station. Also going in this year is a $500,000 heated relaxation pool near the wave pool.

“We put something big in every year,” Nelson said. “That keeps us in the public’s eye.”

But that wasn’t always the philosophy at the park that began in the late 1800s as a picnic spot overlooking Lake Erie. Waldameer Park was born in 1896, according to the history on the park’s website.

Roller coasters, including the original Ravine Flyer, began going up in the early 20th century.

Nelson began working there at age 11 in 1945 for then-owner and family friend Alex Moeller, who went on to adopt the boy and promise him the park. Now 85, Nelson said he went from washing dishes to cleaning bathrooms and preparing picnics, eventually working his way up to general manager and then taking over the park when Moeller died in 1965. Gorman, 58, who is Nelson’s sonin-law, began working

Paul Nelson, owner of Waldameer Park & Water World.

Scott Gorman, president of Waldameer Park & Water World.

at Waldameer in 1995.

His son, Brian Gorman, is vice president of operations.

Nelson proudly pointed in the park office to a black-and-white photo from 1951 that shows him on the back of a truck hauling in a load of lumber to be used for the Comet, a wooden roller coaster still in operation at Waldameer nearly seven decades later.

But then expansion slowed in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

“We didn’t buy a lot of new stuff,” Nelson admitted.

However, by the mid1980s, he’d decided to borrow money and also to sell the historic carousel’s wooden horses, which brought in $1 million at an auction, so he’d be able to reinvest in the amusement park and add a water park.

Water World opened in 1986.

“If I hadn’t done that, the park would never have grown,” Nelson said.

He replaced the old carousel with a less-expensive merrygo-round that has fiberglass animals and holds more riders.

Following the water park, Nelson added rides including the Sea Dragon in 1992, the 100-foottall Ferris Wheel in 1994, the Thunder Driver log flume in 1996, the Steel Dragon spinning coaster in 2004 and, in 2008, the much anticipated

Dates Waldameer Park is scheduled to open May 4, starting with weekends only and adding weekdays starting May 24, when Water World is set to also open, according to the 2019 brochure. Hours vary.

Rates Waldameer Park & Water World combo: $41.50 for those 48 inches and taller, $31.50 for those under 48 inches and those age 60 and older.

Waldameer only: $31.50, $22.

Water World only: $29, $23.

Season pass: $104.95, $84.95.

Prices for individual rides vary.

More Call 838-3591 or visit www.waldameer.com to learn more.

See video of Waldameer’s owner and president: GoErie. com/videos

and celebrated Ravine Flyer II wooden coaster that carries riders over Peninsula Drive.

Gorman said Waldameer and Water World today cover 52 acres, with 20 picnic pavilions, 35 rides in the amusement park and 27 slides in the water park. The enterprise employs 25 people in the off-season and had about 600 in summer 2018, he said.

That was double the number of employees from when Gorman started 23 years before.

He said 85 to 90 percent are high school and college students.

Picnics — schools, businesses, churches, Scouts, families — remain a core part of the business.

But Nelson and Gorman also remain committed to the visitors who don’t spend an entire day at Waldameer

Steve Gorman, left, president of Waldameer Park & Water World, and owner Paul Nelson are shown in a Ravine Flyer II roller coaster car, which is in storage for winter.

or Water World — the single mothers or grandparents raising grandchildren who don’t have much money but can maybe pop in for a couple hours, pay to take a ride or two, walk the midway enjoying the sights and sounds.

They “can come and have a good time and not break the bank,” Nelson said.

He and Gorman said they don’t intend to ever charge an admission fee at Waldameer.

Because people don’t pay to get through the gates, exact attendance figures aren’t available but Nelson and Gorman said the park is doing very well, continues to attract record crowds each year and

they want to draw even more people. The park that used to be closed on Mondays is now open seven days most weeks in June, July and August.

With Erie’s population slowly dipping and poverty rising, however, Nelson said that most of that growth has come from Ohio and some from Pittsburgh.

The park has also grown in acreage in recent years, with Waldameer purchasing and demolishing cottages and mobile homes on the west side of Peninsula Drive and the Inn at Presque Isle to make way for parking plus Water World expansions including a $9 million Giant Wave Pool in 2015 and a $2.5 million Battle

of Lake Erie water playground in 2017.

“We have enough land now for the next 10 years,” Nelson said.

But he didn’t rule out buying more. “If it comes up and it’s halfway reasonable, I will buy it,” he said.

He already has new rides in mind, although he won’t discuss them all in case he decides not to buy a particular one.

Nelson, whose favorite ride is the L. Ruth Express, the train named for his adopted mother, Mrs. Moeller, said he does try out a new ride before buying it.

The new heated relaxation pool coming this year is an example of his See WALDAMEER, N6

Erie Times-News | GoErie.com |

Sunday, February 17, 2019

N5

NOT PLAYING AROUND

More improvements underway and others are scheduled at ErieBank Sports Park

By Victor Fernandes victor.fernandes@ timesnews.com

I

ce time at ErieBank Sports Park has been a hot commodity, which is what Greater Regional Erie Athletic Team Training Inc. President Bob Catalde and fellow board members envisioned when the former Family First Sports Park facility officially opened in September.

Even with Erie Insurance Arena and Mercyhurst Ice Center open, hockey players and skaters have flocked to the nonprofit group’s campus at 8155 Oliver Road to use the twopad rink after enduring extensive travel out of town in recent years due to a lack of available ice time in Erie.

“We’re very happy with where we’re at with it. It really is ... everything we hoped it would be,” Catalde, of Millcreek Township, said of the centerpiece to a $9.1 million project that took three years to complete.

Catalde said families, skating groups and businesses have embraced the facility in its first five months of operation.

“That’s not to say we’re satisfied,” he said.

Catalde said the project merely has begun, because EBSP has the potential to attract largescale events, on and off the ice, that could make Erie a popular sporting destination.

“We still have more work to do,” he said of improving amenities for

ABOVE: Young athletes enter ErieBank Sports Park in Summit Township for hockey practice.

RIGHT: Ray Tackett, 39, coach of the Stanford Cardinals basketball team, talks with his players at ErieBank Sports Park in Summit Township.

The team plays in a youth league at the facility.

[PHOTOS BY GREG WOHLFORD/ ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

sports such as basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse and volleyball to develop a facility “the entire community can be very proud of. It’s a community park.”

The community, after all, has helped make this a reality.

G.R.E.A.T.T. bought 43 acres and a number of buildings that made up much of Family First Sports Park for $5.25 million in December 2017

from local businessman Glen Renaud. The first phase of G.R.E.A.T.T.’s renovation $9.1 million project includes the acquisition costs.

G.R.E.A.T.T. received a $3 million state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program in

2016 and a $500,000 grant and a $500,000 loan from the Summit Township Industrial & Development Authority. In December 2017, Erie County Council approved tax-free bond financing that will allow G.R.E.A.T.T. to receive

up to $6.2 million in financing from ErieBank at a lower interest rate.

The organization is currently trying to get the property exempted from property taxes.

The next phase of work at the center features projects in the dome, and

others are underway in the fieldhouse. Combined, they total about $200,000.

The dome, which was rebuilt after it deflated under the weight of record-setting snow in December 2017, has undergone a notable facelift, with a new inflation system, heating unit and LED lighting.

“After the dome collapse, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” said Preston Dillemuth, of Erie, who has organized indoor slow-pitch softball tournaments for a decade.

“The teams that have come in have all been thrilled with the new lights and heat. The new lights allow for much more to take place in the dome and it’s much safer.”

Alternative ways of better heating the twopad rink, Catalde said, are being considered to avoid uncomfortable temperatures for patrons and possible mechanical issues with equipment such as sprinkler systems. Designs are underway on a baseball and softball training area featuring batting and pitching tunnels in an 8,000 square-foot section of the building adjacent to the dome.

Construction is projected to be done in time for workouts in the fall and winter.

The basketball courts in the fieldhouse are scheduled to be refinished next summer.

“It’s a special facility.

There aren’t many like See PARK, N6

N6

Sunday, February 17, 2019

PARK From Page N5

it in the country, where you have all of those different entities on one campus,” said Chuck Lawless, EBSP's general manager, who moved from Buffalo, New York, in October to run the facility for Rink Management Services Corp., the Mechanicsville, Virginia, ice rink and sports facility management company that oversees the project.

“From what I’ve seen, there’s a buzz around town. It’s going to start to become a main focal point. It’s exciting to have that in the area.”

Revenue has been strong enough, Catalde said, that a positive cash flow intended for investment in the facility could occur this year, even though the facility didn’t generate revenue during construction and the dome’s collapse led to unexpected expenses.

Catalde said they are consistently selling ice time for the two-pad rink, and the dome’s turf field “is being rented out a significant amount of time.” The courts in the fieldhouse, he said, “are being used a ton.” The dome’s driving range also is growing popular among golfers as the

WALDAMEER From Page N4

and Gorman’s approach to additions. It will hold up to 125 people, triple the capacity of the existing pool. Plans for the next 10 years also call for the Endless River to be expanded 50 percent,

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weather turns colder.

Still, fundraising will play a key role in these projects. The need for additional funding, Catalde said, kept the baseball and softball training area from opening this winter.

Meanwhile, Lawless said the facility’s calendar continues to fall into place on a national scale.

EBSP will host local and out-of-town hockey tournaments this winter, including the annual Sarah Backstrom Memorial Girls Hockey Tournament.

Basketball and volleyball tournaments will be held through March, while lacrosse and soccer tournaments are set for next summer. Other events, including an international drone competition, could come to EBSP this year.

“As long as they continue to market to different events,” Scott Enterprises Inc. Vice President Chris Scott said, “it’s definitely going to be positive for the whole area, not only for Scott Enterprises but convenience stores, shops and other restaurants. It’s definitely positive anytime you can bring not only locals here but especially people from out of town to get them to spend money in Erie.”

Mark Jeanneret, the with some “action” features added. Nelson said anytime something is replaced, it’s done with at least a 50 percent capacity increase in mind. Gorman said that’s designed to reduce lines.

“I do not want to have long lines,” Nelson said.

They plan to replace two of Water World’s

Three teammates, from center left, Garrett Laniewicz, 10, Grady Grimone, 10, and Peter Houston, 9, wait to check in during a league basketball game at ErieBank Sports Park. [PHOTOS BY GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS]

Erie Sports Commission's executive director, said the facility’s potential local economic impact is too early to project. The 2019-20 skating season will play a key role, he said, as will events the facility could hold in the months after improvements to the courts and other amenities are completed. But there are opportunities to enjoy success.

“The interest from outside groups to events to what the facility has to offer,” VisitErie

Executive Director John Oliver said, “is what’s leading us to believe that this is going to be successful.”

Catalde is confident that EBSP’s future is bright.

“Everything that we hoped and knew that location offered is all coming together,” he said.

Victor Fernandes can be reached at 870-1716 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter. com/ETNfernandes.

Russ Waha, 46, leaves the rink with son Riley, 5, after an open-ice time at ErieBank Sports Park.

oldest features — the two speed slides visible from Peninsula Drive — with a colorful six-lane racer slide, a $3 million project that they hope to have completed for the 2020 season.

Nelson said he also wants to add a “mammoth” five-person raft ride, big enough for a family to enjoy

together, with a tunnel and a tower that will be visible from West Eighth Street. He said it’s being designed now.

He expects a family automobile ride to eventually replace a pair of small picnic pavilions next to the Comet and near the train station.

Toward the end of the 10-year plan, Nelson

said, he’d like to put in a high-price, steakhousestyle restaurant seating several hundred that would be a destination unto itself rather than someplace simply for park visitors to patronize.

“I’ve always wanted to do something like that,” he said.

Nelson also has

big ideas in mind for beyond the current 10-year plan. But he’s not yet ready to reveal any, other than to say “it would expand our season by two months.”

Dana Massing can be reached at 870-1729 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNmassing.

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Sunday, February 17, 2019

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Sunday, February 17, 2019

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