Downtown boosters reveal strategy

YORK COUNTY

York city officials unveiled a three-year downtown plan with provisions for public safety, sanitation and tourism promotion.

The proposal has reignited a long-running disagreement about whether the Business Improvement District, an authority that taxes downtown properties to promote the area, should pay for cops. The city wants the authority to chip in $20,000 for police, but the authority's chairman, Mel Campbell Jr., rejects that idea. The BID operates under the brand name Downtown Inc, which deliberately uses no period in its name.

But the city's downtown plan has other components. An outline of the plan appears to call for the removal of real estate agents' advertising boxes. It also clearly calls for soda machines and pay phones to be removed.

City economic-development director Matt Jackson is proposing that Downtown Inc help clean city streets. In written remarks provided to the Business Journal, he urged the group to make sanitation part of its mission, suggested it buy a street sweeper with grant funding and noted that BID organizations in other cities have employees pick up trash.

Cops would help in cleanup efforts by cracking down on nuisances including litter, weeds and vandalism, according to the plan, which counts on increasing the police presence in the area.

Campbell said Downtown Inc was working on a litter-control plan. One idea the group is exploring is whether offenders sentenced to community service could pitch in downtown, he said. Campbell also said his group would work with the police department on a nuisancecontrol plan, despite the disagreement over funding more officers.

The city's plan calls for the launch of two task forces. One would study ways to improve Continental Square, at the city center, and to expand Cherry Lane, a side street and plaza that often plays host to musical performances and other events. A Cultural Heritage Tourism Task Force would also be created.

Heritage-tourism initiatives highlighted in the plan include lending bicycles to visitors and establishing a "Creation of the Nation" museum. The proposed museum has been allocated $5 million in the state's capital budget, according to the city. The plan also floats the idea of increasing York County's hotel tax from 3 percent to 4 percent to promote heritage tourism in York, Hanover and other areas.

The plan puts a heavy emphasis on cooperation among downtown players. But in conversations with the Business Journal before the unveiling, Jackson and Campbell seemed far apart on the question of funding.

Jackson urged the BID to increase its levy on property owners to expand its activities. He called the current rate of 1 mill, or $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value, paltry.

"You have to spend money to see results," he said.

Campbell said the BID would likely raise its assessment at some point, but that it must first prove itself to its constituents. He repeated his long-running opposition to funding police, which he called a basic public function. The $20,000 the city is seeking from the BID would be added to funds pledged by other groups and help pay for a 24-hour police presence in the area, according to the outline of the city's plan.

Downtown Inc has a new executive director, Christina A. Mauhar. She could not be reached for this story.

Campbell said his group is getting along well with the city despite the funding dispute.

"I think our working relationship's been pretty good, and I think it's going to get better," he said.

Downtown Inc has its own plans for 2007. The group plans to overhaul its ambassadors program, which has guides walking the downtown area to help visitors. Shifts will be shuffled to ensure that more guides are available duringbig events, and guides will call on companies to make presentations, Campbell said. The group will also publish an expansive visitors' guide and hopes to organize two new events, he said.

Meanwhile, some of the biggest changes in the downtown will be determined by the real estate market, as several prominent properties in the area are up for sale (see "Space available," this page).

Kevin Hodge, an agent at Rock Commercial Real Estate in York, said the availability of so many large properties does not mean the downtown market is slow. Large retail spaces are relatively difficult to sell because few users need that much room, but smaller spaces are popular, he said.

"It's a tight market for things like that," he said.

Space available

Several prominent buildings in downtown York are up for sale.

By far, the most visible is the Futer Bros. building, a large, three-story structure on Continental Square. The building was the longtime home of Futer Bros. Jewelers.

The building has been on the market for more than a year. It was originally listed at $1.5 million, but the price has been reduced to $695,000, said Carolan Bradley, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker BobYost Homesale Services in Springettsbury Township.

Several potential buyers were interested in using the building as a restaurant, but it lacks a commercial kitchen, she said. The building is well over 150 years old. It sports a 1960s fa�ade that city economic-development director Matt Jackson called tragic, but the historic exterior still lies beneath that cover.

The downtown Futer Bros. location has been consolidated with a suburban site. The business struggled downtown, said Futer Bros. President Debbie Eigenrauch. She said York was suffering from trends that have hurt downtowns nationwide.

"We hung on as long as we could," she said. Eigenrauch said business has shifted to the suburbs and the Internet.

The building occupied by Capital Telecommunications Inc. at 200 W. Market St. is also for sale. CTI was acquired in 2006 by StarVox Communications Inc. of California. StarVox did not want to own the building, and the space has become too large because CTI has shrunk by about 12 people since the deal, leaving about 16, said Thomas D. Morley, CTI's senior local executive.

Other buildings are also available for sale or lease. They include:

* The Fraternal Order of Eagles building at 35 W. Philadelphia St., which has a well-known mural of weightlifter Bob Hoffman and is for sale;

* A building at West Market and Beaver streets that until recently housed Weinbrom Jewelers; and

* A building near the Codorus Creek that previously housed Mercury Electronics. That company is known to be operating in the Seven Valleys area, but Mercury officials have not responded to repeated telephone calls.

-David Dagan

[Author Affiliation]

BY DAVID DAGAN

davidd@journalpub.com