Berks County department store magnate Al Boscov has taken on yet another project in Reading, this time focusing on Penn Square in center city.
On Monday, "Our City Reading," the nonprofit group founded by Boscov, was given the green light by city council to redevelop five condemned or underused buildings on Penn Street.
The proposal, which involves the empty bank building and the nine-story Callowhill building, passed in a 5-2 vote by Reading City Council.
"We thought it was logical to get downtown Penn Street to be once again the center of the city. It's been sort of forgotten," said Boscov.
Ideally, Boscov plans to invest up to $5 million to bring businesses, restaurants, shops and apartments to the buildings, although he admits that two are in "bad shape."
With the proper restoration, Boscov imagines the strip becoming somewhat of a "restaurant row."
He said those eateries and other shops will ideally be developed on the lower levels, while the upper floors will become live/work apartments or "incubator" offices and work spaces.
"So that we have activity and people staying here at night because at 5 o'clock, you want people walking downtown. You don't want everyone leaving," said Boscov.
Some city officials, like council Vice President Jeff Waltman, however, have reservations. He voted against Boscov's plan.
"It was less about the plans and more about the lack of an overall vision for downtown," said Waltman. "It's nice that we've done a lot of great projects and certainly, Albert has led the way on many, but as a city we're really lacking a definitive vision for the downtown area."
Waltman said he believes the city needs to be more deliberate with its long-term plans and think "bigger." He thinks more private investment is required.
"This project leverages a lot of federal dollars, which is great. We need to do that, however, you're not going to complete a whole downtown on federal dollars," said Waltman. "We can't rely on 'mights,' 'maybes' and 'possiblys.' If we haven't defined what we want to accomplish, guess what, we're not going to accomplish it."
Boscov concedes that there is a lot of work ahead, but he believes the plan is a step in the right direction.
"All these things are steps. We've got a lot to do," Boscov said. "If we can give [Reading] vitality, and people come back, and people are waking around the streets, and they're people who like to do and see things, you have a city back."
Boscov has been instrumental in the development of several other downtown projects, including the IMAX movie theater at North Second and Washington streets in Entertainment Square and the DoubleTree Hotel, currently under construction in the 700 block of Penn Street, across from the Santander Arena.
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