Demolishing the old for a new Nanticoke

NANTICOKE – The city’s downtown is undergoing a major transformation – one that has been in the planning stages for at least the last three years.

Two long-standing iconic buildings began to fall Monday morning as demolition employees from Grinnell Recycling of Sparta, N.J., arrived to begin making room for the Luzerne County Community College’s Culinary Arts Institute.

Developer Mark Construction of Moosic will build the nearly 22,000-square-foot building and then the college will purchase the building for $3.128 million.

Demolition crews started tearing down the former Senior Citizens Center, once owned by the city, on the corner of Main and Market streets. Construction crews will also tear down the Susquehanna Coal Building once owned by the Nanticoke Housing Authority, on West Main Street and Nanticoke Avenue.

Both buildings are surrounded by a chain-link fence to keep onlookers from getting too close. Nanticoke Avenue has been cordoned off for about one block behind the old coal company headquarters to Nanticoke Avenue and Coal Street.

All this work is seen as a positive step to state, LCCC and city officials because to them it signals that Nanticoke is heading toward a rebirth.

State Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, has long been a proponent and driving force to get two of the college’s major programs into the downtown. LCCC’s Health Sciences Program is slated to move into the former Kanjorski Center on Main Street in the spring of 2011. Internal demolition of that building will begin soon, because a contract was awarded last week to Empire Services for $122,300.

“I feel inspired by the residents of the South Valley and all the community leaders who shared our vision for a new downtown Nanticoke,” he said.

The projects did not come without their hurdles. Announcements for LCCC’s move into downtown were made more than two years ago, with the original time frame of starting classes this fall.

“Projects of this magnitude, nearly a $30 million investment in Nanticoke, always face certain challenges. … No hurdle proved insurmountable and the progress we planned for is being delivered,” Yudichak said.

As vice president of LCCC’s training institutes, external affairs and planning, Joe Grilli oversees all the college’s renovation, expansion and new construction projects.

Echoing Yudichak’s comments, he said he never doubted the project would move forward.

The Culinary Arts Institute will be constructed to strict Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification guidelines to make the two-story building as energy efficient as possible.

The Culinary Institute will not be on the tax rolls, but City Administrator Holly Quinn said the city will gain something even better after the building opens for classes in the fall of 2010.

“The Culinary Arts Institute is going to host approximately, every day, 250 staff members, faculty and students when they open. That is 250 more people that will be walking around downtown Nanticoke every day. They are going to be eating in our restaurants and shopping in downtown.”