Progress

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

April 1, 2009

Verizon set for Public Square site; tenants sought

By Ron Bartizek rbartizek@timesleader.com
Business & Consumer / City Editor

WILKES-BARRE – Saws are buzzing and hammers pounding at 15 Public Square, as the 7,000-square-foot former Heritage Shop is divided into smaller, more easily rented spaces.

“We’re chopping it into three units, one with 1,045 square feet, one with 1,200 square feet and one with 2,000 square feet,” said Rob Finlay, president of landlord and developer Humford Equities. The remaining 3,000 square feet will be available for office use.

“The space was so deep; we’ve shortened up the units,” he explained.

A Verizon Wireless store will open May 1 in the smallest of the new units, Finlay said. There has been some interest in the other two retail spaces but no firm tenant. Finlay would like to see the U.S. Postal Service take one of them to replace the West Market Street office that closed abruptly in January, leaving downtown without a convenient place to send or receive mail and packages.

Finlay’s approach has been spurned so far, with the explanation that a cash-strapped Postal Service is focusing its resources on existing infrastructure.

The asking price on retail space is $12 per square foot, Finlay said, but the final tally can vary depending on how much work a tenant requires and the length of the lease.

The card shop, a downtown fixture for decades, closed last year.

There’s activity in two other Humford properties downtown; Patty Leighton’s Bee Hive gift shop opened today in the Midtown Village on South Main Street and the Ameti brothers are working on a new restaurant, Pronto Via Pizzeria, in 1,300 square feet beside the walkway that will connect a new transportation center to South Main.

Marcello Ameti said the shop, which is just beginning to take shape, will serve “good, thin crust pizza, sandwiches” and some deli products. The Ametis opened Caf� Toscana in October 2007.

Finlay said the anticipated summer opening of the transportation center, with a 752-space parking garage, has sparked leasing activity. In addition to the added spaces in the center, the Square will be cleared of bus stops that now limit parking for office and restaurant customers.

“As far as I’m concerned the city’s not in a recession,” Finlay said. “However, we were in recession the previous 10 years.”

Not all the activity has been positive, though. Bank of New York Mellon on Tuesday closed its 3,000-square-foot office on the fourth floor of 15 Public Square. Finlay said the space is ready and waiting for a new tenant: “It’s brand new; they spent a pile of money” redoing the seven offices, kitchen and board room. It even can come with the furniture.”

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