Progress

June 13, 2009

W-B gets $2.4M for Murray site

Pa. grant to help develop housing on industrial tract on Courtright St.

By Bill O'Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – The city has received $2.4 million in state funding from Gov. Ed Rendell to construct an energy-efficient housing development on the site of the former Murray Complex on Courtright Street.

The funding is for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to target the blighted, tax-foreclosed former industrial site.

Mayor Tom Leighton said after the city gains title to the entire property, the structures will be demolished and the deed for the land will be donated to a nonprofit housing corporation which will construct 18 energy-efficient housing units.

Leighton was contacted in Providence, R.I., where he received the 2009 Mayors’ Climate Protection Award, a program sponsored by The U.S. Conference of Mayors and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The awards program recognizes mayors for innovative practices designed to increase energy efficiency and curb global warming. An independent panel of judges determined the winners from a pool of 140 applicants.

On the proposed housing project, Leighton said, “We have been working to clean up this neighborhood for three years now. We are close to taking title on all of the buildings on the site.”

Leighton said a developer has not yet been selected. He said once the legal work is completed and a developer chosen, work will begin on the 13-acre site that runs along Darling Street.

The buildings once made up the former Wilkes-Barre Lace Manufacturing Co. The complex was the scene of a massive fire in 2007.

After a second blaze at the site, Rendell came to town and pledged $1 million for demolition.

Thomas J. Murray owned the complex that the city took control of in January of 2008. The city paid $1 to hold Murray’s $300,000 mortgage.

Leighton said he was honored to be able to accept the award at the mayors’ conference.

“The City of Wilkes-Barre is very proud to be the recipient of this award,” he said. “Initiating an efficient energy service program in Wilkes-Barre made both environmental and economic sense. Through this program, we lessened our impact on the environment while experienced substantial cost-savings, estimated to be $170,000 annually. By winning this award, we hope to serve as a model for other communities and businesses who strive to become more environmentally conscious.”

The award was given due to the city’s broad-based, public initiative that relies on a combination of energy efficiency upgrades in various city departments. These include: new compact fluorescent lamps; overhead and pyramid lighting in public parking garages and public spaces; LED traffic signalization lamps; and a new HVAC system in City Hall.

Bill O’Boyle, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7218.

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