Diamond City Partnership executive director Larry Newman gives his report Wednesday during the quarterly Downtown Wilkes-Barre Business Association membership meeting.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
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WILKES-BARRE — A new event space inside the historic Wilkes-Barre Bank building was teased Wednesday during the Downtown Wilkes-Barre Business Association’s quarterly meeting at Rodano’s on Public Square.
Director of Operations Donna Keyes announced at the meeting that The Bank Downtown plans to open two new event spaces in the building with renovations set to begin in June.
The first space will be a rooftop venue that is slated to open sometime in the spring of 2025.
Keyes said the ballroom will fit about 150-200 people and will have 360-degree views of the downtown on all sides.
The second, larger venue space will be located on the ground floor and is set to open sometime in the late summer or early fall of 2025.
“We’re looking forward to partnering with local businesses and nonprofits for events downtown,” Keyes said.
Built in 1911, the former Miner’s Bank building houses 84 apartments as well as commercial business space.
Also at the meeting, Diamond City Partnership executive director Larry Newman gave some insight into the number of employees and guests visiting the downtown last year, compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
According to Newman, during 2023, the total number of employee visits downtown was 58% of 2019.
Newman said the number of visitors downtown was “quickly approaching pre-pandemic levels.”
“So, as an example, during small business Saturday last year, at the end of November, we had almost 15,000 people visiting downtown during that day. That’s 91% of the 2019 figure, so it’s coming back much better,” he said.
Newman attributed this growth to several new developments happening downtown, including the addition of 6 new storefront businesses, most recently Evergreen WB on North Hampton Street.
“We had some really terrific discussions with those new business owners and based on our conversations, I’m really feeling optimistic about the future of downtown small business,” said Newman.
Upcoming events in May
Members at Wednesday’s meeting brought attention to the many downtown events slated for next month, including the re-scheduled Downtown Arts Fest block-party, which will take place on May 11.
Diamond City Partnership Event and Marketing Coordinator Shelby Monk said residents can expect that event to be “even bigger and better than it was already supposed to be.”
Also in May, the Fine Arts Fiesta will take place from May 16 to 19 on Public Square.
The pop-up happy hour series Sunsets on South Main (SOMA) is also slated to return on May 16 and will continue on every Thursday of the month up until September.
For information on more upcoming events, visit downtownwilkesbarre.org.