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WILKES-BARRE — Incoming Mayor George Brown could get some specifics on the proposed downtown project by Sphere International LLC later this month when he sits down with the developer at City Hall.
Brown on Monday confirmed he will attend the meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. on Dec. 19 with Mayor Tony George, members of the George administration and New Jersey-based Sphere. It originally was scheduled for Tuesday but pushed back to accommodate travel arrangements for Sphere principals.
“I will be there,” Brown said.
The meeting could answer questions Brown has raised about the certainty of the project — which includes a hotel, conference center, rental units and commercial space — and about the validity of George’s $52.6 million budget for next year, which relies on permit fees from the development planned for the corner of West Northampton and South Main streets.
“What I want to know is when they’re going to break ground, when permit fees are initiated,” Brown said.
If he receives information about the projected cost of Sphere’s project, a time frame for construction and completion, Brown said he can calculate the fees for his budget.
With the change of administrations, the city Charter affords Brown, a Democrat elected in the Nov. 5 general election, the opportunity to submit his own budget for council’s approval.
“I’m putting my budget together right now,” he said.
Last month city council failed to advance the proposed budget to the first of two votes necessary for approval. Brown, too, expressed his concerns about relying on revenues from projects still on the drawing board, especially in the case of Sphere that announced its plans in October 2015 when he was on city council.
To protect against the project not being built or completed, a reverter clause in the sales agreement with Sphere allows the city to take back the property.
“I was one of the people that insisted on the reverter clause,” said Brown, a former city councilman.
George included the fees in the $2.5 million in revenues from downtown developments to balance his proposed 2020 budget, which does not include a property tax increase.
In his Oct. 15 budget address, George acknowledged he was relying on one-time revenues for the Sphere project, the construction of the Luzerne County Transportation Authority’s operations’ center at the former Murray Complex along South Pennsylvania Avenue and Gateway Center Associates mixed-used development on the former Hotel Sterling property at the intersection of West Market and North River streets.
Still, George said he would not submit a revised budget for council’s review and approval by the end of the year. That sets the stage for Brown to present his spending plan for next year when he takes office in January.