Erie Events seeks extension for waterfront market plan - GoErie.com

The nearly $6 million market house would operate year-round on Erie’s bayfront.

Erie Events is asking state government for more time to craft its plan for a nearly $6 million market house that would operate year-round on Erie’s bayfront.

The organization has requested a six-month extension for submitting a detailed business plan for the project to Gov. Tom Wolf’s office. The business plan is part of the requirements attached to a $1.5 million grant Erie Events received for the project via state government's capital grant process.

That grant was announced by Wolf’s office in August. Business plans attached to such grants must be submitted within six months, which means Erie Events was required to submit the plan sometime this month.

The 18,0000- to 20,000-square-foot market house, which Mayor Joe Schember’s administration endorses, is part of long-range plans to redevelop the 12.5-acre site of the former GAF Materials Corp. plant on Erie’s west bayfront.

Erie Events owns that property.

The market house would include both a full-service grocery store and room for local vendors to sell chocolates, wine, meats, produce, crafts and other goods. It would utilize both indoor and outdoor space for vendors.

Casey Wells, Erie Events’ executive director, said the organization is requesting more time from the state “to allow us additional time to secure a prime tenant, and identify how we can bridge the funding gap” for the project.

Wells said he expects the request to be approved, and that he’s confident Erie Events can finalize its business plan and line up an anchor tenant within six months.

The project has a total budget of $5.8 million, according to Chuck Iverson, Erie Events’ director of finance and administration. However, Erie Events originally requested nearly $2.8 million in state funding, or about $1.3 million less than it received.

Bank financing and at least $700,000 of Erie Events’ own money would likely be part of any financing plan, Iverson has said.

Wells told the Erie Times-News earlier this month that he “has been talking to people about the market house development,” but declined to divulge more, including whether those talks involve a potential anchor tenant.

Securing an anchor tenant for the market house is key because that could lead to a rent-generating lease agreement that would be used to obtain financing, according to Erie Events officials.

Wells has said the market house would add the “critical mass” that draws visitors to the bayfront and give downtown Erie a much-needed food market option.

The market could also become a “landing spot” for pedestrians who use the proposed walkways over the Bayfront Parkway that are part of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s planned improvements to that area.

Contact Kevin Flowers: kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @etnflowers.

2020-02-23 05:26:15Z
https://www.goerie.com/news/20200223/erie-events-seeks-extension-for-waterfront-market-plan