WILKES-BARRE – To George Tassone the old silk mill on South Empire Street looks small, only because he’s been over every inch of the building he plans to develop.
He received the go-ahead Wednesday from the city zoning board for his Empire Silk Mill project to build offices, apartments, a restaurant and a fitness club in the century-old structure.
“I want to keep that old character,” Tassone said Thursday during a tour of the four-story building he acquired two years ago. His business The Pool Factory occupies a good portion of the first floor.
He and his employees have been cleaning the place inside and out. “We had to strip the layers of 100 years of business,” Tassone said.
Sunlight poured through the arched windows he’s cleaned, shining on hardwood floors and interior brick walls. Posts ran down the middle of the space supporting massive wood beams overhead.
“The guys who did this building didn’t take any shortcuts,” he said. To build something like this today it would probably cost more than double the $4.5 million Tassone estimated his project will cost.
He’s nearly finished renovating a section of the first-floor space where a restaurant would go. On the second floor, he’s started to put up walls for one and two-bedroom apartments. The apartments will rent for $1 a square foot and be competitive with other apartment complexes in the market that are operating at capacity.
Professional office space will occupy all of the fourth floor and the southwest end of the second and third floors.
The 80,000-square-foot building and the 3.6 acres of surrounding property should be developed within 18 months, he said.
The complex is located close to Interstate 81 and the retail and entertainment district around the Wachovia Arena and the Wyoming Valley.
Tassone realizes other mixed-use projects are under way in the downtown, but said his is different. “Over the last two years it’s been a passion,” he said.
Loft apartments are part of the theater complex at Northampton and Main streets. A few blocks away, residential units, shops and restaurants are planned for the Murray Complex on Pennsylvania Avenue. Close to the Susquehanna River, condominiums and retail and office space are planned for the former Hotel Sterling.
Source: Times Leader