FARRELL City includes more area for project development

Bob's Steel City Inn will be razed and the land cleared for commercial development.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- City council has agreed to expand a $1 million economic development project to include property on Broadway Avenue.
The original plan, funded with a $500,000 state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant and $500,000 in city money, targeted expansion of a light industrial park in the Northwest Gardens area of town and a commercial area along Idaho Street.
However, property appraisals on land to be purchased in those areas came in lower than expected, giving the city an opportunity to move into a third area on the east side of Broadway, said Thomas Graney of Graney, Grossman, Colosimo and Associates Inc. of Grove City, the city's project consultant.
The property
The targeted property is the former Bob's Steel City Inn at 500 Broadway. The inn has been closed for some time.
The city wants to buy and raze that building and add the land to property it already owns just to the north, making a sizable parcel of commercial land for development, said City Manager LaVon Saternow.
She said the city hasn't had any expressions of interest in that particular property but there has been some interest in Broadway in general.
City council held a hearing before Monday's council meeting seeking public input on the project expansion, but no one showed up.
Council later passed a resolution approving the expansion.
Hillside Industrial Park overlooking Broadway several blocks to the north will grow under the original terms of the project.
To buy lots
Farrell will buy four occupied homes and relocate those residents, two vacant homes and 23 empty lots in that area, all of which will be converted into four large building parcels.
The park will be bounded by French Street on the south, Broadway on the west, George Street on the north and Louisiana Avenue on the east.
The Idaho Street portion of the project calls for the city to buy four vacant commercial lots between Spearman and Fruit avenues and combine that land with some other adjoining city lots to create seven parcels for commercial development.
Both Hillside and part of the Idaho Street site are in a state Keystone Opportunity Zone, and building in a KOZ gives a developer a full abatement of all state and local taxes for a specified period.
There are seven years left in the abatement package in Farrell's KOZ, said Mayor William Morocco.