Cumberland County developer planning $12M mixed-use project in Steelton

Hampden Township-based Integrated Development Partners LLC, a real estate firm whose managing partner is former Cumberland Area Economic Development Corp. CEO Jonathan Bowser, on Tuesday unveiled its vision for The Steel Works, a development at 102-230 N. Front St.

“Growing up in the area, this project is kind of a homecoming for me,” Bowser said at a borough hall press conference.

Integrated Development is planning to erect five separate buildings on the six-acre site, including a 20,000-square-foot supermarket, as well as a pair of four-story and three-story buildings.

The goal is to fill about 6,000 square feet with a brewpub and the rest with a mix of retail and medical office space on the first floors. More than 100 market-rate apartments would be built on the upper floors.

In addition to the buildings, plans call for a large park and amphitheater in the rear of the development. Called the Brickyard, the space could host community events and small concerts.

“This is a chance to rebuild Steelton,” Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick III, a former Steelton mayor, said.

He called the project an opportunity to move the old steel mill town forward and grow the borough’s tax base.

It won’t be a panacea, Hartwick added. “But it’s a major step in the right direction.”

Indeed, Councilwoman Keontay Hodge expects the development will be a catalyst toward “starting a new Steelton.”

Integrated Development purchased the land earlier this year for $375,000 from the Steelton Economic Development Corp. after another developer failed to get financing for its plan for the site.

Bowser said the final tenant mix could change as the company goes through the borough approval process for construction in 2019. Landmark Commercial Realty has begun marketing the site, and Bowser hopes construction can start by next fall or early 2020.

Construction would be phased over about 18 to 24 months.

Tax abatement

Dauphin County used $230,000 of a $400,000 federal Environmental Protection Agency grant to conduct environmental assessments of the site needed before construction.

The Steel Works project also is eligible for a 10-year tax-abatement under the state’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act program, known as LERTA.

Steelton adopted a LERTA ordinance last year.

Steel Works is eligible for a full 100 percent abatement for 10 years, an incentive that applies to projects in the commercial town-center district. The district encompasses both sides of Front Street between Conestoga Streets to Strawberry Alley, plus the 100 block of Adams Street.

Projects elsewhere in the borough enjoy a 100 percent abatement for the first five years. The abatement decreases 20 percent each year for the next four years. So, for example, there is an 80 percent abatement in the sixth year and 20 percent in the ninth year. Full taxes are paid in the tenth year.

The tax incentives do not make a property tax free. The abatements only apply to additional real estate taxes stemming from increased property values attributed to new construction or renovations.