With new planner on board, hopes rise for Northwest Triangle project

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Early next year, investors in the Northwest Triangle near downtown York expect to see construction start on the next stages of an ambitious project designed to steer the city of about 44,100 people into the “fourth industrial revolution.”

That view is prevalent among some key stakeholders in the largely vacant industrial tract, which could help York create a walkable community near downtown, said John McElligott, CEO of York Exponential, a robotics company on Roosevelt Avenue in York and the leader of efforts to revitalize the brownfield.

“It is starting to move very, very quickly,” said McElligott.

Several key steps have been taken in recent months that have accelerated the project, which could bring a mix of job-creating industries, as well as retail and residential construction and educational facilities.

Those steps include having Blanda Nace, York’s chief opportunity development officer, oversee the administration of a $6 million state grant that was approved last year by Gov. Tom Wolf. That move helps on several levels, including having the grant details handled by a third party and not private investors; generating income for York out of fees paid for Nace’s work; and adding a layer of transparency and accountability that comes with putting a local government in charge of grant administration, McElligott said.

Another step was the hiring in April of Skyler Yost, who has been involved in various economic development initiatives in the county, as the Northwest Triangle project manager.

Staying on track

McElligott pointed out that the Northwest Triangle project has gone through a variety of development plans, which means that much of the infrastructure, zoning and permitting issues already have been resolved. But what was lacking was someone to pull together all the moving parts to usher the project to the next level. Yost is providing that guidance, he said.

Yost said he wanted to get involved because he strongly believes in the project. He also has been working to develop an education initiative known as the Fortress Academy, which involves a 15-week course in robotics and artificial intelligence and that eventually will be based at the Northwest Triangle. The academy is led by the YMCA in York and works with various employers and education facilities to develop programs.

The Northwest Triangle organizers noticed that there were “too many stops and starts” to the overall project, so it was decided that a project manager could help, Yost said. As project manager, he said, his main job is “herding cats,” a reference to making sure all the different stakeholders – from state and local governments, to investors and contractors, to the educational pieces – are working together efficiently.

He and McElligott both said the goal is to get a new construction phase underway by the first quarter of 2020, which is when the state grant was extended to from an earlier deadline.

McElligott and Yost said various investment sources are being culled. While they wouldn’t discuss details or identify the investors, McElligott said several investors intend to take advantage of federal opportunity zones, of which the Northwest Triangle is a part. The zones, created by the late 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, are in underserved census tracts in cities and counties nationwide and give investors tax breaks on capital gains if they invest in funds that steer money into those areas.

In a recent interview, Nace said the Northwest Triangle is part of a growing trend of entrepreneurs investing in York, seeing the historic city as a great place to create technology jobs and businesses. The recent completion of the United Fiber & Data fiber optics line from New York, through York, and into northern Virginia has put York on the map for technology companies looking to start up or grow in a community that is on the East Coast and that has a low cost of living, several observers said.

The Northwest Triangle is near the revitalized blocks around the city’s baseball stadium, which is close to where UFD redeveloped an old warehouse for its headquarters. UFD has plans to convert the long-closed county jail into a data center, while also renovating an old industrial building off Loucks Mill Road known as the Metso building, also near the UFD headquarters, Nace said.

McElligott said such projects will be enticing to any tech company looking to open its doors or to expand, especially with the addition of the UFD fiber optic line. That line, which UFD will open to companies that want to tap into its capacity, has the heft needed by startups and technology companies that want to test robotics and artificial intelligence, he added.

York largely missed out on the technology revolution ushered in by the internet, McElligott said, but he believes it is poised to take advantage of the “fourth industrial revolution” – which will blend automation, artificial intelligence and robotics to create new jobs and businesses. That vision will put the city ahead of other communities nationwide, said McElligott, who speaks about the city’s future with intensity.

Communities that don’t work to create that future will be left behind, he said. He intends to move some of his company’s robotics operations to the Northwest Triangle.

“This is for everyone,” he said. “Not just for millennials, not just for the city.”