At first glance, downtown York's Northwest Triangle doesn't look like
the largest community- and economic-development project in the city's history.

When economic conditions worsen, people curb shopping, forgo
buying bigger houses and delay business expansions. But they can't stop aging
or falling ill.

Everyone in the boat. And start rowing.

There are lots of different education/industry partnerships
intended to address businesses' needs for more skilled workers. The
Pennsylvania STEM Initiative is the most comprehensive attempt to coordinate
all of this activity, and more businesses need to hear about it and join the
work.

Should a developer wait for the real estate market to bounce
back before he moves ahead with a project? Or should he build now to avoid
substantially higher raw-material prices later?

One snowy day in early 2006, John Traynor and his business
partners discovered Harrisburg.
The New York City residents were in search of a
good meal during their drive home from Pittsburgh.
They turned off the highway and followed signs into the city.

The national housing market may be reeling, but developers
are betting big on urban living in Harrisburg.
They are trying to push midtown's momentum of home improvement and commercial
investment north past Reily Street,
into an area some define as uptown.

For the first time in decades, southcentral Pennsylvania is seeing the emergence of a new
retail-development product, said Steve Evans, managing director of the retail
division of High Real Estate Group in Lancaster County.

Project watch

When I visit places from my past - Pottsville, Ephrata or Millersville - I get a
sense that you really can't go home again. Quite simply, you can't recapture
the past.

Lancaster Gastroenterology Inc. at the beginning of August
completed a $250,000 expansion.

Nevada-based DP Partners purchased a 100,000-square-foot
flex office/warehouse at 7917
Derry St., Swatara
Township, the company's Harrisburg office recently
announced.

A building
in Harrisburg
will be demolished to make way for a parking lot that neighboring Appalachian
Brewing Co. (ABC) will lease, representatives of the Harrisburg Regional
Chamber & Capital Region Economic Development Corp. (CREDC) said this
afternoon.

The Harrisburg-based
Keystone Research Center (KRC) yesterday released a report that shows inflation-adjusted
house sale prices dropped across Central Pennsylvania between the second quarter of 2007
and this year's second quarter.

A new hotel near Hershey will add about 90 rooms to a market
that is falling far short of meeting visitors' demand, York County
developer David Hogg said.