• They are all converging on the June 30 deadline for passing a state budget for the next fiscal year.

$15M mixed-use project secures zoning approvals

• The city's zoning board on Monday night unanimously approved a raft of variances for the project, shown above, which is designed to create affordable housing.
• "It's critically in short supply," said the developer, Lancaster businessman Jeremy P. Feakins, who said he has owned the site -- at 800 S. Queen St. -- since 2006.
• Feakins has long sought to redevelop the tract, formerly home of a store called Rebmans.
• But his plans gained momentum when the site was included in a tax-incentive area known as an Opportunity Zone, a program established by the Trump administration's signature tax law, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
• "It encourages developers to invest in distressed neighborhoods and turn buildings which are like ours into something nice for the benefit of the community," said Feakins, a serial entrepreneur who was born and raised in England. He first came to Lancaster in the 1980s.

• The building is slated to include 72 affordable apartments with rents that would be within reach of people earning less than 80% of the area's median income. Affordable housing is typically defined as costing no more than 30% of income.
• The project could also bring a cafe, a small grocery and a medical/health care tenant to a section of the city where commerce is sparse, said Feakins, who works out of an office in a corner of the site.
• His office would be converted into a day care, while an existing small warehouse would be demolished.
• The zoning variances granted this week cover building height, setbacks, tenant mix, tree spacing and parking spaces. Officials agreed to allow fewer than the required number of spaces.
• The extra height -- about 10 feet -- is needed to accommodate stairs leading to a planned roof garden that tenants can use to grow vegetables, flowers and other plants.

• Feakins said he is hoping to raise about $4 million from private investors, including himself, and borrow the remainder. 
• Some investors may wait for other milestones, like the issuance of building permit, he said. "But zoning is the big one, in my experience anyway," he added.
• Feakins is chairman of Lancaster-based Ocean Thermal Energy Corp., which is developing technology to produce renewable energy and clean water. His development company is called OZ Fund Inc.

• Feakins said he is hoping to undertake other projects in Lancaster, as well as in York.
• "There's another city that needs affordable housing. Harrisburg does, too," he said.

Quick takes

• Leopold has been at Novak since 2005. Before that, she worked as finance director for the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania.
• A graduate of Dickinson College, she also is past board chair of the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross.

• "Working with NFIB, together we will ensure the interests of small businesses are advanced in Harrisburg so they can focus on driving our economic recovery,” Leopold said in a statement.

• Silar founded Paragon Engineering Services in 2002 in Spring Garden Township, York County.
• He sold Paragon in January 2019 and stayed on for nine months during the ownership transition.

• But the developer, Catalyst Commercial Development, is weighing the market before deciding how and when to proceed with construction, according to Lee Fittipaldi, a principal at brokerage firm Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania.
• Each warehouse is slated to span 251,200 square feet.

• The initial developer of 601 Stony Battery was Catalyst, which sold the project to Massachusetts-based High Street Logistics Properties, Fittipaldi said. High Street sold it to TA.

• Bars and restaurants have been seeking the discount for awhile as a means of softening the financial blow of Covid-19 restrictions on their business.
• "That's another one of those bills that chips away at a bigger problem,” said Chuck Moran, executive director of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage and Tavern Association.
• The committee also made a few other dents. It passed a bill allowing closed bars and restaurants to sell off their liquor -- but not their beer -- andanother bill making it easier to provide outdoor seating.