2016-3-10 feceras.pub

Persistence pays off
The rehabilitation of a Beech
county standards is far from meager by
Street landmark is underway.
Pottstown standards. Rents will range
The official groundbreaking for the
from $600 to about $900 per month.
conversion of the long-vacant FeGenesis will retain and enhance the
cera’s warehouse into apartments
historic façade of the building, just as
and an art gallery is 11 a.m. tomorit did with the handsome Jefferson
row, but construction work has alSchool Apartments at Beech and Warready begun.
ren streets, completed in 2004.
The beat-up aluminum enThe property will have an on-site
closure over an original loading
manager.
dock has been removed, a deteIt would be nice to say borriorating roof was taken down
ough fathers rolled out the red
to open a courtyard between
carpet for this project, but they
the main buildings, and two
did not. Genesis applied to the
blighted houses were
state three years in a row for
demolished for parking.
the needed tax credits. The
Commentary by
All this concerns a
first two years, Council deTom Hylton
massive, historic brick
clined to provide conditional
building on a highly visiapproval for the project, nor
ble artery through town.
did it provide a letter of enUnlike recent elementary school
dorsement.
renovations and a new borough
Finally, in 2014, Council endorsed
maintenance facility, the $13 million
the project, and the tax credits were
project is not being funded with local
approved last year.
tax dollars.
Meanwhile, Council changed the
Genesis Housing Corp., a nonparking requirements, so Genesis then
profit with a long history of housing
had to obtain a variance from the zonrehabilitation in Pottstown, is parting hearing board to allow the project
nering with Housing Visions to create
to move forward. (It was granted).
43 apartments — mostly one bedNo other non-profit has done more
room — in the four-story building
for the revitalization of Pottstown than
with an arts center operated by ArtGenesis. Over the last 15 years, it has
Fusion19464 on the ground floor.
constructed 34 new homes in PottsUsing state tax credits requires
town’s most challenged neighborhoods
making the apartments “affordable,”
and helped rehabilitate 115 more.
but Montgomery County’s median
Pottstown residents owe Genesis a
income is so high that “affordable” by
debt of gratitude for its persistence.
Construction fencing, dumpsters, and contractors’ vehicles signal
the beginning of the $13 million renovation of the former Fecera’s
warehouse on Beech Street into apartments and an art gallery.