When Armstrong World Industries consolidated its manufacturing facilities in Lancaster, the building products company vacated 47 acres and 2 million square feet of building space. Armstrong didn’t want the property to just sit there. But with about 100 empty buildings and required cleanup, the land appeared too expensive to fix.
So the Economic Development Company of Lancaster County worked out a deal where it bought the property for $1 and Armstrong gave it $6 million for assuming responsibility for the cleanup. It took five years for all the buildings to be torn down and for the vast swath of land to be made fit for people to live on. The result of the so-called Northwest Gateway Project was an urban green oasis. The project also garnered a national Phoenix Award for brownfield development, making it just one of 10 projects around the country to receive this recognition.
Franklin & Marshall College and Lancaster General Hospital each kicked in $6 million to buy part of the land in January 2010, when most of the property improvements were complete. The hospital plans to turn its real estate into a medical campus including research space and a nursing school. Franklin & Marshall, on the other hand, plans to use its portion for athletic facilities that will be open to the public when the college isn’t using them. “The public basically gets a free park,” says David Nikoloff, president of the Economic Development Company of Lancaster County.
Source: David Nikoloff, Economic Development Company of Lancaster County
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen