Construction is underway on a project that will bring multiple nonprofit organizations under a single roof next to the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading.
The vacant former factory building at 229 Washington St. will become the annex of Helping Harvest, new home of the Reading Science Center and more.
Jim Boscov, chairman of the nonprofit Our City Reading Inc. which owns the building and is developing the $18.5 million project, updated City Council on its progress Monday.
Boscov is seeking financial support for the project from the city’s pool of American Rescue Plan Act funds or other monies.
Most of the funding is in place, he said, but there is a $3 million gap in the financing.
“Our goal is not to make a profit,” said Boscov, who is CEO of his family’s Exeter Township-based chain of department stores. “Our goal is to get this project finished, and financially solvent and running on its own in a way that the nonprofits that are the tenants are paying the least possible rent.”
Boscov was joined by Jay Worrall, president of Helping Harvest, and Scott Gruber, retired president and CEO at Tompkins VIST Bank, who is overseeing the financial aspects of the renovation.
Their presentation started with some background on the project, which grew from the food bank’s need for expanded space.
The plan calls for Helping Harvest to occupy one floor, which will be transformed into a commercial kitchen that can be used to process bulk foods into heat-and-eat meals, Boscov said.
Helping Harvest anticipates 2,500 nutritionally balanced meals will be prepared weekly for distribution, mostly to senior citizens, through the organization’s extensive pantry network.
In addition, the food bank has partnered with Tec Centro Berks to offer culinary arts skill training that will prepare students to work in the restaurant and food industry.
Boscov said that soon after conversations with Helping Harvest began he was approached by Jim Cinelli, founder of the science center, which is outgrowing its current quarters at 645 Penn St.
The move to an upper floor in the Washington Street building will allow the nonprofit educational center to greatly expand its more than 50 interactive science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, exhibits aimed at students.
Possible uses for the remaining space include areas for GoggleWorks expansion, classrooms for preschool Head Start programs and affordable apartments for the art center’s studio artists and newly hired teachers in the Reading School District, Boscov said.
As part of the project, two vacant and deteriorating houses on Washington Street, east of the building, will be demolished to provide additional access and entry points.
“From top to bottom, it’s just a very impactful project that touches a lot of lives,” Gruber said, “and for many generations could really provide significant benefit to thousands of city residents.”
State Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz joined the meeting virtually to speak in support of the project. The Reading Democrat said she appreciates the collaboration of the various nonprofits involved.
“You’ve had a collective impact in our community,” she said, “and I think this is a great way of using space that otherwise hadn’t been allocated for any other development.”
Cepeda-Freytiz said the Helping Harvest component alone addresses a number of issues, including alleviating food insecurity, encouraging healthy eating, reducing food waste and providing employment skill training.
“I think it’s win-win,” she said. “So I’m hoping that members of council, along with the mayor, agree to contribute some ARPA dollars to this project. I think it’s going to have a long, lasting impact and effect in our community.”
Jamar Kelly, city deputy managing director, said Mayor Eddie Moran wholeheartedly supports the concept and hopes, with council’s approval, to provide some funding.
Kelly said he was not yet able to provide an amount the city could provide but should have some idea as other ARPA-funded projects are committed by November.
Councilman O. Christopher Miller said it is good to see a long-vacant building being renovated for adaptive reuse, particularly because the project involves a partnership of nonprofits and the building will have multiple uses.
“I think you’re like the poster child of what can be done with these larger buildings that we seem to have that people don’t know what to do with,” Miller said.
Gruber said $15 million in funding has been committed, and the Boscov family is fronting expenses for the construction underway.
“There is no way this isn’t happening,” Boscov said. “It’s happening now. We’re financing it, but the truth is that we really need to close the gap.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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