Lancaster New Era
April 24, 2008
By TIM MEKEEL, New Era Staff Writer

The Economic Development Co. of Lancaster County believes what’s good for the city can be good for the county.

So it has obtained $4 million that it will use to take the state’s Building PA financing program here, previously just available in the city, to six boroughs across the county.

“This would allow us to take the successes we’ve had in Lancaster City and do similar projects in the boroughs,” said EDC vice president John Biemiller today.

The $4 million was approved Wednesday by the Commonwealth Financing Authority. The money went to EDC Finance Corp., the arm of the EDC that administers the Building PA program here.

The new allocation can be used to rejuvenate existing buildings for multi-use, commercial or industrial projects in Lancaster City, Ephrata, Elizabethtown, Lititz, Columbia, Mount Joy or Manheim.

Building PA is a more flexible program than other state-funded economic development programs the EDC administers here, Biemiller explained.

It can fund projects that are speculative, meaning a specific user has not yet been found. It also can fund projects that have a residential component, as long as there’s an industrial or commercial piece too.

Finally, it can fill a gap between a project’s total cost and the developer’s equity plus his traditional bank financing. Or it can replace some of those other dollars at a lower rate and make the project profitable.

The EDC got its first $4 million from Building PA in December 2006. Though the EDC wanted to take the program from the outset to the boroughs, the state limited the initial award to projects in the city.

So far, EDC has funded two through Building PA — $1 million for Auntie Anne’s corporate headquarters at Prince and Chestnut streets and $900,000 for the conversion of the Swisher tobacco warehouse on North Prince Street into apartments and offices.

In addition to the Building PA dollars, the authority also funded three agriculture projects here through the state’s First Industries Fund loans.

Recipients are Scott and Jennifer Gochenaur, $200,000 to buy an egg farm in Elizabethtown; Brubaker Farms in Mount Joy, $415,000 to buy a manure digester; and Brian and Elsie Weaver in Manheim, $90,000 to buy farm equipment.

Staff writer Tim Mekeel can be reached at tmekeel@LNPnews.com or 481-6030.


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