Group: We're not driving out N.F. String

DAUPHIN COUNTY

Harrisburg's Community Action Commission didn't stop a manufacturer from expanding on 4 acres in the city's South Allison Hill neighborhood in 2006, said Allen Westbrook, commission chairman.

N.F. String & Son Inc. Vice President Gregory F. String, who runs the company, claims otherwise. He said the commission kept him from developing an 80,000-square-foot building on the former brownfleld across the street from his business at 1380 Howard St.

Last week, String said he must pack up shop, along with 52 employees, and find a suitable spot on the West Shore.

We s t b r o o k wasn't chairman of the commission at the time String originally wanted the property, but he was a commission board member. To refresh his memo- ry, he scanned files, letters and e-mails from 2006 to find out what happened. A key piece of correspondence is a letter the commission sent to Dauphin County and copied to N.R String and Mayor Stephen R. Reed, he said.

"The letter says (the commission) would be glad to work with the N.R String people or anyone interested in developing the approximate 4 acres. But (the commission) requests a business plan, a site plan and an employment plan," Westbrook said. "To my knowledge, those things were never submitted to the Community Action Commission. I don't know why."

The Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority owns the vacant property, according to a deed filed in the Dauphin County Recorder of Deeds Office. Last week, both String and Reed said CAC owned the property. But in 2004, the authority contractually agreed to let the commission develop it or bring in a developer to build on the land, Westbrook said. The commission is an Allison Hill nonprofit that helps individuals and families become self sufficient.

Reed also said String only had conversations with him about the project.

"Neither then nor since has (N.R String) ever actually presented a formal plan for the site," Reed said. "They advised us that they would want to expand in the future. It was a verbal conceptual discussion."

The manufacturer of coin wrappers and change-counting machines submitted plans to the city but not the commission, said Debi Buta, N.R String operations manager. N.R String tried to call the commission several times but did not hear back, she said.

"We gave (the city) all kinds of stuff. Oh, yes we did," Buta said. "The mayor is not telling the truth either."

Neither the city northecommission has tried to contact String to try to stop the company from leaving, Buta said.

Dave Black, president and chief executive officer of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber and Capital Region Economic Development Corp. (CREDC), said CREDC would try to keep String in the city and expand if anything can be done.

"Greg is a very bright guy with incredible talent when it comes to visualizing and designing his machinery," Black wrote in an e-mail. "N.R String is one of Harrisburg's best- kept secrets."

String said he wanted to spend $10 million to create a campus for his business. He had plans to move into another building next to the tract and put up another smaller building behind his existing location, he said. Hamilton Health Care has since made plans to move into the 64,500-square-foot building beside the 4 acres.

When String was interested in the property in 2006, the commission thought a vocational school, playground and/or park should go on the property, and that is what kept the company from growing into the space, Buta said.

Reed said he supported N.R String's plan and still does. But a neighborhood action plan for South Allison Hill, which takes resident and business owners' opinions into account, called for the recreation facility and vocational school on the site, he said.

The community action plan is updated every five years. Based on the plan, the commission wanted to attract a recreational developer to the site, Westbrook said. There isn't much room for playgrounds or parks in the neighborhood, and when the 4 acres became available, the idea of putting in a park or playground was attractive, Westbrook said.

Former commission executive director Linda Figueroa sent a letter to Reed in 2006 reminding him that the South Allison Hill neighborhood is a dense census tract, and that 40 percent of the people in the neighborhood are 18 years old and younger, Westbrook said.

But the commission also knows it might not be able to get a recreational developer to invest in the property, and that's why it's open to other plans, including N.R String's, Westbrook said.

The land in question is surrounded by Mayflower, South 14th, Chestnut and South 17th streets. The tract was formerly home to the South Allison Hill Automotive Company. In recent years, dilapidated, empty buildings sat on the parcel until the city demolished those in 2008. The state Department of Environmental Protection gave Harrisburg a $500,000 grant to clean oil and other pollutants from the brownfleld when the buildings were cleared.

The commission entertained a proposal to put a major sports complex on the site in 2007, Reed wrote in an email. The project started taking shape as a feasibility study was done, and a construction manger, planner and contractor got involved, he said. But the project never took off because the emerging recession put achokehold on the project's financing, Reed said.

The commission is talking with other developers interested in the site, Westbrook said. He would not disclose any plans, but said that the Hamilton Health Center is interested in using a piece of the empty property for parking and incoming and outgoing traffic for the building it occupies next door.

String employs 52 workers, many of whom are from Allison Hill, which is a depressed section of town and is filled with vacant tracts, litter and crime. The expansion project would have added 100 jobs in two years, String said. The company would have paid more taxes to the cash-strapped city, too. String paid about $18,600 in taxes to Harrisburg last year.

Dauphin County Commissioner George P. Hartwick III said he told the Community Action Commission at the time that he thought economic development and the addition of quality jobs in Allison Hill should have took precedence over recreation at the site. The commission considered putting in an outdoor movie theater at the site, Hartwick said, and jobs were more important.

String said Hartwick met with him once several years ago, but he never heard from him again.

Hartwick said he did more, and that he contacted the commission, CREDC, met with the city, DEP, and other governmental agencies to try to make the project work, he said.

Now that Hamilton Health Care is interested in the property, Hartwick said he thinks String is threatening to leave and take jobs with him to gain leverage in getting the land.

Choosing between a movie theater and job expansion on Allison Hill was easy, but Hartwick said now he would have a tough time picking between Hamilton Health Care's plans and N.R String because Hamilton Health Care provides an important service to the unemployed and those without health care in the community.

Hartwick said it's important to keep lines of communication open, but wasn't sure it was his responsibility to make the commission and String agree.

"My role was to bring effective parties together and not be polarized," Hartwick said. "I made my intentions clear, that I supported good quali tyjobs for Allison Hill."

If the manufacturer leaves, it will be a blow to the South Allison Hill neighborhood, said Bob Jackson, chief executive officer of the African American Chamber of commerce of Central Pennsylvania, which is just up the street from N.R String.

Not only will String take jobs from the neighborhood, it will add another empty building to Howard Street, Jackson said. The area surrounding Howard Street already is filled with empty buildings, and there are little to no jobs in the neighborhood, he said.

June Roberts, president of the South Allison Hill Business Association, would not comment on the effect the business leaving would have on the neighborhood.

The commission is still interested in getting a plan from String for the property, Westbrook said.

And Reed said he wants String to move forward with the project.

"As the sports complex project is no longer an active consideration, it has been and remains this office's position that the site is fully available for N.R String," Reed said. "We would welcome a submitted proposal from them to acquire and develop the site, and the company should proceed to do so. There is nothing that prevents them from doing so, and I want them to do so."

String said that his mind is made up, and that he is moving the company out of Harrisburg no matter what.

[Sidebar]

'Neither then nor since has (N. F. String) ever actually presented a formal plan for the site. They advised us that they would want to expand in the future. It was a verbal conceptual discussion."

Stephen R. Reed, Harrlsburg mayor

[Sidebar]

Land in question

N.R String & Son Inc. wanted to expand from 1380 Howard St. (black dot) in Harrisburg's South Allison Hill neighborhood to the unoccupied 4-acre former brownfield surrounded by Mayflower, South 14th, Chestnut and South 17th streets. The tract was formerly home to the South Allison Hill Automotive Company.

N.R String & Son Inc. controller Randy Lehman and operations manager Debl Buta survey the vacant lot across from the Harrlsburg-based manufacturer's facility, In background, In the city's South Allison Hill section. The company had hoped to expand Its operations to the tract of land.

FILE PHOTO/ AMY SPANGLER

[Sidebar]

"My role was to bring effective parties together and not be polarized. I made my intentions clear, that I supported good quality jobs for Allison Hill."

George P. Hartwick III, Dauphin County commissioner

[Author Affiliation]

BY ERIC VERONIKIS

ericv@journalpub.com