After many days of rain, developer Greg Morris and his partners broke ground on the new $100 million Logan Town Centre project on a \u201cChamber of Commerce day\u201d in Logan Township.
\nThe new shopping center will bring an estimated 2,000 construction jobs, and when the project is complete, possibly 4,000 permanent jobs to Blair County.
\nWhen introducing the politicians on hand, Morris was thankful for the work put in by Congressman Bill Shuster and Senator Robert Jubelirer.
\n\u201cAssembled behind me is an all-star team,\u201d said Morris of the group of partners and politicians. \u201cWithout their help, what we started five years ago would not have happened.\u201d
\nThe final hurdle was acquiring the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers and Morris gave credit to Shuster for bringing home that permit.
\n\u201cLogan Town Centre is the first of many things to happen up and down this corridor,\u201d said the congressman. \u201cI would have run up that dirt road and grabbed a shovel and started digging to be a part of this.\u201d
\nThe center is expected to be nearly one-mile long and will be serviced by an access road that will connect Frankstown Road and 17th Street. More than $1,000,000 in funding for the road project was announced by Shuster last month.
\nThe anchor stores for what Morris calls \u201cthe largest shopping center between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia\u201d are Boscov\u2019s, The Home Depot and Barnes and Noble.
\nMorris also credited what he called the \u201c800 pound gorilla\u201d \u2013 Senator Robert Jubelirer \u2013 for his help in receiving the permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
\n\u201cThere are a number of turning points that could be cited, but certainly a pivotal one came when a DEP deputy got tired of seeing the log jams and paper work battles,\u201d said Jubelirer. \u201cThis project means a lot of jobs, and a lot of economic activity, which is good, because it has been a world-class test of political stamina. There were times when it seemed that we had to move figurative mountains to be able to build at the foot of the real thing.\u201d
\nJubelirer pointed to common sense prevailing.
\n\u201cAs I said when the state permit was announced, this project win does not mean the environment loses,\u201d said the senator. \u201cYou read the commentary of the opponents, and it is as if this project is taking out pristine old-growth forest, comparable to the last piece of the Amazonian rainforest. Make no mistake \u2014 this is no pave-over-paradise, blast and scar development. There is a multi-million dollar commitment toward environmental mitigation, and the regulators are intent on the funding being put toward measures that work.\u201d
\nMorris thanked the many community leaders who wrote letters in support for the project to include the carpenters union. Morris announced that at least half of the 2,000 construction jobs associated with the project will be union jobs.
\nThe annual payroll expected at Logan Town Centre is $100,000,000 and it is expected that the new center will bring in property taxes of $1 million annual to be split between the Altoona School District, Logan Township and Blair County.
\nGrannas Brothers Excavating has already started working on the project as it cleared a dirt road for the ceremony to take place.
\nAs Morris wrapped up the ceremony before ground was broken, he referred back to the words of JFK.
\n\u201cAsk not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,\u201d Morris quoted. \u201cThis is how I was brought up. I have worked to do for my hometown and after many years of hard work, we finally made it to this day.\u201d
\nConstruction is expected to take a year and the Logan Town Centre is expected to welcome shoppers in 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After many days of rain, developer Greg Morris and his partners broke ground on the new $100 million Logan Town Centre project on a \u201cChamber of Commerce day\u201d in Logan Township. The new shopping center will bring an estimated 2,000 construction jobs, and when the project is complete, possibly 4,000 permanent jobs to Blair County. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}