By Steven Mauch · Contributing Writer
The college, along with the Borough of Grove City, recently received a $179,500 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to fund a study on revitalizing downtown Grove City.
According to Grove City’s Assistant Borough Manager Taylor Pokrant, the downtown area under study is the Broad Street region from Dunkin’ Donuts to Lincoln Avenue on the other side of the railroad tracks. The plan also includes the college-owned property at 125 Lincoln Avenue.
“The first element of it is to establish a steering committee, which has been done, of stakeholders, both from the college as well as within the community, borough and business leaders. The steering committee has had a meeting to kind of define the process as well as the study area, which, of course, is focused on the downtown area,” Pokrant said.
“This is focused on building condition as well as business inventory in the downtown … (and) in between steering committee meetings, there will be a group of individuals who will actually be going down-town and grading the business structures,” he added.
The college’s Senior Director of Development Brian Powell will lead the collaboration with borough leaders and other entities like the Altair Consulting Group, which is also presently working with Meadville and Allegheny College on a similar development plan.
“Personally, I can envision one or two anchor restaurants that draw traffic from outside the area and spark other investments that lead to filling storefronts with other local businesses who want to be part of what’s happening,” Powell said. “I imagine a downtown with revived storefronts, space for attractive events or gatherings and diverse housing options for graduate students, alumni, young professionals, new hires at the college or other local companies who want to be close to the college and the downtown.”
The borough has planned a series of public meetings for community input, scheduled to take place in October. It also plans to advertise those meetings on campus once it finalizes the dates to encourage college students to attend and provide feedback on the revitalization project. The committee will consider those comments in the planning phase of the project.
“Students are a key stakeholder in our community during your four years as well as post-graduation. … To be a strong and vibrant community of the future, we need to hear from current students so that we can best understand emerging opportunities,” Powell said. “We plan to hold a focus group discussion for students this fall, but I would welcome any students who’d like to reach out to me directly.”
Also, the borough will look at the types of businesses downtown and take those findings to the steering committee, which will review the information, making recommendations to the plan and budget.
The hope is that with this plan, the college and borough would then be eligible for implementation funds from R. K. Mellon, with the chance of receiving grants from other sources.
“The end result of the planning will be the development of a five-year action plan and budget that we can hopefully leverage to open opportunities for partnerships and investments,” Powell said. “The goal is to inspire our community and then spur others to invest in a sustainable approach to ongoing downtown revitalization for years to come.”
In addition to Allegheny College, several other regional colleges in the state are also receiving grants from R.K. Mellon: University of Pittsburgh Johnstown, St. Vincent College, Seton Hill College, and Washington & Jefferson College.
The borough expects to finish the process by the end of the year and hopes to have a final draft of the plan by Christmas.
“The borough’s goal is to connect with the campus community in the sense that much of campus borders our downtown study area,” Pokrant said. “We really would like to see input from the college, whether directly from the students or through members of the college staff that are on the committee, on what types of entities downtown would bring students off of the campus and into the downtown.”
