HAZLETON -- The Altamont building in Hazleton has been many things. First, it was a hotel, then a nursing home, commercial space, and in what became a controversy, a minimum-security prison housing inmates, some of whom escaped and were charged with shootings, stabbings, and other crimes throughout the area.
That facility was closed in 2012.
Now, there's a $10 million plan to make the second through eighth floors of the building on West Broad Street into apartments for the city's senior citizens.
“I'm encouraged by it. I think it's a very positive thing for the city. I think it's a very positive thing to have people living in the downtown. I mean, that generates business and activity and is a positive thing to actually having people residing in the downtown area,” said Jim Ferry, Hazleton’s zoning officer.
The project developer applied for and was granted a zoning change from the city, going from commercial to residential for the building's upper floors, creating more than 60 apartments.
The businesses on the first floor will remain.
"They need apartments bad, yeah. Hazleton, I would say, is over 70 percent elderly right now and they need that, but they also need some businesses downtown so the elderly don't have to walk far,” George Bakos of Hazleton.
“I think it's a good idea, really, because what are you going to do with it? So I think it's a good idea,” said Jerry Pogzeba of Beaver Meadows.
City officials say a lot still needs to happen before the project gets underway, but the developer says it could begin June or July.
“It is a big undertaking, but they seem determined and I think they are going to carry through with that, but it is going to take some time,” said Ferry.
