WILKES-BARRE -- The old New Jersey Central train station used to be a bustling part of Wilkes-Barre. But now it sits dilapidated, with shattered windows and boarded up doors.
It is located in the Market Street Square, at the corner of Market Street and Wilkes-Barre Boulevard. Now, it's only home is to the homeless.
But Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton says that could change, thanks to a group of local investors who made an offer to buy the property.
“I'm very appreciative as the mayor to see the potential development of that historic site,” the mayor said.
The Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority plans to sell it for $1.2 million, that's about $4 million less than what the authority paid for it in 2006. The new buyers are also being kept secret until the deal is finalized—something that Heather Kolessar of Wilkes-Barre doesn’t like.
“I think the public does have a right to know and they should be knowing everything that's going on,” she said.
But some people who live in the area like say they're just glad something is being done to the property.
"It would really improve the area. I love living here, because it's so easy to go downtown and walk down to the restaurants, and that would be just a huger improvement for the area,” said Catherine Blum of Wilkes-Barre.
The train station is architecturally important. It's on the National Historic Register, and that's part of the reason the county redevelopment authority and the buyers want to try to preserve it.
“I really hope they do, and I really hope they can make this historic site into a nicer place again,” Kolessar
A lawyer for the buyers told Newswatch 16 the buyers are all local. He's confident the sale will go through but has not given a timetable on when that will happen.