POTTSVILLE, Pa. — The lot on the corner of Mahantongo and Second Streets in Pottsville has been vacant for a while now, but finally, there's some activity there.
"This is the Mahantongo parking garage. The old garage was here for about 50 years. It was closed back in 2016 for structural deficiencies. The cost to repair it and bring it back to life far exceeded the cost of a new garage," said project engineer John Levkulic.
Construction on the brand new parking garage started this week. It's all part of a project costing nearly $7 million, funded by a $5 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
City officials say this is yet another project that will help revitalization efforts in the city. Local businesses say they're on board.
"I remember downtown Pottsville back in its day on Thursday and Friday nights. You couldn't even get to walk through the sidewalks because it was filled with people. That's what the revitalization is, to bring the businesses back into downtown Pottsville, to revitalize it, to make it a beautiful downtown again, and that's what we're working on," said Christine Logothetides, Murphy Jewelers.
Yuengling Brewery is only a couple blocks away from the project. Dick Yuengling donated nearly $3 million to the project.
In a statement to Newswatch 16 the brewery said:
"We're happy to see the parking garage construction get started and support the downtown Pottsville revitalization efforts."
"It's in a key location as was the other garage, so replacing this garage with a new garage for hopefully another 50 years is going to help all the economic revitalization that's going on downtown," Levkulic said.
Construction here is expected to last about a year.