Picking redevelopment wisely: Lack of leverage at the Scranton Lace site

The Scranton Times reported on a $4.5M grant to begin plans to redevelop the Scranton Lace site into artists lofts and studios. The Lace Works is an immense collection of contiguous 3- and 4-story buildings near the river, with a tall clock tower. You can see an aerial view of the site here.

There's a lot to like about this news, and you can appreciate the vision:

• restoring a historic site with some beautiful industrial buildings
• creating a artists colony -- what's not to like about artists
• re-inhabiting a desolate stretch of the city
• the site abuts the river, where the new hiking+biking trail is coming in

But there are a few big problems. First, is the scale of this site. There just aren't enough artists in the world who'd want to move to Scranton to fill this in. Even if it were opened up beyond artists, there just aren't enough people who'd want to live in this spot to fill a tenth of it in. The project calls for live/work spaces for 30 artists to start, which makes sense, but the whole site will still feel like a dead factory with 30 artists. It'll likely feel empty and dilapidated for hundreds of years unless huge amounts of cash are poured in, or something dramatic changes to quadruple the population of the city.

Most importantly, though, the site sits in a serious no-man's land. There's nothing in the surrounding blocks; it's an empty neighborhood beyond walking distance from downtown. There's one restaurant right across the river, and a dreary, uninviting suburban-style shopping center 5 blocks away, plus a few active industrial buildings amid a lot of rubble and ruin. There are few services and very little existing urban fabric here, so there's little leverage to be gained. 

Proponents claim that each dollar would generate $8 of economic impact. We're dubious, but if that were true, it'd be easy to see how a better a location would mean $80 of economic impact per dollar spent. If it were closer to downtown, and/or in a neighborhood with an active commercial stretch, this would benefit the residents of the redeveloped site and the local businesses. There just isn't enough business going around to create a whole new set of services around the Lace Works, and even if there were, it would have some cannibalizing effect on other existing businesses elsewhere. That's the reality of a region with stagnant population numbers.

Location is key to using redevelopment funds wisely. Perhaps the spotty nature of state and federal grants makes it difficult to always consolidate such efforts and to leverage other redevelopment and existing infrastructure. But we do our cause a disservice in the long run by inefficient investment. A smaller project, downtown or nearby (say Pine Brook, South Side, West Side, or the The Hill) would be a cheaper proof of concept, would be a better location for artists, and could leverage each dollar spent into much more economic activity.

If the money's there specifically for this project, I probably wouldn't turn it down. And from a preservationist standpoint, I'd love to see the Lace Works preserved. But, an artist colony in that location is a poor investment.