PITTSTON, Pa. — Officials in Luzerne County announced an update to their plan to bring a theater to Main Street in Pittston.
There's a new mural, an ode to Pittston's former American Theater that was torn down in the 1980s, something Mayor Michael Lombardo says he still gets upset about.
"I ran for mayor to get over it, so hopefully, I'll stop talking about it after we get this done," said the mayor.
The mayor is referring to a $40 million project that the city believes will transform Pittston's downtown. The project includes the development of three sites.
The first is at 99 South Main Street, which is slated for a 400-to 600-seat theater, retail, and residential space.
"This building looks like it'll be in the range of six to eight stories. It'll also eventually house our redevelopment and housing authority offices, and there'll be some commercial space on the first floor."
The second is the Greater Pittston Ambulance which will be moved to the former Triangle Motel location and replaced with more retail and residential space.
Finally, the city has acquired the former Quinn's Supermarket and plans to build a parking garage there with some additional commercial space that Lombardo believes will complement the rest of downtown.
"We're in design now. We're hoping that we work our way through next year in design, and it's our hope that early to late next year or early 2025 will have shovels in the ground and begin this project."
In terms of funding, the redevelopment authority says it has about a fifth of the funding secured for the project right now.
"We received some community project funding, the federal earmark received about $3 million, and then we have $2 million in RACP. And then another million in LSA funding right now," said Joe Chacke, Pittston Redevelopment Authority.
That's just for the new American Theater building, plus another $1.5 million in grant money for the supermarket building.