GroWarren Office at 310 Second Avenue in Warren, Pennsylvania
also of interest: Photo Tour of Victorian Warren, Pennsylvania
by Chris Lareau
In the late winter of 2003, if memory serves me well in my sixth decade, Warren Pennsylvania's hospital was losing money, drawing on its reserves to maintain operations. According to its CEO, John Papalia, this was the result of a local slumping economy. Large businesses were going out of business.
The once busy city of "15,000 Friendly People" had become decimated times three with the population dwindling down to the 9,000 level.
At a speech given that year at the local Holiday Inn to Warren's business and civic leaders, Papalia pretty much read them the riot act. The gist of his talk at an "Eggs and Issues" breakfast was this: do something about the local economy or we might lose our hospital. Although Warren General Hospital's reserve funds were healthy, they wouldn't last forever.
Loss of a community hospital might make the area unlivable. Those in attendance responded. Really responded.
This July, just six years later, construction begins on an extensive Allegheny waterfront and a visionary streetscape downtown. If architecture is any measure, Warren should be experiencing a re-birth as one of the most valued places to live on the Allegheny River. Local residential real estate is turning over rapidly and Victorian homes are being expertly restored.
In a year or two, this nationally recognized "Green City" will soon have a river walk across its entire downtown from the East Side to the South End. Downtown will be restored to its original Victorian splendor with the removal of telephone and power lines and an enlarged park-like setting at The Point in front of the signature flat-iron building that has always been Warren's center.
If all goes well, this won't be a place just to live and work, it will be a joy to visit.
If hospital executive John Papalia gets credit for being the "midwife" of Warren's recovery, former bank chairman John Hanna just might be credited with fathering the New Warren. Hanna is best known for building a small savings and loan company into a major regional bank, Northwest Bancorp, which is headquartered here.
Hanna's bank put financial muscle into Papalia's stimulating speech, anchoring a building boom that stretches from downtown up Market Street, north to the New York border. Buildings were torn down and condos and apartment buildings sprang up on The Allegheny. With nowhere to shop, local residents were given Warren Commons on Market Street just north of the city. Beyond that a large office park burgeoned next to the country club. And construction continues on the Warren-to-Jamestown Road (Market Street) with a newly-opened Hampton Inn and health services centers.
The building boom was called Impact Warren and its results are about to bear fruit with another hotel downtown and a convention center complex on The Allegheny called the Kinzua Riverfront Convention Center.
The end result of it all this decade will be to take one of the country's great rivers out of a neglected and dilapidated backyard and make it a showpiece front yard. This has already captured national attention in the New York Times.
Daily coordination of the progressive trend is now centered at the Second Street office of GroWarren, housed in a restored classical-style bank building, manned by its non-profit manager named Chris Cheronis.
This is not a once-and-a-while-open storefront. It's open every weekday where visitors can drop in to get the latest info on the New Warren. Cheronis is always on the phone but between calls, she is full of the latest news.
There's a free all-day rock concert Saturday and Sunday on Liberty Street in the new Arts Center. There's a car show Sunday at Betts Field in the South End. On Saturday night you can see a classical concert in a 19th century opera house called the Struthers Theatre.
Wait, there's more. Don't miss the new Artisans Store in Youngsville or the newly opened Tybout House arts and crafts consortium on Market Street. There's even a new hot dog stand next to Hallmark Cards on Liberty Street.
The local transit system just got new buses and is enhancing its schedule. The Farmer's Market starts next month on Second Street. A free outdoor concert series, Music In The Park, continues its spectacle starting next week at The Point.
She is as busy as a mother hen coordinating all the interest building. Cheronis is a one-woman nerve center. Hospital chief Papalia might consider her just what the doctor ordered.
Warren is growing and just watching it happen is free entertainment you don't want to miss. With beaches open this summer at Kinzua and Chapman lakes nearby, come July 4th and August Fair week, the seasonal population just might reach the once proud number of 15,000.
For those smart enough to eschew urban sprawl (you won't find an interstate highway in this neck of the woods--of which we have a half-million acres), rush-hour traffic, and the high cost of living, this gem of The Allegheny might be just the alternative they are looking for. With local unemployment recovering from a recent 9.9 per cent to 7.7 per cent, Warren is now open for business and looking better than ever.
Chris Lareau is the editor of Allegheny Almanac. Photo copyright 2009 by Chris Lareau
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