Pocono News Section

New Department Store for Downtown Williamsport?

New Department Store for Downtown Williamsport? - Friday, February 29, 2008 at 4:09PM EST

? Reported by: Jeremy Deebel
Friday, Feb 29, 2008 @04:09pm EST
Williamsport, Lycoming County- Williamsport officials continue their efforts to revitalize the downtown area, including the possibility of adding a major department store. At his inauguration ceremony just two months ago, Williamsport Mayor Gabe Campana promised to make positive strides in terms of the city's economic development.

Officials from the mayor's office say they are in the early stages of discussion with a number of a major department stores. And while the mayor is not releasing the names of the stores he's negotiating with just yet, he says the addition of any retail store will have a positive impact on Williamsport's economy.

So we set out to learn which stores residents would like to see set up shop here. Target, K-Mart, Macy's, Boscov's, Lord and Taylor. Those were just some of the names we heard. Plenty of great ideas there, and everyone we spoke to agrees that the downtown could only benefit from the presence of an anchor store like the ones mentioned.

Nicki Collins of Montoursville said, "I think it would be nice to get people back downtown, see some life down here. Because it's kind of boring during the day down here."

Newberry resident Kevin Floyd noted, "Our downtown commerce and business needs to pick up. Eliminate a lot of these empty storefronts."

There's also a belief that adding a retail store could help in other areas as well. "More of the restaurants would be busy too. And I think people would feel safer coming downtown and having a good time again," Floyd added.

Rick Baldys of Williamsport said, "It would augment the artist's programs that we have here. The First Fridays, some of the galleries and jewelry stores that we already have here. It would augment that because the people would be down here more often. There'd be more reason to be downtown, especially in the evenings."

Possible locations for that proposed new store have yet to be made public.