NEWS INFORMATION FROM |
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THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED |
FOR IMMEDIATE USE |
MAJOR NEW RESTAURANT SLATED FOR CITY: OPENING NEXT SPRINGHarrisburg, PA – Mayor Stephen R. Reed today announced plans for a major new restaurant in the city called “Thunder Bay”, which, when completed and open next spring, will be amongst the largest in the city and region. Construction will occur on a vacant site at 204 to 218 North Second Street, in the midst of Harrisburg’s famed Restaurant Row, with the family-styled restaurant specializing in casual dining, featuring fresh seafood, hard shell crabs, gourmet burgers and bar-b-qued chicken and ribs. It will be over 10,000 square feet of prime dining and entertainment space, rising to three stories in height, and will include a clerestory to give it the look of a traditional market building. It will have 129 feet of frontage along North Second Street. Reed said the new facility will seat well over 300 persons and will include an expansive outdoor seating courtyard covered by a canvas awning. The front façade of the structure will be large glass panels. The second floor restaurant area will provide mezzanine dining overlooking the restaurant, courtyard and street below. Project costs are estimated at $1.5 million, with at least 25 construction jobs and another 75 restaurant jobs. Construction begins this Fall. When the River Street Parking Garage, which opened two years ago, was being planned, the Mayor instructed the Harrisburg Parking Authority to not build from Front to Second Street but, instead, to construct a taller garage structure in the middle of the tract – thus leaving two land parcels available for later economic development, with one on Front Street and the other on Second Street. Since then, a new 186,000 square foot building has been built at the Front Street site and was dedicated earlier this year. It is fully occupied. With today’s announcement, the Second Street parcel will now be developed. The land area had previously been a surface parking lot. The restaurant will be operated by a joint venture that includes Ron Kamionka, Rick Galiardo and Donald Brown, Jr., -- three individuals who already separately own and operate other downtown restaurants. “A project of this scale is very significantly benefited by having the combined experience, skill and success of these major entrepreneurs in directing its operation,” Reed said. The project developer is GR Development Corporation, LLC., whose principals are Andrew Giorgione and Gregory Rothman, a major real estate expert, and the Phoenix Development Group. GR Development and Phoenix Development have an option to purchase the land from the Harrisburg Parking Authority. Payment and transfer of title to the development entity will occur in the next seventy days. XXX |
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