At the forefront of a renaissance
James E. Protin, director of water services at Mackin; Christopher Whitlatch, CEO of Mon Valley Alliance; business owner Casey Clark; and Charleroi councilman Edward Bryner are several of the local members helping to revitalize the Valley area.
Casey Clark owns Off the Wall Arts and rents out space in several buildings to different businesses.
Courtesy of Monongahela Aquatorium
A file photo of the Monongahela Aquatorium
A rendering of proposed development in the area of Second Street and McKean Avenue in Charleroi.
The buildings at 530 and 532 McKean Avenue had been vacant for years, adjacent symbols of Charleroi’s decay. They were two-story structures seemingly destined to have no fresh stories to tell.
Then three years ago, Casey Clark came along and bought both properties via her company, HCH Holdings LLC. She refurbished one, worked on the other and put on her thinking cap for both. Clark located her art studio at 532, planned a cafe for 530, and urged other merchants to join.
They did. Seven businesses are now operating at those sites, with an eighth due soon, along the main artery of the borough. Those properties are no longer sitting idle, and have more stories to tell after all.
“These buildings weren’t being used, and now there are eight businesses here,” marvels Chris Whitlatch, CEO of the Mon Valley Alliance. “Casey managed to fill two buildings. We want more businesses to fill buildings.”
Community and economic development is MVA’s mission, as well as the mission of numerous other organizations and leaders across the Valley – and it is a necessary mission. The region, once heavily reliant on steel and other industries – and fortified by them – has been struggling since the mills and factories started to disappear in the 1980s. Blight, drugs, crime and indifference have wracked a number of mid-Mon Valley towns, nudging some toward despair.
Over the past few years, though, this stretch of the Valley has been displaying signs of revival. Businesses have been moving in, buildings are being repurposed, waterfront plans are being formulated. A craft brewery is being built, and Donora Industrial Park is ramping up.
And, perhaps most significantly, funding is being secured for projects. In piecemeal fashion, the Valley is gaining momentum in an appropriate manner. A restaurant here, a project there, a storefront next door, a park a block away.
“For the last 30 years,” Whitlatch says, “the mid-Mon Valley has been waiting for the next big employer, then finds out it’s not going to come.”
Jamie Protin, president of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, is pleased by what has been transpiring where he grew up and now works. “We need small victories in Charleroi and the Valley. We want to do it one block at a time. There is not broad-brush solution,” he says. “We feel good about every town because there are opportunities. Monongahela and Charleroi are stronger, but there is a lot of potential in the Monessens and Donoras of the Valley. You can almost call this a blank canvas.”
Whitlatch concurs. “Each community has an asset to build from. It’s how we roll up all the assets to make them work together.”
Towns along the Monongahela River have been working largely with the MVA and Homestead-based Mon Valley Initiative, and vice-versa. Charleroi, with a number of historical buildings, has been a focal point of revival. The chamber’s Facade Improvement Project, in its seventh year, has enhanced the downtown business district. Dave Barbe Jr. is building Four Points Barbeque and Brewing, the brew pub, next to his popular Fourth Street Barbeque.
Then there are 532 and 530 McKean, which Clark purchased, respectively, in 2014 and July 2016. Her cafe, Perked Up, is scheduled to open April 2, her birthday, on the first floor of 530. Mackin Engineering, CCE Drafting & Design and Hot Shotz Photography are already up and running there. Clark’s established business, Off the Wall Arts, is at 532 and recently added Washington Winery’s first satellite store in its space. The Dance Loft and Sweet & Spicy Culinary are in that building as well.
Protin, a Charleroi native now residing in Washington Township, is the director of wastewater services for Mackin, an engineering and consulting firm based in Findlay Township. He says Mackin was looking for an office in Washington County, “and Casey was determined to have it here.” Protin now works in the town where he grew up, collaborating on projects with her.
“She can do things in a property where a lot of people think they can’t do them,” Protin says.
Unlike those buildings she revived, Clark never seems to sit idle. In addition to running one business and preparing to start another, she is on the board of directors of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber, is active with the Greater Rostraver Chamber and is president of Mon Valley Networking.
“I’ll wear my arts hat in the morning, engineering hat in the afternoon, then my barista hat,” says Clark, who grew up in Fallowfield Township and lives in Carroll Township.
Mon Valley Initiative, likewise, has a keen interest in Charleroi, and vice-versa. The borough was one of the organization’s founding members in 1988. MVI is a coalition of 10 Community Development Corporations, including the Greater Charleroi CDC, that represents 12 Valley municipalities.
“One reason Charleroi is attractive is it has great houses and great neighborhoods,” says Jason Togyer, MVI’s communications director. “You stand on top of the hill overlooking the town and see the two bridges that bookend it, that would be a million-dollar view in Pittsburgh. You have great transportation. You’re near an interstate (70), the turnpike (Route 43). No matter where you work, you’re minutes away. We would love to see this become something of a bedroom community for, say (California University of Pennsylvania).”
MVI has been at the forefront of several Charleroi projects in recent months, two of them housing-related. One is the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Fund (PHARE), a trust fund providing would-be buyers with up to $10,000 for down payments and closing costs. MVI administers the state funds on behalf of Washington County. The coalition also organized “Make Homebuying Magic in the Magic City” this past October, an event intended to attract buyers to the area. Candidates met with real estate agents, contractors and loan officers.
Meadow Park, a collaboration of MVI and the Greater Charleroi CDC, is rising out of a longtime blighted property on Fifth Street between Meadow Avenue and McKean Way. A school there was demolished more than a quarter-century ago and new houses were built, but lack of funding prevented further home construction. The rest of the property remained dormant for a long time.
Eight years ago, MVI contributed $16,000 to begin developing the site. “We leveled the lot, pulled out asphalt, and put grass down and a gravel walking track that’s now asphalt,” Togyer says.
It is a football field-sized tract where students from Mon Valley Career & Technology Center this spring will build a gazebo and put in benches on concrete slabs. The park, finally, is nearing completion. “Hopefully – fingers crossed – this will be done by Memorial Day,” Togyer says.
A riverfront park could be in the borough’s more-distant future. Whitlatch says the alliance wants to build one where Charleroi High’s abandoned stadium is targeted for demolition late this summer. MVA has a pending agreement to purchase that property and the nearby Atlas building site from Charleroi Area School District (Atlas demolition began March 6).
Whitlatch is enamored of what the Aquatorium has done for Monongahela, which has a sturdy business district. “That draws 40,000 people a year,” he says. “We need more projects to take advantage of the waterfront.”
There are positive development signs in other communities, of course. Donora Industrial Park has three tenants, one of them global, and the borough’s business district is picking up. The once-stylish Eisenberg’s Department Store is being converted into apartments in Monessen. Whitlatch and Protin are talking with Cal U. about developing business incubators throughout the area. “We’ve identified locations in Monessen and California,” Protin says.
Sitting serenely in his office, Protin smiles. He likes what is happening at 530 and 532 McKean and elsewhere in the borough – and throughout the region.
“Charleroi has come a long way,” he says, “and it is reflective of how the Valley is coming on as a whole.”