Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series exploring the growth in Midtown Harrisburg. Last week, Sara Bozich examined what's brewing at the neighborhood's new coffee shops.
Dawn Rettinger and Jessica Phillips-Canzoneri are claiming front row seats for what they are betting will be an explosion of the arts in Midtown Harrisburg.
In July, the mother-daughter team opened The HodgePodgery, a consignment store offering an assortment of recycled creations: computer keys converted into cufflinks, old toys piled up into lamps and vinyl records pleated into pencil holders, among other stuff. More than 120 artists sell their wares at the shop, which also holds classes in sewing and other arts and crafts.
Business is starting to take off despite the recession, says Rettinger. And so is Midtown, a residential neighborhood north of the state capital that has been a target of urban redevelopment for at least a decade.
"Midtown is just getting ready to go 'kaboom,'" says Rettinger. "You can just feel it."
Indeed, nearby storefronts have filled up with galleries, coffee shops and restaurants. Longtime resident Mitzi Trostle hopes they stay full. The neighborhood is teeming with places that used to be.
"These fabulous places, frankly, come and then they go," says Trostle, a public-radio executive who bought a necklace made from a spoon at The HodgePodgery. "But I think that's going to turn around now because so much is happening."
Reily Street, a few blocks to the north of the HodgePodgery, has become one of the area’s hubs. Harrisburg Area Community College built a new campus in a former print factory there, while a four-story retail and office building, called Campus Square, rose from the site of an old gas station at the corner of Reily and North Third.
The newcomers join the Midtown Cinema, an independent movie theater that stood alone when it opened eight years ago, and the Midtown Scholar, a rare and used bookstore that reopened in September in a refurbished space.
"During what's been … a pretty significant economic downturn for the country, we've seen a lot of investment on North Third Street in Midtown. So I think that is an indication of what's to come once the economy really turns around," says Matt Tunnell, senior vice president of GreenWorks Development. The Harrisburg-based real-estate firm developed both Campus Square and the new HACC facility.
Growth in Midtown builds on the restaurant scene that emerged in downtown Harrisburg at the end of the 1990s and blossomed in the last decade. As is happening in Midtown, the arts proved to be a key anchor. Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts on Market Street was one of the first venues drawing people into downtown Harrisburg after 5 p.m.
Most of the growth occurred under Mayor Stephen Reed. But after seven terms, the Democrat was voted out of office in the May primary. His successor is Linda Thompson, a former city council member who campaigned on the need for change.
Carrie Wissler-Thomas hopes the turnover in city hall won’t mark a departure from Reed’s support of the arts.
"He's an art collector, so we'll wait and see," says Wissler-Thomas, president of the Art Association of Harrisburg. "We look forward to working with the new administration."
In the meantime, she says, the Midtown arts scene is providing a healthy, private-sector counterbalance to established nonprofits downtown, like Whitaker and the Susquehanna Art Museum. "What the Midtown venues offer is something smaller, less formal, more trendy. The city has a need for it," she says.
If Midtown has an anchor, it will be the Midtown Arts Center, one of the neighborhood’s most ambitious undertakings. The private development is taking shape inside a long-abandoned building that once housed Harrisburg’s Jewish community center. The developers, originally from New York City, have poured several million dollars into making it an arts destination.
The center's small concert stage began hosting shows in July while renovations continue on the remainder of the 42,000 square-foot building. By spring, it is expected to house a restaurant, an art gallery and film offices, as well as a larger theater on the second floor, says one of the developers, John Traynor. Developers also plan to refurbish a basement swimming pool.
Traynor and his partners, Gary Bartlett and Chuck London, bought the building from the city in late 2007 for $225,000. They found it after stopping in Harrisburg on their way back from Pittsburgh, where they had been exploring similar investment opportunities.
The partners, who share a background in film and television, lacked a formal business plan. They might have balked at the project if they had, Traynor says. But the venture felt right, Traynor says. "That, to me and our partners, was the most important thing."
Now they see a need for their venue--and a bright future for the neighborhood around it. "There are a lot of people here trying," Traynor says. "That's the most important thing, and that will sustain Midtown."
Joel Berg is a freelance writer, part-time writing teacher and recovering business reporter living in York. Send feedback here.
Photos:
The HodgePodgery co-owner Jessica Phillips-Canzoneri, left, sports a knitted mustache for sale at the store, while co-owner Dawn Rettinger boasts a knitted candy corn hat.
Outside of the HodgePodgery
A mix of items from the classes held at the shop
Midtown Arts Center
Bottlecap earrings
All photographs by Jason Minick