Erie is the fifth most populous city in Pennsylvania.
Erie Events plans to build labor agreements into its $14 million bayfront market house project to ensure union and minority hiring.
Erie Events has taken its pitch for a planned $14 million bayfront market house to Erie City Council, with plans to incorporate a project labor agreement that would ensure union and minority hiring for construction.
Related guide: Project labor agreements in Pennsylvania: what the law permits
Erie Events plans to build labor agreements into the project that would ensure union and minority hiring for construction,” said Gus Pine, Executive Director, Erie Events.
Council on April 15 hosted a public hearing on the project, which is seeking waterfront conditional use approval from the city. Any project seeking a waterfront conditional use zoning designation must receive final approval from City Council before it can move forward.
Cooper Moore, a city of Erie planner and secretary of both the city’s Planning Committee and Design Review Committee, told City Council that both the Erie Planning Commission and the city’s Design Review Committee have reviewed plans for the market house. Both bodies recommend that City Council approve the project.
The 27,000-square-foot market house is planned for property near the former GAF Materials Corp. site on the city’s west bayfront. It will include a business featuring Erie-based products such as wine, chocolates, apparel and other retail items, along with family-friendly games, activities and live entertainment. The facility will also host frequent large farmers markets offering a wide range of foods both inside and outside of the property. Erie Events is actively seeking a second tenant to operate a large retail store at the site.
Financing for the project includes a $9.5 million grant from Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program and $5.5 million in state funding previously awarded for the project. Pine said the project has been in the works for more than a decade.
The market house is a two-story structure dominated by red brick and glass, featuring outdoor seating, surface parking, landscaped outdoor spaces and a metal roof. Megan Loney, a project design technician with Pittsburgh-based Pieper O’Brien Herr Architects, told City Council members during the public hearing that the building has been designed to blend in with other structures on the bayfront.
City Council could vote on the waterfront conditional use designation as soon as its next regular meeting on May 6. A project labor agreement on the construction would help guarantee schedule certainty, safety standards and career-supporting wages for the skilled tradespeople building the facility.
READ MORE: What is a Project Labor Agreement?
