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By ANTHONY COLAROSSI; Times Leader Staff Writer
Sunday, May 05, 1996     Page: 1A

WILKES-BARRE — No more promises. No more distant expectations. The
renovation of the Stegmaier Brewery complex begins within weeks.
   
And in one year and 90 days, it will be ready to accommodate about 400
federal employees, keeping those people and their jobs in Wilkes-Barre, U.S.
Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, said Saturday.
    “This will probably be one of the most magnificent federal office complexes
in the United States,” Kanjorski said during a press conference in his
Wilkes-Barre office.
   
Kanjorski, Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom McGroarty and 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals Judge Max Rosenn stood behind an ivory-colored model of what the
Stegmaier complex will look like by the fall of 1997.
   
“Today the federal government plays an enormous role in the lives of this
community,” Rosenn said. “This renovation is a tribute to the importance of
the city of Wilkes-Barre in federal government.”
   
The model showed parking for more than 500 cars. It also showed the
renovation of the brewery’s main structure and the construction of an entirely
new building on the property. The complex will have 120,000 square feet of new
or renovated office space, costing about $18 million.
   
The Stegmaier project also allows for future expansion, which would
accommodate another 120,000 square feet of developable space.
   
The announcement came after the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. General
Services Administration agreed on leases for the Stegmaier complex and the
federal courthouse in Wilkes-Barre on Friday evening, Kanjorski said.
   
The most visible renovation and demolition work will occur near the corner
of East Market Street and Wilkes-Barre Boulevard, the site of a brewery that
has decayed since it was left vacant more than 20 years ago.
   
“We are now clearly saying we are going to have a renaissance here,”
McGroarty said. “It says the federal government has confidence that
Wilkes-Barre will grow.”
   
Kanjorski said McGroarty helped barter a deal in which the developer of the
complex will pay $915,000 back to the city for the Stegmaier property. An
initial agreement reached in March had the city getting only $415,000.
   
The city has incurred about $1.2 million in costs to develop the property.
   
McGroarty praised Kanjorski for his persistence on the Stegmaier project
and his commitment to the redevelopment of downtown. “I can’t thank him
enough,” McGroarty said.
   
The project announced Saturday also includes the renovation of the federal
courthouse at 197 S. Main St., in Wilkes-Barre. That renovation will cost
another $14.6 million. And the structure itself will be named after Judge
Rosenn.
   
“It’s more of a tribute to the city of Wilkes-Barre than it is to me,”
Rosenn said.
   
The renovated courthouse will house branches of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court,
the U.S. Magistrate, the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Marshal.
   
The U.S. Postal Service’s Information Systems Service Center will leave the
courthouse and relocate in the renovated Stegmaier complex.
   
Other federal government offices to be located at the Stegmaier complex
include the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the
Office of Surface Mining, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the
Department of Labor, the Department of Defense, the Small Business
Administration and the General Services Administration.
   
Kanjorski will also have an office in the Stegmaier complex.
   
With computers and other improvements, the cost of the renovations is
expected to exceed $40 million, Kanjorski said.
   
Demolition work will begin within the next few weeks, according to Dan
Keating, who runs the Keating Development Corp., of Bala Cynwyd, the firm
handling the renovation.
   
The complex itself will be owned by the Postal Service. Its interior will
be modern, but its exterior will be cleaned and restored, said Frank Grauman,
an architect with Bohlin, Cywinski and Jackson, which was hired to maintain
the brewery’s historic character.
   
“It is a dominant feature of the (Wilkes-Barre) skyline,” Grauman said.
“It’s going to look as it looked in 1896. That’s an astonishing thing to do.”
   
TIMES LEADER/PETE G. WILCOX
   
U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, looks over a model of the proposed
Stegmaier Brewery Complex Saturday. A complete renovation of the Wilkes-Barre
Boulevard eyesore begins in weeks.