After more than seven years on the job, Roxanna Gapstur is planning to retire from her role as president and CEO of WellSpan Health, a regional health system operating a dozen hospitals. Gapstur has not set a date but plans to step down once a leadership transition is complete. WellSpan has hired executive search firm Korn Ferry to […]
State officials failed to provide a rational explanation for how they scored insurers aiming to land contracts with a publicly funded health insurance program covering mostly older state residents, a state court ruled last week. Based on that finding, the court canceled awards made under the roughly $17.5 billion program in 2024 but not yet […]
News publisher LNP Lancaster Online is changing printers in a bid to cut costs under its new nonprofit owner, Always Lancaster. The new printer is Advance Local Media in Mechanicsburg. While the change lowers costs, it also changes the timing of production, according to an announcement earlier this week by LNP executive editor Tom Murse. As a result, […]
Three businesses in Central Pennsylvania are installing solar systems thanks to grants from a state program designed to cut carbon emissions from factories and other industrial concerns. The grants are some of the first authorized under the program, dubbed Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania, or RISE PA. Engle Printing & Publishing Co. Inc. is receiving $493,114 […]
After nearly a year as interim president of Messiah University, Jon Stuckey has been named permanently to the leadership post, effective May 1. Stuckey was named interim last spring following the retirement of Kim Phipps, who led Messiah for two decades. Stuckey has worked at Messiah since 2000, including as the Cumberland County college’s vice president for advancement. As […]
After months of research and community engagement, the York County Economic Alliance is narrowing the list of options for reusing the campus of Penn State York after its scheduled closure in May 2027. The three leading contenders include a healthcare/higher education hub, a conference/hospitality hub and a vo-tech/workforce development hub, YCEA chief strategy officer Silas […]
McNees Wallace & Nurick is adding 24 attorneys and professionals, as well as a new Philadelphia-area office, in what’s being described as the largest number of people to join the law firm at once during its 91-year history. The new recruits come from the education law group at Fox Rothschild, one of the 100 largest law firms […]
Former Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant locations in Hershey and Lancaster are among five former Iron Hill restaurants slated to reopen by summertime under a new ownership group backing a management team that includes one of Iron Hill’s founders, Mark Edelson, and several former executives. The other locations opening under the new group are in Philadelphia, Huntingdon Valley, […]
A medical office in suburban Harrisburg has changed hands. An affiliate of Seattle-based real estate investment firm Elliott Bay Capital Trust paid $8.5 million for the nearly 23,000-square-foot office at 820 Sir Thomas Court in Lower Paxton Township, according to county deed records. The 11-year-old building is fully leased by Arlington Orthopedics-UPMC, according to Zuestra Healthcare Real Estate. Zuestra […]
Business in York County has been growing for Lancaster County-based L.H. Brubaker Appliances & Water Treatment. The company is now planning its first retail branch there. L.H. Brubaker expects to open this fall in leased space at the West Manchester Town Center in West Manchester Township, according to company owner and president Donnie Frank. “There’s not […]
Tom Blefko has been named executive director of the Lancaster County Association of Realtors, effective April 7. He succeeds Michael Berk, who left in November to lead Longleaf Pine Realtors, a regional real estate trade group in southeastern North Carolina. Blefko worked most recently for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. He managed five Lancaster County offices for the […]
A Pennsylvania startup that aspires to make gasoline from wood is celebrating a critical milestone. A third-party engineering firm has validated the system that Tioga County-based Woodland Biomass Innovations plans to use in its pilot plant, according to company co-founder and CEO, Luca Pandolfi. That allows the company to move into a final engineering and design stage […]
Childcare workers in Pennsylvania are in line for larger bonuses than initially projected. Last year, when the Shapiro administration unveiled a $25 million program designed to help retain and recruit people in the historically low-paid industry, officials forecast bonuses of about $450 per worker. Based on the number of applicants to the program, workers can […]
State lawmakers and tax collectors are pitching a new program designed to help businesses catch up on delinquent sales taxes. Under the program, eligible businesses would be required, for at least a year, to use software that automatically files returns and remits sales taxes to the state. The idea builds on a pilot program tested […]
A former office building at 1171 S. Cameron St. in Harrisburg could soon become a self-storage facility. Building owner Storage Five Harrisburg LLC has filed land development plans calling for conversion of the roughly 118,000-square-foot building into a self-storage facility with about 950 units. The construction work is expected to cost about $6.7 million, according to a resolution […]
Jonestown Realty Partners II LLC paid $1 million for a roughly 4,000-square-foot building at 49 Prince St. in Harrisburg, according to county deed records. Jessica Gasper and Arthur Campbell of Campbell Commercial Partners represented the seller, identified in deed records as Aspire Realty Group LLC. The investment property is leased by AFC Urgent Care. Mount […]
Victor Fields has been named president and CEO of Highmark Wholecare, a division of Pittsburgh-based insurer Highmark. Effective June 1, Fields will succeed Ellen Duffield, who has led the division since 2021. Highmark Wholecare covers about 320,000 Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries in Pennsylvania. Fields worked most recently as health plan CEO for UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Minnesota, […]
York-based developer Peel & Co. is transforming a former newspaper building at 9 E. Philadelphia St. in downtown York into a nearly 30,000-square-foot mixed use building with apartments, parking and retail space. The conversion is expected to wrap up by the end of this year, according to Eric Peel, managing member of Peel & Co. […]
Under an executive order signed yesterday by Gov. Josh Shapiro, the state plans to marshal government and private-sector resources to help small, diverse businesses win a bigger share of state spending. The order builds on efforts by Shapiro’s predecessor, former Gov. Tom Wolf, to diversify the ranks of state contractors. The efforts have made progress but […]
Tired of waiting for that professional license? If it takes too long, Gov. Josh Shapiro wants to give you your money back, a pledge outlined in an executive order he signed on Jan. 31. First, state agencies have to figure out what is “too long.” The order directs state agencies to catalog all the licenses, certificates and […]
Thanks to a recent court ruling, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania could be on the hook for more than $100 million in tax refunds to businesses. The ruling came in a case that arose over provisions outlining how companies can use past losses to lower their tax bills. Some corporate taxpayers have claimed, successfully, that provisions […]
Pennsylvania has many of the ingredients for an economy powered by innovation and entrepreneurship, according to a report released today by Brookings Institution, a prominent think tank in Washington, D.C. However, the state has struggled to bake them into a dynamic, high-growth economy, putting large swaths of Pennsylvania at risk of stagnation, said the report, which offers […]
Pennsylvania is home to two of the most closely watched elections in the U.S. One, for a U.S. Senate seat, pits Lieutenant Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat, against Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Republican. They are running to replace Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican who is retiring. The other is the race for governor, which features […]
Amid a broader push to boost the outdoors economy in Pennsylvania, a new state park is coming to the banks of the Susquehanna River in York County. The tentatively titled Susquehanna Riverlands State Park is one of three new parks unveiled yesterday by Gov. Tom Wolf and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy […]
A state court has sided with online retailers who say they are being unfairly targeted by Pennsylvania tax collectors. In a ruling Friday, Commonwealth Court blocked efforts by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue to collect state sales and personal income taxes from the retailers, which sell their products through Amazon.At issue are back taxes the state […]
State officials are giving an $8.4 million boost to plans for an innovation park in Columbia. The Lancaster County borough is collecting a grant of nearly $3.4 million and a loan of just over $5 million to help cover the costs of developing the McGinness Innovation Park on the site of a former airport in the […]
Pennsylvania’s small businesses are in line for a capital infusion of nearly $268 million under a program announced July 18 by the Wolf Administration The money is coming from the federal government via the American Rescue Plan ActBut it will be distributed by the state, specifically the state Department of Community and Economic Development.Other hands […]
State lawmakers last week delivered a tax cut long sought by Pennsylvania’s business community. But in adopting a $45.2 billion budget on July 8 for the current fiscal year, they left out other sought-after provisions. The headline news is the immediate cut and subsequent phase-down of the state’s corporate net income tax, which had been […]
Pennsylvania’s statewide business chamber has tapped a local banking executive as its next leader. Luke Bernstein, an executive at Shippensburg-based Orrstown Financial Services, is poised to become the next president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. As of June 15, he will be taking over for Gene Barr, who announced his retirement last fall after […]
State officials on Friday unveiled more than $50 million in grants earmarked for projects around Central Pennsylvania, including a life sciences incubator in Lancaster, a hotel renovation on the West Shore and a park along the Codorus Creek in York. Other beneficiaries include Rock Lititz and the partnership developing a mixed-use apartment building near the […]
A buyer has finalized the $10.01 million purchase of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building in downtown Harrisburg. However, the buyer’s identity remains a mystery.A deed filed with Dauphin County lists the buyer as R.R.F. Building LLC,which has a tax billing address at a law firm in South Carolina. Efforts to reach the law firm, De Bruin Law, were not […]
A growing number of companies cannot take advantage of one of Pennsylvania’s most popular tax-credit programs.
In a lawsuit filed this month, Lancaster city is accusing a neighboring township of not doing enough to prevent stormwater from flowing into the city’s sewer system, a problem that has been brewing for years. Among other alleged failures, officials in Manheim Township have not required developers to install adequate stormwater controls or paid for […]
One of Harrisburg’s oldest law firms is winding down. Five attorneys and a team of administrative professionals from 152-year-old Nauman Smith Shissler & Hall are joining the capital city office of Philadelphia-based Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman, effective Feb. 1. The move caps conversations that started in early 2023 between the two firms, said Steven Williams, the […]
A state appeals court has sided with a local developer aiming to build a warehouse complex in Swatara Township, Dauphin County. The decision is the latest in a long-running battle over whether warehouses should be allowed on tracts along Route 322 east of Harrisburg, near Penhar Drive. State court shot down a previous developer’s efforts in […]
A state court has shelved the Red Book, a compendium of wholesale drug prices that state officials routinely use to settle disputes over drug costs in Pennsylvania’s worker’s comp program. In a ruling this week, Commonwealth Court disqualified use of the book after an insurer challenged it, claiming the book’s listed prices were not accurate. […]
UPMC is facing a class-action lawsuit filed by a respiratory therapist who claims she was misclassified as an independent contractor when she worked at the health system’s Harrisburg hospital in 2022. The suit, filed last week in an Allegheny County court, claims the therapist should have been classified as an employee and paid overtime when she […]
Local law firms are starting the new year with new attorneys in their top ranks. And one even has a new CEO. That would be Lancaster-based Barley Snyder, which elected Jennifer Craighead Carey as managing partner and CEO for a two-year term starting in 2024. She succeeds Jeff Lobach, who had led the firm for a […]
An affiliate of real estate developer Inch & Co. is challenging a decision that reversed the zoning on a parcel of land it owns near Route 30 and Pennsylvania Avenue in Manchester Township, York County. Township officials rezoned the property in 2021 for industrial development. But after fierce public outcry and a challenge from the owner […]
A state court has tossed aside regulations that would have enrolled Pennsylvania in a multistate carbon-cutting program, regulations that were a climate-change priority for the former administration of Gov. Tom Wolf. At issue was whether the heart of the program — a market in which companies must buy credits to emit carbon — represented a fee […]
Gratz borough in Dauphin County failed to properly advertise a meeting where it set stricter zoning standards for solar energy systems even as a company was seeking permission to build a 17-megawatt project there. That was the ruling last week from a three-judge panel of Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court, which upheld a 2022 decision by Dauphin […]
A Lancaster County developer has lost its bid to overturn a zoning decision blocking a mixed-use development in Manheim Township. In a ruling this week, a county judge upheld the township’s denial of plans for Oregon Village, a proposed development that would bring housing, offices, shops and a hotel to a nearly 76-acre tract that […]
Mid Penn Bank is firing back at claims it did not adequately protect a nonprofit from fraud. In a legal filing this month, the Harrisburg-based bank alleges that the Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania harmed the bank’s reputation in a press release issued in February announcing a lawsuit against the bank. In the press release, the center claimed […]
A federal court has approved a settlement in a data-breach lawsuit brought against Fulton Bank. Under the agreement, the Lancaster-based bank will pay $750,000 to set up a fund to compensate victims of the breach, which hit a Fulton Bank vendor rather than the bank itself. The bank is not admitting any liability for the breach, […]
The bankrupt owners of an uptown Harrisburg apartment complex want to hire a firm that specializes in real estate liquidation to sell the property in an auction. In a motion filed in bankruptcy court, apartment owners Uptown Partners LP are seeking court approval to hire Hilco Real Estate LLC to oversee a sale of the complex, known as Governor’s Square. […]
Companies that test, grow and process medical cannabis in Pennsylvania are suing to block a rule they say could cost them millions of dollars and ultimately raise prices for patients. The rule, which had been slated to take effect this week, alters the requirements for testing cannabis before and after it is processed into medication […]
A shareholder of Centric Financial is seeking to block the Harrisburg-area bank’s planned merger into a western Pennsylvania bank. In a class-action lawsuit filed this month in Cumberland County court, shareholder Charles Reinhardt claims the $144 million deal undervalues Centric, which is based in Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County. The lawsuit also takes aim at other terms of […]
Thanks to a recent court ruling, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania could be on the hook for more than $100 million
West Chester University and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education do not have to pay an annual six-figure stormwater fee imposed by West Chester Borough. Why? Because Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court ruled yesterday that the fee is a tax — and state entities don’t have to pay taxes. In a lawsuit filed in 2018, the borough argued that the assessments […]
Three York-based law firms are becoming one in a merger slated to close Oct. 1. The firms are Blakey Yost Bupp & Rausch; Griest Himes Herrold Reynosa; and MPL Law Firm. “We all have great respect for each other and we have always worked well together even when on opposing sides,” said James Sanders, an attorney at MPL. “We decided […]
Doceo, a York-based technology services company, plans to move its headquarters this fall to a former Ruby Tuesday restaurant in York Township.The 6,000 square-foot space is larger than the 4,300 square feet the company currently rents in a multi-tenant building at 1499 S. Queen St. in Spring Garden Township, according to spokesperson Maya Miller. It […]
A new developer is getting a crack at bringing life to a former industrial tract in York. At a meeting last week, the Redevelopment Authority of the City of York awarded a six-month option on a 4.4-acre site in the Northwest Triangle to Statewide Partners, a regional firm with offices in Harrisburg and York. Preliminary sketches from Statewide show […]
A buyer has finalized the $10.01 million purchase of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building in downtown Harrisburg. However, the buyer’s
The warehouse project is still a long way from approval. But concepts floated by Missouri-based NorthPoint Development show roughly 1.5 million to 2 million square feet of warehouse space in multiple buildings, according to Tim James, manager of Manchester Township, where the project is being considered.
Bidding is scheduled to open Jan. 31 in an auction for the 129-room Comfort Inn & Suites York, which is off Interstate 83 at 2250 N. George St. in Manchester Township.
Seeded by a $1 million donation from grocery chain The Giant Co., Harrisburg University is hoping to plant a new center for agricultural research in the capital city.
The past year in Central Pennsylvania real estate was punctuated by some high-profile deals, as well as a torrid market for warehouses and other industrial properties. Here’s a look at what transpired in 2021.
A New York investment firm paid $24.4 million for a roughly 255,000 square-foot warehouse in Hampden Township, Cumberland County, continuing a string of multimillion-dollar deals for area warehouses. The property, acquired by Brickman, is fully leased, according to real estate firm JLL Capital Markets, which marketed the building at 301 Railroad Ave.The seller was a subsidiary of a […]