Tarentum 'Depot' projects gets state grant for basement, foundation work
Work to deepen the basement of a Tarentum building to house a laundromat is expected to begin this summer.
Faith Community Partners received a nearly $211,000 state grant that will pay for half the cost of the work at the Fifth Avenue building being called The Depot, said its executive director, David Rankin.
The money from the Department of Community and Economic Development was included in $5 million awarded to 42 community revitalization projects across the state.
Without the grant, “our forward progress would be stifled somewhat,” Rankin said. “It keeps the project moving and continues to build momentum toward getting the project completed and the building open for use.”
In addition to excavating the 3,500-square-foot basement, the work will also include stabilizing the foundation of the blighted building in Tarentum’s central business district.
Rankin said the work is expected to be finished by the third quarter of this year.
The overall building is expected to be finished and open in June 2021, contingent on funding.
In addition to a laundromat, The Depot is planned to house a Wi-Fi cafe, a business incubator, and office and meeting space.
An expansion of the building will include a hallway, stairs and an elevator, and an outdoor courtyard will be built.
Joe DeCroo, owner of Plaza Laundry in Harrison and Springdale Laundromat, has signed a 20-year lease to operate the laundromat at The Depot.
With a ceiling height of 6 feet, the basement as it exists is too shallow to accommodate the laundromat and its equipment.
Rankin said it will be lowered by 4 feet, for a finished ceiling height of 8 feet.
The basement is technically considered a crawl space, Rankin said.
“In its current state, the basement is unusable,” Rankin said. “Lowering the basement floor makes the basement usable space.”
Project’s 2nd state grant
It is the second state grant awarded to the project. The first, $67,600, went toward replacing the roof and a stormwater system.
Rankin has been conducting private tours of the building for potential investors and others interested in the project.
Lisa Seel of Hampton was among those touring it Wednesday. She had been part of a group, New Sun Rising, that opened a library in Millvale. She sees similarities between that project and The Depot.
“A lot of what they’re doing is what we did,” she said.
The Millvale Community Library was built inside a former television repair shop on Grant Avenue, Seel said. That building’s age, condition — even its smell — was similar to how the empty Depot is now, she said.
“We had to gut the building down there and rebuild it,” she said.
Rankin, an elder at Central Presbyterian Church, launched Faith Community Partners in 2015, the same year he bought the Tarentum building.
The building once housed a ceramics shop; the molds that were left in its basement were removed in late 2018.
In Millvale, the idea for the library came about in 2007; the library didn’t open until 2013, Seel said.
“It takes time,” she said. “People don’t realize what it takes to refurbish a building like this. You start with an empty shell. This is a good shell to start with.”
Brian C. Rittmeyer, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Penn State University's Schreyer Honors College, has been with the Trib since December 2000. He can be reached at brittmeyer@triblive.com.
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