New building will buttress Port’s downtown

By TOM KANE

PORT JERVIS, NY — Downtown Port Jervis will receive an economic boost with the construction of a four-story building that will house a traditional Irish pub, a movie-dining facility and two floors for businesses.

The new building will be built at the triangle where Front and Sussex Streets meet, the site of the former New Bauer Hotel, which burned down years ago.

“People won’t have to cross the bridge to go to Matamoras and Milford, but can stay in Port Jervis for entertainment and high dining experiences,” said John Little, the developer of the new building.

Little, 21, who is the son of John Little Jr. a respected local contractor, has built over 10 single-family homes in Port Jervis and is planning six more. “I’ve been working with my father learning the business since I was five,” he said.

“I’m funding the construction on my own, but have the advantage of my father to advise me,” Little said. Little, who is the president of Tucker Development Group, purchased the property with his own funds.

“This project is going to be the basis of the city’s 2006 Community Block Grant Small Cities Project, which will bring $400,000 to the city,” said Port Jervis Mayor Gary Lopriore. The grant will help pay for Little’s construction.

Port Jervis qualifies for the federal grant because it has a large population of low- to middle-income residents. “It also qualifies because this building will create over 25 new jobs,” Lopriore said. “The private sector is the key to any lasting redevelopment,” he said.

This project is part of a grand scheme for Port Jervis that will also include the redevelopment of the Erie-Lackawanna Round House in north Port Jervis, and the waterfront project behind the Erie Hotel on land owned by the city, Lopriore said. “There is a group that is interested in developing the waterfront and we expect to hear from them with a plan soon.”

Downtown Port Jervis, centered around Front Street and Jersey Avenue, is coming into its own. A new catering center opened in the neighborhood two years ago for business meetings and celebrations. A medical arts building, housing a doctor and other health providers, will open in a few weeks. And sometime in the near future, an upscale restaurant will open in a building called the Vault at the corner of Sussex and Front.

A number of businesses have closed in Port Jervis in recent years, and the city’s customer base has moved to a myriad of stores and shopping malls across the river in Pennsylvania. While there are no longer empty storefronts along Front Street these days, the second and third floors above the stores remain empty.

“It’s been slow in reviving the city, but it’s beginning to happen,” Lopriore said.