New 3-story apartment building in Taylor nears completion
REPOSTED from The Times Tribune
JIM LOCKWOOD, STAFF WRITER
Published: May 9, 2016
New luxury apartments being built in Taylor. Jake Danna Stevens / Staff Photographer
TAYLOR — Construction of a three-story, upscale-apartment and commercial building on South Main Street is near completion.
A project of brothers Jim and Michael Gaughan, local businessmen who own several properties in the borough, the 22,000-square-foot building at West High Street will have on the first floor Allied Rehab at Taylor — which will move from another Gaughan building next door — and 12 apartments on the second and third floors.
The large apartment building is the latest example of the changing face of Taylor’s Main Street business district near the Davis Street intersection, said Jim Gaughan and borough council President Kenneth Mickavicz.
Over several years, the brothers have acquired several properties and older homes in that area as part of a larger development strategy. Some homes were demolished to make way for new construction and parking lots to support their interests.
“This is not your old Taylor,” Jim Gaughan said. “We’ve assembled these properties under a long-term plan to develop this intersection into new and modern buildings.”
A few banks in the business district that also have built or renovated buildings are other examples of such activity, Mr. Mickavicz said.
“Over time, that whole Main Street area has been transformed,” Mr. Mickavicz said. “There’s a lot of development going on in the borough right now. People like the Gaughans are investing.”
Regarding a new, mixed-use commercial/apartment building, the Gaughans saw the success in Scranton’s burgeoning market of upscale apartment buildings and hope to achieve the same results in Taylor. They believe Taylor and its close access via Davis Street to Interstate 81, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre would be a popular destination for certain apartment dwellers.
“It’s just such a convenient location,” Mr. Gaughan said of the Taylor site.
Mr. Mickavicz agreed there seems to be a growing market of people favoring condominiums and apartments over traditional “picket fence” home ownership, and they’re doing so for any number of reasons.
The Gaughans’ construction of the three-story building, which does not yet have a name, should be completed in several weeks, and they hope to start renting apartments in July, Mr. Gaughan said.
Allied Rehab also plans to open in the new building in July, said Robert P. Cole, Ph.D., chief analytics officer of Allied Services Integrated Health System.
“This new rehab center move in Taylor is consistent with our ongoing commitment to make strategic capital investments and renovations in all our facilities across the region,” Mr. Cole said in a statement. A new location next door to the current one “will allow us to continue serving all of the levels of physical rehabilitation needs for residents of Taylor, the triboro area and all of Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
Allied Rehab at Taylor has been in the other Gaughan-owned, 4,500-square-foot building on South Main Street for 19 years, Mr. Gaughan said. After Allied Rehab moves into the new structure, the brothers will look to fill the soon-to-be-vacant building with another tenant, he said.
Mr. Mickavicz also noted the Gaughan brothers’ new building does not involve any tax-abatement program, such as a KOZ, and it will generate tax revenue for the borough.
“We’re happy to have it,” Mr. Mickavicz said.
Contact the writer:
jlockwood@timesshamrock.com, @jlockwoodTT on Twitter
