Trolleyworks Business Park by AMTRAN

Today, AMTRAN announced Phase I plans for the Trolleyworks Business Park at the site of the former Roaring River Mills.  

Economic Development

Faced with space constraints, AMTRAN purchased the 3.2 acre site in November with plans to expand its facility while providing economic development opportunities for the region. Phase I will consist of renovations to the former Gold's Gym on 5th Avenue, once a trolley barn for the streetcar company.

Renovations will include: 1) historic restoration that retains and upgrades the building to code without major alterations as reviewed and approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2) 1,600 square feet of conference room and training space for AMTRAN, 3) two tenant suites designed as 2,000 and 2,800 square feet of flex space (available late autumn), and 4) a common lobby and restrooms. continued

According to Marty Marasco, President and CEO of the Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation, “I firmly believe that there remains a market today for additional flex space in Altoona if, like AMTRAN's Trolleyworks, it is attractive in design and provides flexibility to meet the special needs of businesses.”

AMTRAN's intention for undertaking the Trolleyworks Business Park project is threefold: 1) to prudently solve its training and meeting space needs; 2) to help shape the community by revitalizing an otherwise underutilized and dilapidated site; and 3) to secure long-term leases from the tenant suites that AMTRAN can use for eligible transit operating expenses under the Federal Transit Administration's Joint Development Program.

Stimulus Funding

Financing for Phase I of the Trolleyworks Business Park by AMTRAN comes from public transportation funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act recently enacted by Congress and signed by President Obama. The capital-only funds are to be distributed to individual transit providers nationwide through an established formula.

Scott Cessna, AMTRAN's Board Chairman, stated, “AMTRAN's Trolleyworks Phase I is a perfect fit for stimulus funding. The project is ready-to-go and will create or sustain local construction jobs in the short term as well as provide economic development opportunities for area business in the long term.”

The project's construction specifications will be released on April 2 by The EADS Group with bids due by May 6.