[DFWCC8]

Erie Events lets contract for Bayfront Market house.

Kevin Flowers: Erie Events pushes forward with bayfront market house plan
Kevin Flowers
Erie Times-News
The COVID-19 pandemic has cost Erie Events revenue and disrupted its timetables on some projects – but it has not derailed the organization's plans to create a multimillion-dollar market house on the city’s west bayfront.
The Erie County Convention Center Authority's board of directors, which oversees Erie Events, has unanimously signed off on hiring Pieper O'Brien Herr Architects, which has offices in Pittsburgh and Alpharetta, Georgia, to handle some preliminary design work for the project.
The firm has extensive experience designing similar facilities across the country, including Pittsburgh, said Casey Wells, Erie Events' executive director.
"They've worked with Giant Eagle... They know the model," Wells said. "They will come in and help us determine what sort of market house best serves Erie, Pennsylvania."
Seen as a key to Erie Events' waterfront development plans, the indoor market would operate year-round and feature a full-service grocery store as well as local vendors that sell chocolates, wine, meats, produce, crafts and other goods.
I've covered this project for several years; it's one component of a bigger development plan, first made public in early 2016, for the 12.5-acre, Erie Events-owned former GAF Materials Corp. property on the west bayfront.
This is an architect's rendering of a concept or development of the former GAF property on Erie's bayfront. More:Erie Events seeks extension for waterfront market plan
That concept plan envisions a mixed-use waterfront development with ample public access that generates property taxes and includes restaurants, office space, housing, bicycle trails and green space, among other amenities.
Further, the market house plan has already received a $1.5 million state grant, awarded in 2019. Erie Events is seeking an additional $3.5 million from Gov. Tom Wolf to create at least a 22,000-square-foot facility.
The total cost would fall somewhere between $7.5 million and $10 million, according to estimates.
Pieper O'Brien Herr Architects will be paid no more than $25,000 for its work, which will include a detailed project analysis and "some new renderings that show how this would lay out," Wells said.
More:Our view: Bayfront hub key to Erie’s future
Wells, and Erie Events, believe the market house makes sense for a few reasons.
It would utilize indoor and outdoor space for vendors and include a performance space for musicians and other artists, and could become a landing spot for pedestrians who use proposed walkways over the Bayfront Parkway that are part of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s $100 million in planned improvements to that area.
"It's a gathering space that we really want to activate," Wells said. "it's part of the vision of connectivity between the city and the waterfront."
Wells told me Erie Events cannot let the ongoing pandemic – which has cost the organization millions of dollars in lost revenues at the Bayfront Convention Center, Erie Insurance Arena, Jerry Uht Park and other venues it oversees – shutter its waterfront improvement plans indefinitely.
"If you stand still, you're falling behind," Wells said. "So we continue to bring these projects forward." Pieper O'Brien Herr Architects' hiring underscores that approach, according to Wells.
"With this market house, you need to know what's sustainable. You need to know that what they heck you're proposing is going to work," he said. "That's what they will help us do."