New Bethlehem Man Buys Former VFW Property
The old Kittanning VFW, located at 108 South Water Street was sold, this past December, to a business owner from New Bethlehem. The building sat vacant for the last several years.
by Nathan Lasher
Another Kittanning landmark has been sold and is scheduled to be demolished.
The old VFW in downtown Kittanning was officially sold on December 9, 2009.
Lisa Bowers, a Northwood Realty Services agent, happily made the sale to New Bethlehem resident Tim Murray.
“We had lots of offers,” said Bowers. “People were offering 50 or 75 thousand dollars. We held out for 2-and-a-half years until we got $145 thousand out of it.”
Murray, a business owner who owns Subway Restaurants from Interstate 80 all the way down through Worthington, including the franchise in Kittanning, has some big plans for the building which is located at 108 South Water Street.
“The building will hopefully be demolished by summer, and then we will be rebuilding,” said Murray. “That location is absolutely prime because of the beautiful view of the river, but the current building is sort of an eyesore now. It is in too poor of shape to try to fix. The electric and plumbing is bad, and there is not enough parking. Just tearing it down will be an improvement to the community.”
Once the building is demolished, Murray is planning on using the lot in order to build retail space as well as possibly some upper-end apartments. “We are still in the planning stages, and we’re receiving quotes for the work right now,” Murray said. “The building won’t be a high rise apartment complex or anything like that. I’m planning to keep it at two stories maximum.”
Look to future issues of The Kittanning Paper for updates on the status on the building as well as businesses that may be looking to move to the new retail space.
Local News | nlasher January 6, 2010
By RizzoSports, January 6, 2010 @ 7:52 AM
Wonderful news, – Hopefully works get started fast, and this could an ideal location for many things. I wish Tim Murry would consult me on what to put in. haha. Anyway there are a lot of other properties in downtown that need demolished, hopefully more development is coming!!!