Erie News Now: Erie Leaders Return from Summit, Hope to Attract Investment in the City

Erie leaders are back from a big investor conference in California.

John Persinger from the Erie Downtown Development Corporation and Karl Sanchack from the Erie Innovation District are both optimistic about the buzz that Erie generated at the Opportunity Zones Accelerator for America Investor Summit in California on Monday.

Persinger presented before an audience of 5,000 about marketing and promoting the eight designated opportunity zones in downtown Erie.

Erie's attention for believing and investing in itself comes after being named the worst city for African Americans in 2017 and the city with the poorest zip code in 2018.

The most investment ready property is the EDDC's North Park Row project. It consists of eight mostly vacant historic buildings that are ripe for business and market-rate housing development.

The Erie Regional Chamber's Brett Wiler and Sanchack were also at the conference. They were is looking for investors to help develop an innovation corridor in the city.

Sanchack's vision to is to move from VNET east on 10th St. toward vacant, upper floor space in the YMCA and beyond to create ready space for start up businesses.

The EDDC's Matt Wachter and Knox Law Public Strategy's Tim Wachter both testified on opportunities zones before the Pennsylvania House Urban Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Matt Wachter told Erie's story while Tim said what Pennsylvania needs to do to advance investment in our state.

Their testimony will likely lead to hearings on the matter.

Read the full article here.