OPEN BAR

The long-vacant Excelsior Hall building in Lancaster has a new developer with plans to revitalize the six-story Victorian-era building.

But the entrepreneur faces some of the same challenges that proved too great for his predecessors to overcome.

Simon McKeown, who is redeveloping several large, empty buildings in York, has a contract to buy the roughly 40,000-square-foot Excelsior building on the 100 block of East King Street. He declined to disclose the purchase price. The Lancaster Redevelopment Authority owns the building.

McKeown intends to build an Irish pub and restaurant with an outdoor dining area on the building's ground floor. The owners of The Harp and Fiddle, an Irish pub scheduled to open in York in September, would run the restaurant. On the first floor, McKeown plans to put another restaurant with an outdoor dining area. He plans to build offices on the second through fifth floors. in an adjacent building McKeown is looking to buy, he intends to build a wine bar and either apartments or offices. That building once housed the Sprenger Brewery.

The project would cost between $3.5 million and $6 million, McKeown said. He said he needs state money to cover an unidentified portion of that cost. He hopes to tap the state's historic and new markets tax-credit programs, among others.

Under his plans, the project would create at least 150 new jobs, he said.

John Meeder, a real estate developer who failed to redevelop the Excelsior building, said he hopes McKeown succeeds. Safety and parking concerns stopped Meeder's efforts.

The neighborhood is becoming safer, Meeder said. Lancaster installed streetlights on the first two blocks of East King Street in summer 2002 and 2003, respectively, to improve visibility, said Chuck Maneval, city director of economic and community development. Meeder is working on a $6.7 million project to build a 445-space parking garage near the Excelsior building. Meeder owns Meeder Development Corp., which is based in Lancaster.

Eric Menzer, vice president of real estate with Wagman Construction Inc., said he is cautiously optmistic McKeown's project will happen. Wagman, a general contractor based in Manchester Township, York County, is working on the Lancaster project with McKeown. The safety and parking issues are being addressed, Gov. Ed Rendell is making money available for redevelopment, and the economy is rebounding, Menzer said.

How quickly construction would take place depends on whither a convention center and hotel planned for downtown Lancaster are built, McKeown said. The Excelsior project would be built in stages if the nearby convention center project doesn't happen. McKeown hopes to draw customers from the proposed convention center and hotel, which would be built one and a half blocks from the Excelsior building.

If McKeown follows through on his plans, Wagman would be the construction manager and potential joint-venture partner, he said. His York-based real estate development firm, PrimeLink Group Ltd., is working with Wagman to redevelop three properties in York. Those structures are:

* The Peterman Building, a 19,500-square-foot warehouse at 110 N. George St. that will house The Harp and Fiddle; Sydney Heat Ltd., a seller of electric radiant heaters; and Coldwell Banker Commercial Bennett Williams, a real estate firm. McKeown is a partner in The Harp and Fiddle and Sydney Heat.

* The Industrial Plaza of York, which consists of four buildings totaling about 25,000 square feet at 475 W. Philadelphia St. The partners intend to attract a restaurant and build offices there.

* The former F.W. Woolworth building, a roughly 19,000-square-foot structure at 44-50 W. Market St. The partners hope to attract a restaurant there.

McKeown said he might link the Excelsior building and the old brewery with the parking garage Meeder wants to construct.