Erie Insurance Investing More In Neighborhood

The issue: New east Erie housing

Our view: Open approach is apt

Five years ago amid news of an earlier $28 million Erie Insurance expansion, then-Chief Executive Terry Cavanaugh made an observation that bears remembering: Many other large corporations locate their campuses in remote settings. Erie Insurance, the region's only Fortune 500 company, chose instead to knit itself into its east Erie neighborhood, a place not swanky, but struggling.

At that time in 2013, Erie Insurance was rolling out its plans for worthy projects now completed: the renovation of the former Pennsylvania National Guard Armory at East Sixth and Parade streets, the construction of a training center on East Seventh Street between French and Holland streets, and the revamping of the C.F. Adams Building at 101 E. Sixth St. to house company artifacts.

Erie Insurance's confidence in and commitment to Erie was cemented with the new $135 million office building now rising along East Sixth Street, and the establishment, with Mercyhurst University, of the Erie Innovation District.

The market-rate housing being developed by Erie Insurance at East Fifth and German streets across from the armory facility, though modest in scope, marks a new level of the company's integration into east Erie.

As detailed by Erie Times-News reporter Kevin Flowers, two new two-bedroom rental units are under construction and two historic homes, including one which once hosted the Marquis de Lafayette, will be moved to the lot and transformed into rental units containing two apartments each. This is only the first project to occur on a 12-acre parcel that the city of Erie rezoned at Erie Insurance's request in 2017.

It is not difficult to imagine workers from Erie Insurance and UPMC Hamot residing in the new units and walking or cycling to work, especially since the companies and others, through the Erie Insurance-led Erie Downtown Development Corp., have committed millions of dollars to remaking a central downtown corridor stretching from Holland to Sassafras streets, between 3rd Street and Perry Square. This in a neighborhood once marred, as 76-year-old East Fifth Street resident Dorothy Molder recalled, by prostitution and drug-dealing.

The company's investments provide welcome, essential girders for the city's recovery. The market-rate housing development aligns with Erie Refocused's call for core strengthening, especially when partnered with investments being made in the west bayfront via Gannon University and Our West Bayfront.

A question hanging over the city's nascent rebirth is what will happen to residents of modest means as their neighborhoods improve. Molder said Erie Insurance has been "very sensitive" to residents, "leaving them more than satisfied with the improvements."

That bodes well for the sweeping change to come. Transparency, fair-dealing and respect are essential to any strong relationship, especially among neighbors.