Norristown seeks to get itself boiling again

A Latin phrase adorns Norristown's official seal. Fervet opus - "the work boils."

And it once did. Norristown's mighty industrial base and status as the seat of Montgomery County government helped muscle the area to prosperity.

That was decades ago. As nearby county seats faced many of the same challenges and evolved into communities bubbling with energy, Norristown flailed.

"Everybody wants to see the county seat improve," said Montgomery County Commissioner Leslie S. Richards. "We're one of the wealthiest counties in the commonwealth, and [residents] want to see a county seat that resembles that."

Municipal Council President Gary H. Simpson promises better days are coming: "Norristown is the next hot and popping thing."

For that to happen, Norristown will have to overcome some daunting demographics.

Compared with the region's other county seats - Doylestown (Bucks), West Chester (Chester), and Media (Delaware) - Norristown has the lowest median household income, the greatest percentage of residents below the poverty line, and the smallest percentage of residents with a high school diploma or college degree, according to 2010 census figures.

Much of Norristown's poverty is concentrated in its relatively large African American and Latino communities. About 55 percent of the county's subsidized housing vouchers are used in Norristown, officials said.

"Being the county seat, we probably hold the vast majority of all the social services" in the county, Simpson said. As a result, "everyone for whatever need they have tend to show up on our doorstep."

Norristown - the county seat since 1784 - once was a hub of factories producing hosiery, knitting machines, shirts, and other goods. Customers filled Main Street businesses.

That bustle ended in the 1960s with the opening of the Plymouth Meeting and King of Prussia malls.

Drained of shoppers, Main Street today is a hodgepodge of small restaurants, nonprofit agencies, law offices, mom-and-pop markets, and shops that cash checks, buy gold, and sell cellphone plans.

It has suffered, too, from the access to nearby office parks.

"A lot of businesses that were associated with county government functions have moved out to the suburbs - lawyers, doctors, accountancy firms," said Jeffrey Doshna, who is familiar with Norristown's plight as an instructor in the Department of Community and Regional Planning at Temple University-Ambler.

Many investors and outsiders avoid Norristown because of its image, fueled partly by crime.

Though there was a spurt of fatal shootings last year, Simpson said he thought outsiders looked at Norristown's large African American and Latino communities and slapped them with a high-crime label.

Official corruption also tainted the town's reputation.

In 2006, ex-Mayor Ted LeBlanc and former Municipal Administrator Anthony Biondi were found guilty on various corruption charges.

Then there are the projects that tried but tumbled.

A county-funded effort to redevelop the Logan Square shopping center recently fizzled out when the developer declared bankruptcy.

A previous county commission agreed to an unusual financing arrangement that left Montgomery County on the hook for its $25 million investment in the project. Why did commissioners take on such a large financial risk? Because Norristown was in a desperate situation, some of those officials said.

No one else will help.

"I've tried to get grants for years to promote revitalization of Norristown. Everyone writes a support letter, but no one writes a check," said Jeffrey Featherstone, director of Temple-Ambler's Center for Sustainable Communities.

Bucks, Chester, and Delaware Counties - whose seats of government are smaller boroughs than Norristown surrounded generally by more affluent communities - offer lessons on county-seat revival.

Media was still trying to find its niche in the late 1970s and early '80s, after the Granite Run and Springfield Malls siphoned customers from downtown, Mayor Bob McMahon said. The crime rate was high then compared with today - at its worst, there were as many as 200 burglaries a year, for instance, in the late 1970s. Now, that number is in single digits.

First, McMahon said, the community improved public safety. Next, it attracted the businesses most likely to be used by courthouse workers, lawyers, and residents seeking county services.

In the 1990s, a few key businesses - Trader Joe's, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Fellini Cafe - were wooed to set up shop. Downtown Media now has about 20 restaurants and a nightlife.

Like Norristown, Doylestown struggled years ago. It was a borough people wanted to drive through - not stop in - when Route 611 was the best way for trucks and others to go from the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Ottsville in Upper Bucks.

"The downtown was not particularly vibrant, and there were lots of vacant storefronts," Borough Manager John Davis said.

That changed in the mid-1970s, when a bypass was built. With truckers and other pass-through travelers using that, the borough's stretch of Route 611 became a desirable place for businesses and apartment dwellers, said Robert Cormack, executive director of the Bucks County Economic Development Corp.

In the 1980s, developers and locals formed a group to spruce up downtown. A Main Street manager was appointed. Borough zoning and other regulations were revamped to make it easier for businesses to operate and expand.

It worked, leaving Doylestown an inviting place today.

West Chester had to weather a rough patch in the 1960s and '70s, when even having a university in its backyard was not enough.

"There was a time when West Chester was a ghost town," Mayor Carolyn Comitta said.

In the 1970s, residents began talking about ways to overcome vacant storefronts and empty streets. A small group formed the Citizens' Business Alliance, Comitta said. They met for breakfast and talked about economic strategies.

They struck a deeper relationship with West Chester University, which surveyed residents and business owners to identify obstacles to growth. As a result, the borough amended ordinances, including those dealing with requirements for on-site parking and the minimum allowable size for apartments over first-floor shops.

The town, whose finances are tight these days, tries to stay on top of what inhibits business and to make needed changes.

"It requires negotiation and everyone rowing in the same direction," Comitta said.

Norristown and Montgomery County officials, along with some developers, said they were all doing that.

Around 2000, county and municipal government "joined forces to try to create an environment that would attract investment," said Jayne Musonye, Norristown director of planning and municipal development.

For the last two years, the borough has been revising its zoning code, she said. It also has a long-term economic strategy.

Smaller infrastructure projects, such as replacing broken sidewalks and other streetscaping, came first; now, road construction is underway.

Westrum Development Co. is building a $28 million luxury apartment project above Main Street. The municipality has high hopes for turning its riverfront into residential, retail, and office developments, offering incentives to lure developers.

Richards meets regularly with Simpson, and the county will invest more than $50 million in renovating its buildings.

The Norristown Arts Hill section - which has the Montgomery County Cultural Center, Center Theatre, Iron Age Theatre Company, and Theatre Horizon - has taken off on DeKalb Street.

Developer Ken Weinstein ikes doing business in Norristown.

In 2007, he bought a long-vacant telephone switching station at the corner of Penn and DeKalb Streets and turned it into offices. Initially, finding tenants was difficult. The national economy tanked, and Norristown's image as an undesirable locale did not help.

But the building is now 90 percent occupied, Weinstein said, and he's thinking about other projects.

Norristown's government has been a cooperative partner, he said. "They seem hungry" to accommodate entrepreneurs, is how Weinstein put it.

"There are wonderful buildings there," he said. "It has a ways to go, but I think it will get there."

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