Gov. Wolf Building to become 50 high-end apartments

In the past 120 years, the Gov. Wolf Building in Easton has been a school, an office building and a target of a failed redevelopment pitch. Now it adds apartment building to its resume.

Developer Mark Mulligan, who agreed to buy the building from Northampton County last year for $1.9 million, unveiled his vision for the colossal property fronting on North Second Street 50 apartments across the building's five floors. Easton's Planning Commission gave unanimous approval to the project Wednesday night.

Mulligan said this project is the easiest he has tackled in Easton so far, and construction should start by May or June. The building's features, big hallways, a spiral staircase, an antiquated gymnasium, never made sense in an office building, Mulligan said, though the county uses it to house its Human Services division.

"It just never worked as an office building," Mulligan said.

Along with partner Bill Vogt, Mulligan has rehabbed the former Pomeroy building downtown, is working on the Silk project on North 13th Street, and closed late last year on the sale of the city's tallest building, the Alpha Building on Centre Square.

Mulligan said some of the momentum he has helped create with popular apartments in the Pomeroy project made an apartment conversion of the Gov. Wolf Building that much more attractive. He said demand at Pomeroy and its sister building, Pine Street Lofts, will bump rents for Gov. Wolf's 50 units a little bit higher.

Mulligan expects prices slightly higher than Pomeroy's and Pine Street's, where rents for single-bedroom apartments range from $900 to $950, and two-bedrooms from $1,200 to $1,400. He added that inclusion in the state's latest Keystone Opportunity Zone has already drawn interest from prospective renters, because the zone affords residents a 10-year tax abatement from local and state levies.

The 50 units are spread across the five floors, with a high number of single-bedroom apartments on the third and fourth floors. The fifth floor will be unique, with a single one-bedroom unit and 11 two-bedrooms that will use the attic space as a loft, Mulligan said. Skylights will also be added on the rear of the building for those fifth-floor apartments.

The old gym, the original structure on the property, will be converted into three floors of one-bedroom apartments.

Just before the recent recession, the building and its 3.4-acre lot were proposed as the site of Riverwalk, planned as a seven-story tower of condominiums over a five-story parking deck and bus terminal. The deal evaporated when the Easton Area School District refused tax breaks on the site. The federal money pledged for the bus terminal portion of Riverwalk was funneled into the plans for the city's new City Hall and intermodal center.

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Gov. Wolf Building to become 50 high-end apartments