by Guest Contributor Emily Fetko, Erie Downtown Partnership
Erie, PA has long been the gem of the northwest Pennsylvania region. And it’s shining brighter today than ever before.
Erie is this eclectic community full of natural beauty, abundant pride, and the storied past that so many communities across our nation recognize in themselves.
No longer the manufacturing center it once was, Erie has struggled along with so many other “rust belt” communities waiting for their turn. Waiting for their time.
The wait can be frustrating, but for discerning eyes you’ll see that Erie’s turn is here. We’ve been called off the bench. Our time is now.
There’s a definite shift in perspective and the way people are thinking about our new Erie. If you’re one of the many Erie-ites who beam when asked to describe, “your Erie”, then you know what I’m talking about. There’s a smirk that somehow can’t be hidden when we talk about “our Erie”.
Erie’s on the verge of a major renaissance. In fact, that renaissance is already in motion and visible throughout the downtown. The skyline is changing. Key sectors are growing and preparing for more employees with beautiful, state of the art facilities going up floor by floor at Erie Insurance, now Erie County’s largest employer. The hospital downtown, UPMC Hamot, is building a new patient tower—all with serving the Erie community with better care in mind.
A new hotel is being built along downtown’s beautiful Bayfront with all the amenities you could want, joining existing, quality hotels that overlook a breathtaking bay.
And a new economy is emerging in the innovation and tech sector with the introduction of the Erie Innovation District, which isn’t just creating a dynamic Smart City framework, but a tech revolution bringing tech start-ups from all over the world to test and launch products and services that advance Erie’s position on a national level as a lead innovation city.
Gannon University, a college within downtown, is renovating a large building downtown to be home of the future iHACK incubator that will offer students tech and cyber security training as well as house tech entrepreneurs.
This sense of community among Erie’s growing tech set doesn’t stop there—in the historic Renaissance Centre, downtown’s tallest building, there are creators, makers, and innovators on almost every floor including the collective at Radius Cowork—Erie’s first coworking space with over 100 members. We’re definitely a community that supports the hustle of the everyday entrepreneurial life and defends the role these entrepreneurs play in shaping our Erie.
From small business to large corporations you can feel commerce happening all around you as jets fly over downtown into our Erie International Airport, CSX trains grind past the Brewerie at Union Station, and the bellowing horns of monstrous container ships being towed into the Donjon Ship Building & Repair facility from the Saint Lawrence Seaway to our bay wake your senses and disrupt everything you’ve heard about Erie.
No, it’s not dreary Erie. No, it’s not snowing year-round. No, we’re not dead. Not done. We’re just beginning.
You might have been to Erie when the Pennsylvania Downtown Center state-wide conference was held here 12 years ago. Maybe you came to Erie a few years ago. Erie’s significantly different than it was 12 years ago, and even three years ago. And you need to see it with your own eyes. Today.
The Erie that we’re offering you during the state-wide conference is an immersive behind the scenes peak at what it takes to rebuild. And we know that every community can relate to the need to evolve and to reinvent. Our time is now, and we can’t wait to show you how we got here.