Your building can’t be taller than ours.

Harrisburg’s Mayor Reed was very excited to learn that we had chosen to build on a site in downtown Harrisburg to relocate Keystone Financial from Pottsville, PA. Once past the initial plan for this location to be condominiums, we set out in our typical comprehensive development cycle to build a four-story building as required by the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority.

The construction was well underway when we got a call from the Redevelopment Authority. “Your building is too high,” they said. We protested, “It’s four floors, that’s what we are allowed to do.” They continued, “You can’t have a building taller than townhouses on Governors’ Row, (the adjacent historic structures along Front Street) you have to tear the top floor off.” The reason for the mix-up? They were working from the premise that floors could be no more than 10 feet from floor to ceiling. Today, you must build taller spaces to accommodate all the HVAC and other mechanicals positioned in the ceilings. We had four 14-foot floor to ceiling floors, which made the building too tall. Construction stopped.

Four months passed until a compromise was reached. Today, you will see a building with brick up to, but not surpassing, the facia of the Governors’ Row buildings. Above the brick, the remaining floor is white precast. Keystone Financial has its new home overlooking the Susquehanna River.