CEBA is weeks from Phase 1 completion, chamber learns

SHENANDOAH – Downtown Shenandoah’s new business center is weeks from completion, the Greater Shenandoah Area Chamber of Commerce learned Thursday morning.

Chamber President Brad Oravitz told the business group that Phase 1 of construction at the Center for Education, Business, and the Arts is expected to wrap up Oct. 11. Phase 2 is expected to wrap in January, followed by a formal opening.

The Downtown Shenandoah, Inc. center in the 100 block of North Main Street has been under construction since April of 2024.

Oravitz, a CEBA board member and owner of Oravitz Home for Funerals, said the center will be “a great beacon” for the town.

Wagman Construction, of York, is building both phases of the center.

The first phase, with a $7 Million price tag, completes the shell of the building and everything but the events center and some business incubator spaces.

It fills the long-empty lot where Davison’s Furniture and Thunder Road once stood.

The center has been nearly ten years in the making and has been described as a “game-changer for the anthracite region” at previous community meetings.

In other business, the chamber discussed ideas the hometown hero banner project the group inherited.

Many of the banners have been taken down, inventoried, and stored while others remain on poles and in rough shape. Oravitz said he and fellow chamber officer Sasha Sherry inventoried those as well.

The remaining banners will likely be taken down and stored.

The chamber also learned that the National Pierogy Day flag raising will return this year at Shenandoah Borough Hall. It is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 8 at 10am.

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Kaylee Lindenmuth

Kaylee Lindenmuth is a Shenandoah native with a passion for journalism and the community she calls home. She is a 12-time Keystone Media Award winner, a PAB Excellence in Broadcasting award winner, and has been nominated for a Mid-Atlantic Emmy award.

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