Rendell finds money for Ardmore

Notwithstanding the state's assorted budgetary woes, Gov. Rendell's office is making available $9 million in special redevelopment money to help fill the funding gap for the long-awaited Ardmore Transit Center project.

The grant, from the governor's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), was announced late Wednesday afternoon by publicists for Carl Dranoff, developer of the Ardmore project.

The news came on a day when Rendell was on a statewide tour to publicize his call for the General Assembly to raise funds to fix the state's decrepit roads and bridges.

Gary Tuma, the governor's press secretary, said funds to fix roads are "a little bit different" from money to jump-start revitalization projects such as Ardmore's.

The state allotted $15 million in RACP funds for the Ardmore transit center two years ago, but later shaved it to $6 million, Tuma said.

"That's what they're announcing here today, the other $9 million," Tuma said.

The governor has discretion over RCAP expenditures, with input from the legislature. A recent example was the $2 million Rendell earmarked for a library to house the papers of his longtime friend Sen. Arlen Specter. Tuma said he expected grants for other projects across the state to be announced shortly.

Tuma said someone - he said he did not know who - contacted the governor's office last month and asked Rendell to commit the additional $9 million for Ardmore's project.

"The wheels for the project were turning, and in order to make it a reality ... he allowed RCAP to [grant] the money," Tuma said.

No money changes hands immediately. As with the Specter library and other items on the capital projects list, construction bond issues have to be floated to raise the funds. The money flows to the project as reimbursement for its costs, Tuma said.

Local officials were elated at news of the $9 million grant. "It's exciting that we are being looked upon as a project to be supported in this nature by the state. This helps a lot," said Lower Merion Township Manager Douglas Cleland.

Dranoff, SEPTA, Amtrak, and the township are collaborating on the planned $100 million transit center, seen as the linchpin for Ardmore's commercial revitalization hopes.

Plans call for a parking garage and new train station on the Thorndale/Paoli Regional Rail Line, along with a mini-Main Street featuring apartments and stores.

In June, Dranoff received township commissioners' permission to push back all deadlines a year, until June 30, 2011. The developer said he could not acquire Amtrak's Ardmore station by June 30, as promised. He said design changes had been necessitated by Amtrak's efforts to upgrade its electric system over the tracks.

Township officials had also cited a gap of up to $25 million in government funds the project was counting on for the train station and garage. Private money is to pay for the apartments and stores.

Brenda Viola, the township's spokeswoman, said the $9 million state grant would not speed up the latest timetable.

"Design completion is expected in 2011, with groundbreaking anticipated in late 2011 or early 2012," she said. "We are on schedule."

Dranoff and township leaders said in 2009 that they were counting on various government grants, including $10 million from SEPTA. But the transit agency withdrew its share when the federal government rejected the Rendell administration's plan to toll I-80, which SEPTA had counted on as a source of funds for capital projects.