People come from near and far to attend car shows at the 82-acre Carlisle Fairgrounds in Carlisle.
And when thousands of people descend on the fairgrounds, there has to be a place for them to park.
But when a 90-year-old factory near the fairgrounds closed in 2008, Carlisle Events, the company that hosts the car shows, could’ve lost more than 1,000 parking spaces.
Carlisle Events had leased parking on a 20-acre lot on the plant property.
“When they closed, we knew that we were at risk of losing the parking,” said Harold Brandt, CFO of Carlisle Events.
The company wanted to buy the lot.
However, next to the parking lot was a one-million-square-foot factory on 26 acres. It had opened in 1919 as the C.H. Masland and Sons carpet factory. Lear bought out Masland in the mid-1990s, and International Automotive Components took over from Lear.
Carlisle Events couldn’t just buy the lot.
“They made us buy the factory and the parking lot,” Brandt said.
And they did. Carlisle Events bought the entire 46-acre site in 2010.
As a result, Carlisle Events became a developer, and the project that would later be known as Northside Village — a mixed-use development — was born.
Sixteen years later, the project is still in the works, but several buildings have gone up in recent years, including apartments, townhomes, a hotel, a retail center and a restaurant.
“It’s great to see things coming up out of the ground,” Brandt said.
The development has not been easy.
Demolition of the vacant factory took a couple of years. In 2012, a massive fire tore through it.
Remediation started in 2012 and took about 12 years to finish at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s direction.
State officials have lauded the success of the Act 2 Land Recycling Program at the site and at the former Carlisle Tire and Wheel and Tyco industrial sites.
Thomas Richey of Third Mountain Consulting has been working on the project for 12 years. He said 2018 was a “horrifically wet year,” costing 180 days of work.
The impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the construction industry, also hit the Northside Village project.
“Every project has its bumps and so forth. This one had its fair share. But we’re almost there,” Richey said.
All of the streets and utility work for the project were completed by 2020.
The 26-acre factory site was divided into eight lots.
Construction on the 92-room Homewood Suites by Hilton started in 2019, and it opened in 2021. Officials said the hotel complements the car show venue.
“The hotel has been sold out every weekend that we’ve been open,” Brandt said.
Pompeii Italian Grill Brick Oven Pizza & Cocktails opened in August. The restaurant was announced in 2017, but was set back by liquor license and equipment delays, including a pizza oven from Italy..
The 175-seat restaurant specializes in brick-oven pizza and entrees, ranging from steaks and seafood to lamb and traditional Italian pasta. It also has a full bar.
Richey said that part of the agreement with Hilton was that there had to be a high-quality restaurant with a liquor license within walking distance.
Townhomes are also part of the project; they’re being built in five phases on four of the lots. The first couple of phases of the project are completed, and those townhomes are occupied, Richey said.
Construction continues on 50 other townhomes. Kenneth Homes is the developer of those, and they’re listed on the company’s website for $255,500.
“It’s really a nice product,” Richey said.
Another developer plans to build 48 townhomes on lot eight.
A 119-unit fully occupied apartment building is on Northside Lane in the development. The five-story Northside Village Apartments has one and two-bedroom units, plus a community room and a fitness center. The landlord is Tri-Corner Communities.
Construction on another 119-unit apartment building has begun. Richey said construction should take about 18 months.
Carlisle Events also started work on a 9,000-square-foot retail building, which it hopes to lease to one to three tenants. Construction will be completed once the tenants are known.
There is a 2.2-acre parcel near the restaurant with room for development. There was an 18,000-square-foot grocery store planned for that parcel at one point but that plan fell apart.
There is also a 2.1-acre parcel behind the hotel that is available for development.
At one point, the Concours at Carlisle, which was marketed as condominiums for car enthusiasts, was planned, but that idea was later scrapped.
Richey lauded Carlisle borough’s partnership in the project. Officials with Carlisle Events meet with officials from Carlisle once a month, he said.
He said in addition to the approximately $140 million private investments. Carlisle has spent about $20 million with grants for off-site traffic improvements and intersections.
Carlisle also built two parks on the site, including a skatepark that opened in February 2023.
https://www.pennlive.com/business/2026/10/in-16-years-a-dilapidated-cumberland-county-factory-site-has-been-transformed.html?gift=ad00b2e8-ce35-40cd-94aa-f4e4814cbe88
