Three major projects overlooking Erie’s bayfront are getting some extra cash from the Commonwealth.

Thursday morning, officials gathered at the bayfront to announce more than $20 million in development money.

CRIZ, or the Erie City Revitalization and Improvement Zone Authority, announced that Pennsylvania approved funding for three development projects.

Those projects include Scott Bayfront Hotel, a bayfront parking ramp expansion and the transformation of the Renaissance Building into the Trust Hotel. In total, these three projects will cost more than $105 million and CRIZ will cover about $20 million of that.

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Senator Dan Laughlin said this milestone is the tip of the iceberg and more than a decade in the making.

“In the next coming years, there’s going to be investment just pouring into the City of Erie, in large part because we have the CRIZ to help make some of the numbers work for some of these developers, but what you’re going to see, I think, is there’ll be cranes in the skyline in Erie as we rebuild my hometown,” Laughlin said.

CRIZ was created to support new development in the city by using certain state and local tax revenue to be reinvested in projects.

“Think about the impact it could make for you know my generation, this little guy’s generation, and everything else as we look at our community. This is such an untapped resource down here on the waterfront. I think about this and I look at it and the CRIZ Authority took a long hard look at it and said look: here’s the potential for our community to grow and be vibrant,” said Matt Wachter, CRIZ Authority chair.

The new parking deck is expected to make it easier for visitors to access the bayfront, and the Trust Hotel project will preserve and modernize a historical building.

Nick Scott of Scott Enterprises is especially excited to build an AC Marriott Hotel on the bay front that will feature meeting space with floor to ceiling windows and another rooftop.

“We’re the only hotel down there that will have balconies that people can go out on, not all of the rooms but about 24 of the rooms they’ll be able to visit outside, watch the sunset, the famous Erie sunset,” Scott said.

CRIZ hopes that these development projects will not only improve Erie’s tourism but also create more job opportunities and to keep talent in Erie.

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