John Basalyga’s remake of the Coney Island Lunch building in downtown Scranton will have a retro look with brick facades and fabric awnings.
The revamp of the restaurant at 515 Lackawanna Ave. and newly constructed ice cream shop next door at 513 Lackawanna Ave. nears completion and they should be ready to open in late July or early August, he said.
On Thursday, Scranton’s Historical Architecture Review Board approved the awnings and signs for the mostly three-story main building and its one-story addition.
The building’s new “vintage” look will be a departure from prior designs that called for sleeker, more modern appearances. But after the facade of the building collapsed in 2024 during interior renovations, Basalyga went back to the drawing board. He instead decided to take a page from the past and install a brick exterior and bright awnings that harken to the way many buildings used to look over a century or longer ago.
“With the incident we had with the whole facade falling off, we decided to go back to what it originally was,” Basalyga told HARB, according to an Electric City Television simulcast and video of the meeting posted on YouTube. “You could see back in the past how much awnings were used over windows. … I think it will be a special-looking building.”
Katie Kerns, who is one of Basalyga’s project managers and designers, also said, “We believe we have restored the building to a more appropriate look than what it even was before the fall of the facade.”
A few years in the works, the renovation project also involved putting five apartments in the upper floors. The uppermost part of the front section of the building, which previously appeared to have been a sort-of windowless crawl space or attic, now has been configured into a fourth-floor that is part of the third-floor apartment in the front. That design makes that dwelling a two-floor apartment, he said.
The ice cream shop, named “Raegan’s” after his younger daughter, occupies a formerly vacant lot next to the eatery. Previously, that lot sat under a three-story, blank stucco side wall of the Coney Island building at 515 Lackawanna Ave. As part of the restaurant reboot and for apartments above, Basalyga has installed numerous windows on the side and front walls. Some of the five apartments on the upper floors are already occupied and reserved, he said.
Prior restaurateurs retired
In December 2023, Basalyga’s JBAS Realty purchased the Coney Island Lunch property from C.I.L. Associates and Pete and Bob Ventura for $300,000. Basalyga also acquired the adjacent vacant lot and outer western wall attached to the Coney Island Lunch building from the Scranton Redevelopment Authority for $32,500.
The Venturas, who ran the restaurant for nearly 50 years and had been involved much longer, decided to retire and closed the landmark shop in December 2023. Their grandfather, Steve Karampilas, launched the business on Cedar Avenue in 1923, and their stepfather John Karampilas moved the eatery to 515 Lackawanna Ave. in 1988.
Basalyga in 2024 embarked on his plan to redo and revive the Coney Island Lunch restaurant but hit a big snag on Dec. 30, 2024, when the front wall of the building collapsed during interior renovations. Undeterred, he stuck with renovation instead of a total demolition and rebuilding from the ground up.
In May 2025, when the Coney Island Lunch building’s front wall was still boarded up, Basalyga bought the adjoining, former Scranton Hobby Center building at 517 Lackawanna Ave. Basalyga also has renovations underway at 517, where the street-level retail spot will get Ross Jewelers relocating from 211 N. Washington Ave. and the upper floors will get five apartments that should be ready around September, Basalyga said.
Block party
The project involving all three addresses — the lot at 513 Lackawanna Ave. and the buildings at 515 and 517 Lackawanna Ave. — represent further improvement in a block that has had some streetscape changes in recent years.
In 2023, Scranton Tomorrow’s Mural Arts Program had a larger-than-life mural titled “The Office: The Story of Us” painted on the eastern wall of the building at 503 Lackawanna Ave. The artwork based on the beloved NBC sitcom has become a tourist attraction.
Last fall, the city removed a concrete median in the 500 block of Lackawanna Avenue and created several parking spaces on the odd-numbered side of that street.
Now, Coney Island Lunch and Raegan’s will soon open. Windows on upper floors each would get their own brightly colored awning, while the street level would get a continuous awning along the front of the restaurant and wrapping around the corner to the ice cream shop. A 10-foot-tall Texas wiener hot dog character with a cowboy hat will smile down from the side wall. The exterior walls will get covered with a brick veneer made of real cut brick.
“The building is framed out of wood, it’s structurally sound. The brick is just a covering on it, so it doesn’t need to be a full brick. The intent (of a brick veneer) isn’t for structural use,” he said. But this brick veneer is by no means an inferior surface and it comes with a 50-year warranty and might last far longer, he noted.
“At the end of it all, I want it to be an iconic-looking building for the downtown,” Basalyga said. “It will be lit up. It’s going to be an ice cream shop and of course we’re bringing back Coney Island Lunch.”
Part of the building that housed Coney Island Lunch on Lackawanna Avenue in Scranton, being renovated by developer John Basalyga, collapsed. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Part of the building that housed Coney Island Lunch on Lackawanna Avenue in Scranton, being renovated by developer John Basalyga, collapsed. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Part of the building that housed Coney Island Lunch on Lackawanna Avenue in Scranton, being renovated by developer John Basalyga, collapsed. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)
Developer John Basalyga has purchased 517 Lackawanna Ave. in Scranton. The building is next door to the former Coney Island Lunch that Basalyga previously purchased.
Renovation work taking place Tuesday, July 15, 2025 in downtown Scranton at the Coney Island Lunch building at 515 Lackawanna Ave. owned by John Basalyga. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
John Basalyga has a revamp of the Coney Island Lunch building at 515 Lackawanna Ave. in Scranton, construction of an ice cream shop next door at 513 Lackawanna Ave. and renovation of the former Scranton Hobby Shop building at 517 Lackawanna Ave. underway on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. Photo shows the new construction at 513 Lackawanna Ave. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
John Basalyga has a revamp of the Coney Island Lunch building at 515 Lackawanna Ave. in Scranton, construction of an ice cream shop next door at 513 Lackawanna Ave. and renovation of the former Scranton Hobby Shop building at 517 Lackawanna Ave. underway on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. Photo shows the new framing construction on 513 Lackawanna Ave. along the side wall of 515 Lackawanna Ave. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Restoration continues on the Coney Island Lunch building on Lackawanna Ave. in downtown Scranton Thursday, April 9, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Real estate developer John Basalyga poses for a photograph at the site of the Coney Island Lunch building on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton Friday, April 10, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Real estate developer John Basalyga poses for a photograph at the site of the Coney Island Lunch building on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton Friday, April 10, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A rendering of John Basalyga’s renovation of the Coney Island Lunch building at 515 Lackawanna Ave. in downtown Scranton. (IMAGE PROVIDED / COURTESY OF JOHN BASALYGA)
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Part of the building that housed Coney Island Lunch on Lackawanna Avenue in Scranton, being renovated by developer John Basalyga, collapsed. (JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)