OLYPHANT — Three business partners envision more than two dozen townhouses overlooking the Lackawanna River at the site of a former slaughterhouse on Hull Avenue and Ash Street.
As they inspected the site Tuesday — a snow-covered lot with concrete slabs as remnants of the former Atlantic Veal and Lamb slaughterhouse — Hull Avenue at Ash Street LLC business partners Adam Guiffrida, John Wilkens and Nick Belfiore said they hope to break ground soon on the Studebaker Lofts, bringing a 26-unit townhouse development to Olyphant as soon as they receive property tax relief intended for projects to develop deteriorated land.
Guiffrida, a Scranton developer, estimates the entire project will be a $5 million investment in Olyphant.
Business partners Nick Belfiore Adam Guiffrida and John Wilkens pose for a photograph at the future site of their future development, the Studebaker Lofts, in Olyphant Tuesday, December 16, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A brief timeline
Hull Avenue at Ash Street purchased the 2.2-acre site for $250,000 in June 2022, acquiring a complex of condemned, century-old buildings that once made up a slaughterhouse operated by I. Kaplan Inc. and later Atlantic Veal and Lamb. Guiffrida expedited demolition of the slaughterhouse in March 2023 after a fire tore through parts of the building the previous month. A state police fire marshal ruled it an arson, and police charged two juveniles.
The property had been used for meat processing since at least the early 1900s.
The name Studebaker Lofts is an homage to a concrete Studebaker car dealership logo that was embedded in one of the exterior walls, which demolition crews carefully removed and preserved to later display in the completed townhouse development.
Guiffrida initially looked to build as many as 63 apartments, but he amended those plans to 42-townhouse style units in 2023 due to floodplain requirements.
In August 2023, Guiffrida unsuccessfully sought zoning relief from Olyphant’s zoning hearing board, weeks after Olyphant council voted at his request to rezone the land from commercial to residential to facilitate the development.
The zoning hearing board effectively halted his plans by denying key variances after neighbors spoke against the project, including raising concerns about the number of units; Hull Avenue at Ash Street appealed the decision in October 2023, contending the board abused its discretion.
A docket for the appeal in the Lackawanna County Prothonotary has not been updated since May 8, 2024, and a judge has not ruled on the matter.
Those zoning hurdles prompted them to downsize to the current 26 units, Guiffrida said.
“At the end of the day, they saved us a fortune,” he said.
The plans
The 26 units of townhouses will be divided into 13 duplexes, Guiffrida said. The units will be three stories tall and 1,260 square feet, with the first floor of each unit being a heated tandem garage with room for two vehicles, plus parking for two additional vehicles in front of every unit, Guiffrida said.
The units will be two bedrooms with amenities including luxury plank flooring, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and central air, he said, adding that every unit will have a deck with it a view of the Lackawanna River.
“They’re going to have beautiful decks on the back to overlook (the river),” he said.
Additionally, there will be a lot of green space with a large shared yard in the back, Guiffrida said.
Downsizing also meant they no longer have to build internal roads through the property; early plans called for two cul-de-sacs in the site, he said.
The developers have not yet decided on rent, but they consider the units to be “above standard,” Belfiore said.
“We want to be comparable with the area,” he said. “They’re going to be brand new, nice and safe and comfortable.”
The demand for above-standard housing is huge locally, Guiffrida said. He anticipates young professionals moving into the housing as they look to leave big cities, and he has also received interest from elderly couples who want to sell their homes but stay local.
“The bigger cities are becoming unaffordable, and then there’s no parking, and it’s just a nightmare,” he said. “Come up here, they could live well, they could walk downtown.”
The only remaining hurdle is to get the project’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance request approved, Wilkens and Guiffrida said.
“That’s the only thing holding this up, because we already have all the insurances in place,” Wilkens said. “The second we get approved, we’re ready to move.”
LERTAs incentivize development of deteriorated properties by reducing the property taxes developers pay on improvements while still paying full taxes on the land itself.
In August 2023, Olyphant Borough Council approved a 10-year LERTA for the site where the property owner will only pay 5% of taxes on improvements in the first year, increasing by 5% annually until it jumps to full taxation after the 10th year.
LERTAs need approvals from the local municipality, school board and county commissioners. If the town and school district approve a LERTA, the county generally follows suit.
A LERTA is extremely important, Guiffrida said.
“Construction costs are astronomical anymore,” he said. “To make it feasible … the towns have to be able to work with developers.”
Lackawanna County’s reassessment temporarily paused the LERTA process, but Guiffrida now hopes the Mid Valley School Board could consider it as early as January.
Once the LERTA is granted, they will break ground within the week, he said.
Construction will be phased, starting with eight units on Hull Avenue and then working down the street and onto Ash Street, Belfiore and Guiffrida said.
The entire development will take 12 to 16 months, but with the phased approach, Guiffrida expects to finish the first units within a few months of breaking ground and then begin moving in tenants.