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The Altoona Redevelopment Authority received a new upbeat report about the former McCrory's building on Sept. 15, with the prospect of more good news to come in the weeks or months ahead.
The vacant building, having "suffered" for years with a serious water problem, as well as a number of other serious, not-easy-to-resolve issues, now is being proclaimed "dry and secure" by the building's new owner, developer Christopher Cook.
Additionally, Cook has told the redevelopment agency that architectural and engineering work has been completed and has been approved by the city, and that Cook is awaiting state approval of his application for $500,000 in Enterprise Zone tax credits.
Once a decision comes from the state regarding that application, Cook will be able to determine how much he will need to borrow to complete the building's work.
According to Cook, workers will be able to start the interior build-out within a month in the three-story structure and finish the entire project by about this time next year.
Cook described the project, on which he has spent about $400,000 so far, as still being on target.
That is the kind of description/projection city officials coveted as the building was being saved from wrecking-ball demolition based on its long-suffering, deteriorating condition.
Cook has estimated that, if the state allocates the full $500,000 for which he has applied, he will need to borrow about an additional $1 million to reach his project objectives.
One point stands out: Cook was the kind of developer that the former McCrory's structure has needed all along -- someone with an understanding of the downtown's needs, along with the determination and talents to make his and the city's ideas and goals reality.
What Cook has been able to demonstrate so far, in terms of aggressively putting a plan into action, seemingly would work well in regard to the Redevelopment Authority's new effort aimed at saving blighted dwellings before they reach a deteriorated condition where demolition is the only option.
As was reported in the Mirror's Sept. 18 edition, that effort is getting underway with the first focus being a property on the 1300 block of 21st Avenue.
City officials hope that property will be the basis for a template for saving blighted dwellings before "resurrecting" them will be impossible.
City Councilman and Redevelopment Authority member Ron Beatty has expressed the point that several other bad homes in good neighborhoods exist that might be ripe for the kind of intervention being attempted for the 21st Avenue property.
Determination toward keeping the project moving forward must never relax, just as Cook is not relaxing in regard to reviving a building that many city residents, officials and business owners believed could not be "resuscitated."
For years, the McCrory's building generated hardly anything more than bad news, and blighted properties also have been the topic of numerous Mirror articles during recent years as well.
But a new era is evolving in which "saving" seems to be the right watchword, now and for the future.
Nothing must sidetrack the efforts that are underway.