Basalyga buys another commercial property in Scranton
Jan. 7—SCRANTON — John Basalyga bought another commercial property in the city, a former early-1900s auto dealership building and a neighboring lot in the 900 block of North Washington Avenue.
His firm, JBAS Realty LLC of Jessup, purchased the two parcels at 922 and 930 N. Washington Ave. for $385,000 from Jeffrey and Hadassah Ganz, according to a property transaction recorded Thursday.
The site for many decades had been the location of Jerry Ganz General Contracting Inc., Basalyga said. Attempts to reach a Ganz family member were unsuccessful Friday.
The building apparently in the early 1900s initially was known as the Simrell building; the name is still engraved in stone above a front door on one side of the two-story structure.
Newspaper archives show the building's ownership and use changed over the years.
An ad in The Scranton Times on June 23, 1917, for the V.A. Simrell & Son Studebaker dealership had the address of 922 N. Washington Ave. The Scranton Republican newspaper had an ad on Nov. 1, 1921, for the Foss-Hughes Co. that sold Pierce-Arrow cars at 922-924 N. Washington Ave. The Scranton Times had an ad on Jan. 7, 1922, for Riders Auto Painting at the Foss-Hughes Co. Building at 922 N. Washington Ave.
An article on Feb. 1, 1944, in The Scranton Times reported the Simrell building at 918-924 N. Washington Ave. was sold by First National Bank of Scranton to the Pennsylvania Illuminating Co., which moved from Poplar Street to the Simrell building.
A prolific developer with numerous properties and renovation projects in Scranton, Basalyga plans to use the Simrell building — at least in the near term — for storage of his own contractor equipment, materials and supplies.
"It's a neat building and it has a lot right next door. I thought it was a good buy," Basalyga said.
He plans to use that next-door lot for parking for a different building he owns nearby at 1008-1010 N. Washington Ave. He bought this Scranton Restaurant Supply Inc. showroom and warehouse in January 2020 and received a conditional approval from the city Zoning Board in November 2020 to convert it into 33 apartments.
This property can accommodate 30 off-street parking spaces, but 50 are required. The board's conditional approval required Basalyga to come up with the additional parking spaces through agreements with nearby property owners.
He later considered switching his plans for 1008-1010 N. Washington Ave. to a mixed-office use. But those plans did not pan out and he now intends to pursue his initial plan for 33 apartments — and now use the lot at 930 N. Washington Ave. for the extra parking spaces that are required.
In May 2021, Basalyga's firm bought the vacant, former Long Life Spring, Brake & Alignment shop at 814 Wyoming Ave. He has been using this eight-bay property for storage of his construction supplies, materials and equipment.
He might move these items to the Simrell building and then look to lease out the former Long Life auto repair shop on Wyoming Avenue.
He's also not ruling out a future conversion of the Simrell building into some other commercial or residential use.
"It's a bit ornate. It's overbuilt" for storage, he said of the Simrell building.
Contact the writer:
jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185;
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