Harrisburg man hopes to open food truck at former Allison Hill eyesore

As an enforcement technician with Harrisburg’s sanitation department, Howard Drayton can take pleasure in the metropolis.

It is partly why he’s proposing to open a foodstuff truck at the corner of North 14th and Marketplace streets in the city’s Allison Hill section. He desires to change a vacant great deal at 1400 Sector St. the place people today used to dump trash into a thriving takeout food items business.

“Being on that trash truck and carrying out all that operate with the town, you get the prospect to be observe and see specific traits and malfunctions in the neighborhood,” Drayton said.

He envisions the mobile truck as a put for the neighborhood to occur for foodstuff and Italian ice and obtain for wellbeing fairs and birthday events. But in advance of he can hold an “open for business” indicator, Drayton is in search of the acceptable approvals.

The Harrisburg City’s preparing fee is scheduled to critique a zoning variance and unique exception application at its June 1 assembly for the assets, which is zoned residential. If proposed, the options will move to the Zoning Listening to Board for its blessing.

Drayton hopes the cell truck will be up and jogging as early as Labor Day.

He reported he grew to become intrigued in the residence when he saw tax sale symptoms posted at the web page. He positioned a bid on the .04 acre tract in 2019 with Dauphin County.

Now Drayton maintains the assets, which is almost nothing additional than a milled rectangle. He’s hoping to transform an abandoned trailer that was on the house into the cafe, which his sister, Ciara Drayton, who has a culinary arts diploma from Harrisburg Place Community School, will head.

Drayton explained he’s not guaranteed nonetheless what sort of foods his sister will provide. Their late father, Franklin Armstrong, operated Seabash Jamaican cafe at Industry and Cameron streets, as perfectly as other metropolis restaurants like Callabash, Wing’s King and Sir Franklin’s Cafe.

The property’s locale, across from Harrisburg Fried Chicken and in the vicinity of Capow Jamaican restaurant, sits in a portion of the metropolis Drayton stated is undergoing a renaissance.

Jacob Bowen, deputy director of preparing for the town, said there seems to be a development of persons converting scaled-down, vacant plenty in the city into food stuff places. Another seller just lately received approvals to set up a cellular company at 641 Ross St., he additional.

Drayton claimed he hopes the location becomes a accumulating put, one thing people today in the community will love, not complain about.

“It cuts down on blight in city and it also cuts down on the eyesore,” he additional.

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