New Yesterday’s owner ready to move forward with Renovo project

ENGLEWOOD, NJ – The prospective new owner of the former Renovo YMCA/Yesterday’s building said she and her husband are ready to enter and renovate the venerable building on Third Street in Renovo.

Rachelle Soussan and her husband Isaac, residents of Englewood, NJ, are one step away from taking possession of the now empty brick building which traces its past to the heyday of the Pennsylvania Railroad better than a century ago.

The Soussans, through their Sea Investments LLC firm in Englewood, had submitted the successful repository sale bid to Clinton County earlier this year. Since then, the process has required sale approval by the property’s several taxing entities, the county, Renovo Borough and the Keystone Central School District. Clinton County and Renovo Borough (the latter on a 3-2 council vote last week) approved the transaction; the school board has not yet voted on the transfer.

Meanwhile Mrs. Soussan told The Record that while the purchasers have viewed the building’s exterior, they have not yet seen the inside. She said as soon as the couple receives the deed, they’ll be inside to “see what needs to be done to get the building to code” requirements and has a crew ready to go.

She said Sea Investments does building restorations but has never taken on a project to the scale of the Yesterday’s building. She said she “wants to talk to the town” about what the borough would like to see in terms of renovations. A Wilkes-Barre native, Mrs. Soussan said they would like to establish single-room occupancy if allowed. She also expressed interest in an outside party taking over and running the first-floor restaurant area.
The repository price bid was $600 and Sea Investments provided the Clinton County Tax Claim Bureau with a March 23 check for $863 to cover the bid and related costs. Mrs. Soussan said she was somewhat surprised to learn the bid was the highest received. She said she is aware of the pending Renovo Energy Center project which would bring hundreds of workers for a couple years to the Renovo area during the construction phase of the project.

Since the building was in repository status with the county, it is exempt from property taxes until improvements are made. The parking lot across Third Street from the building entrance was not part of the sale.