New Life For Tom Ridge Pavilion?

The 7,500-capacity Tom Ridge Pavilion hasn’t hosted a concert since 2013, and the 675-acre site in the Pocono Mountains has long been regarded as something of a “white elephant” and a 2007 state audit blasted three Pennsylvania governors for failing to exercise oversight over the venue’s construction and management.

But elected officials in Lehman Township now say they want to see the dormant venue hosting concerts again, and are prepared to offer a tax abatement program as an incentive to the Philadelphia-area real estate developers that now own the property. “It is a great location, and I know it can work,” said Robert Rohner Jr., a township supervisor. The Mountain Laurel Center, built in 2003 for $35 million including $15 million in state tax money, is located in northeastern Pennsylvania about 95 miles northwest of New York City.

The venue’s original business plan envisioned a series of partnerships with tour bus companies to ensure a steady stream of visitors. The plan was never implemented, attorney John Klemeyer said during a public meeting. “To my knowledge, no one ever implement the day-to-day plan,” Klemeyer said. “This needs to be done. We’re never going to fly, we’re never going to be able to have this place operate, if we don’t have that day-to-day traffic.”

The venue missed most of the peak tourist season its first year, and fewer than 20 events took place before it was forced to close with $23 million in debt in 2003. It’s reopened and closed twice since then with abbreviated seasons.

A spokeswoman for O’Neill Properties, which bought the property in 2006, said she didn’t immediately know that company’s plans for it.