Officials got a look at The “Bank on Broad” renovation project Thursday.

The project will restore four historic buildings in Tamaqua to create 17 apartments on West Broad Street.

The Berwick House Apartments, owned by the Alliance for Building Communities, will be restored in addition to the Tamaqua Historical Society Museum Annex, and a vacant building at 112 W. Broad St. will be restored to make upper-level apartments. Total cost of the project is $5.7 million.

“It’s similar to what was done at 401 Hazle and Liberty Hall on the east end of town. It’s the same development team, same development program and same investors in a lot of cases,” said Micah Gursky, Tamaqua Area Community Partnership Executive Director.

“We have a large investment by Riverview Bank - over $4 million of capital investment that they’re making into this project so that we can renovate the upper floors above the museum. We’ll have residential units above the museum like we did 100 years ago.”

The project received a $350,000 Affordable Housing Grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, a $500,000 grant from the PennHOMES program, and $485,000 in tax credits from the Pennsylvania Housing and Finance Authority. The remainder of the funding comes in the form of equity from Riverview Bank.

Among many other items, the 21,900 square-foot Berwick House needs an elevator, HVAC and roof renovations. The other two buildings involved in the project consist of roughly 7,350 square feet.

The 17-total apartments will include five one-bedroom units, eight two-bedroom, three three-bedroom and one four-bedroom unit.

“Today the partners on this project got together,” said Gursky. “We wanted to show some of the people who have been working with us - some of them more than a decade - to make this project happen. “We wanted to invite them to see the project and give them an update on the timeline of what we are planning.”

Joining Gursky downtown were many partners and guests including State Rep. Jerry Knowles, R-124; State Sen. Dave Argall, R-Schuylkill/Berks; Ralph Melone, Project Architect and former member of Tamaqua’s Historical Architectural Review Commission; John Panzitta, Panzitta Enterprises; Brett Fulk, Chief Executive Officer and President of Riverview Bank and other representatives; Fred Banuelos, Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh and Brad Fatzinger, Executive Director of the Alliance for Building Communities.

Gursky said he’s hoping the project will conclude at the end of this year or early 2022.