For years, the Pottsville Area Development Corporation has helped revitalize the downtown of this once coal mining boomtown in Schuylkill County by helping to create and sustain dozens of businesses.
But in recent years, PADCO, as it’s known, wasn’t able to gain the traction it needed to make an even bigger impact, especially in other parts of the county, according to its executive director, Savas Logothetides, who also chairs the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce. While the corporation has financial resources via a revolving, $2 million loan fund, he said, it doesn’t always have the manpower to provide the services small businesses desperately need, to help with writing business plans, creating a marketing strategy, figuring out financing.
Alvernia’s O’Pake Institute of Economic Development and Entrepreneurship, of course, has human capital in spades, Logothetides said, with undergraduate and graduate students eager to provide the sweat support businesses need to succeed.
“That’s a huge game changer,” he said. “Before we had people who had great business ideas, but they couldn’t come to fruition because they couldn’t get access to the services they needed. By having Alvernia on our team, it closes that gap.”
In 2025, the Alvernia-PADCO alliance was preparing to triple its service area with an expansion into central and southern Schuylkill County, Logothetides said. Now, PADCO has applied for the state’s Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP), which provides tax credits to businesses that invest in distressed areas. If greenlighted, he said, the corporation would benefit and be able to hire more O’Pake graduate assistants as project managers, thereby helping more small businesses and nonprofits in an even wider region.
“That would change the entire dynamic of what we could do,” Logothetides said. “Our goal, if we’re lucky enough to receive it, is partnering with O’Pake and offering these services across the county at low to no cost.”
Rodney S. Ridley Sr., Alvernia’s vice president for research, economic development and strategic initiatives who also oversees O’Pake, describes the institute’s role as the “back office” for PADCO, managing projects and enhancing the corporation’s services through programming on financial literacy, marketing activities and more. He also sits on PADCO’s board.
“It’s student-powered economic development,” Ridley said, “and that’s a pretty unique model.”
Alvernia had long operated a small community campus out of the Cressona Mall strip shopping center in Pottsville. The University was looking to expand its footprint and services by replicating its successful CollegeTowne model, he said. In 2023, Alvernia moved its campus downtown into a renovated, 17,000-square-foot space that was a former Giant supermarket. (The $6 million project was partially funded by the state, it has been reported.)
Since 2018, PADCO has assisted more than 40 businesses in Pottsville, Logothetides explained. The corporation also runs the business plan competition Launch Pottsville, its version of Shark Tank that includes judges from Alvernia, and it has resulted in four new downtown businesses: The Chopping Block, an axe throwing venue; Arrow Studio & Events, a wedding venue; Rage Parade, a skate shop, and Let There Be Rock, a music school, he said.
Last year [2024], PADCO also moved into the Pottsville CollegeTowne building and it began partnering with Alvernia, Ridley said. So far, O’Pake has worked with about five businesses as part of its SPARK Business Incubator, he said, including a restaurant struggling with finances, and expects to double its clients if NAP comes through.
“We embed ourselves in the community and become economic partners,” Ridley said. “We really do change the community.”
By Lini S. Kadaba
