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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; For all Jason Griggs has been doing to develop a building on South Main Street, he&#8217;s quick to give others credit.</p><p>The Wilkes University graduate and trustee plugged his school, the city, the tenants and the contractors working on the project to convert a vacant property into apartments for students and a ground-floor restaurant.</p><p>Griggs Properties LLC, the development and property management company in Royersford headed by its namesake, will invest approximately $750,000 in the downtown project.</p><p>&#8220;I look at my purchase and redevelopment of the building on South Main Street simply as an extension of what Wilkes University wants to do,&#8221; said Griggs, 50, class of 1990. It&#8217;s in line with the school&#8217;s mission of being &#8220;a private institution with a public purpose,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The school has limits working within that framework and that&#8217;s where outside interests find opportunities to get involved.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s important also for private developers to come and do these things, because Wilkes can&#8217;t do it all,&#8221; said Griggs.</p><p>The school will be his tenant and fill the seven apartments.</p><p>On the first floor, Wilkes grad Christian Pilosi will open another version of his Eden &#8212; A Vegan Cafe that&#8217;s located on Adams Avenue in Scranton. Everything should be ready by mid to late summer, Griggs estimated.</p><p>All three floors could have been converted to apartments, but that would not have fit in with the school&#8217;s streetscape plans and that&#8217;s why the restaurant was included, Griggs explained. Pilosi, who had been looking for locations downtown, liked what he saw.</p><p>&#8220;I think he spent five minutes in this space talking to us before he said, &#8216;This is where I want to be,&#8217;&#8221; Griggs recalled.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre is a good place to be from Griggs&#8217; perspective. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s certainly on a really good trajectory right now,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Griggs, who&#8217;s an investor in the Montage Mountain resort and has developed properties in downtown Scranton, encouraged others to take a chance on Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m fortunate that the city is open to it,&#8221; Griggs said of his project. Everyone from the mayor&#8217;s office, to code enforcement, zoning and the local contractors have been helpful. &#8220;I can&#8217;t do this alone,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The South Main project could lead to other investments on his part. Griggs said he&#8217;s identified other properties in the city and &#8220;would love to talk to the owners&#8221; about them.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">A vacant building at 134 S. Main St. in Wilkes-Barre is being converted into apartments for Wilkes University students and a street-level copy of Scranton&#8217;s Eden &#8212; A Vegan Cafe. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL032019vegan1-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>A vacant building at 134 S. Main St. in Wilkes-Barre is being converted into apartments for Wilkes University students and a street-level copy of Scranton&#8217;s Eden &#8212; A Vegan Cafe. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL032019vegan2-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes University grad Jason Griggs is developing a vacant building at 134 S. Main St. in Wilkes-Barre into student apartments and bringing a copy of Scranton&#8217;s Eden &#8212; A Vegan Cafe to the ground-floor space. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL032019vegan2-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wilkes University grad Jason Griggs is developing a vacant building at 134 S. Main St. in Wilkes-Barre into student apartments and bringing a copy of Scranton&#8217;s Eden &#8212; A Vegan Cafe to the ground-floor space. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Wilkes grad says project should finish this summer</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes grad bringing apartments, vegan cafe to downtown Wilkes-Barre