The Main Street East Project was to anchor uptown development on approximately three acres of land, embracing 17 parcels. It was proposed as a “major revitalization to a much-ignored sector of the center city”. Work proceeded on demolition, with plans for a department store and office complex. But what was planned, and what later became a reality, were totally different.

The Main Street East Project came to a halt with the 1977 Flood.

As the 1980s began, the Main Street East project grew into the first major new construction program in that portion of the downtown area in more than 50 years. The land was turned over by the Authority to a joint venture development, proposed by the Economic Development Corporation of the Johnstown Area Regional Industries, a private business group formed in 1973 in the aftermath of the Bethlehem Steel announcement of massive job layoffs; the Cambria County Transit Authority, which was to develop a modern transit center; and the Johnstown Parking Authority, for a 350 space parking garage with retail businesses around the perimeter.

The giant office-transit center-parking garage was completed in 1981 at an overall cost of approximately $6 million, including monies obtained through an Urban Development Action Grant, one of the first in the country, and from the U.S. Department of Transportation.