The Panther Valley Blueprint Community team didn’t just sit back and enjoy the train excursion Saturday to Tunkhannock.

The team used the three-hour, northbound ride to learn about a state program that could create a City Revitalization Initiative Zone, or CRIZ, in the four Panther Valley communities.

As the train wound its way through the Lehigh Gorge State Park toward the Tannery, outside White Haven, Christine Verdier, state Sen. David Argall’s chief of staff and team mentor, talked about the program.

Allentown used a similar program, the Neighborhood Improvement Zone, or NIZ, to bring tax dollars back and reinvest them in the community, she said.

The legislation has changed to allow smaller, adjacent communities, such as the Panther Valley’s, to work together to create the zones, Verdier said. But it’s still up to the governor to implement and regulations are being developed, she said.

While the rules get hashed out on the state level, now is a good time for the team look at the CRIZ program and decide whether to pursue it, Verdier said.

She turned the program over to Micah Gursky, who works with the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership, which was a Blueprint Community in 2005 — the first year for the program.

Tamaqua was also one of the communities able to create a CRIZ and reap the benefits of the revitalization initiative. Funding is always the biggest challenge with revitalization projects, he said.

“What this program does is it unlocks tax dollars that are already being generated by businesses in your community,” Gursky said.

Taxes, such as state sales tax, personal income tax and corporate net income taxes, can come back to the community to fund development, he said.

CRIZ allows the community to work with a developer to acquire and renovate property, and start generating tax revenue — and that new tax revenue comes back to the business to pay the debt service, Gursky said.

Up to 80% of the debt service can be reimbursed with the new taxes generated over 20 or 30 years, which is how long the zone lasts, he said.

“There’s nothing more exciting for me than to think about the Panther Valley coming together to petition for a CRIZ,” said Joe Bennett, a team member and developer who has worked with the program in Tamaqua.

“This is an economic opportunity unlike anything else in the state,” he said.

Bennett, who was involved in the Boyer’s Market expansion and other projects in Tamaqua, said that 5/6th of new taxes go to the developer, but the remaining funds go to other projects, such as the roof on the Tamaqua Train Station.

The CRIZ application process will be competitive, and the Panther Valley would have to convince the state that its plan is better than other communities’ and be successful, Gursky said.

But Blueprint Communities have an edge, he said. The Blueprint teams already established a commitment to work together, attend training and formulate a plan for the community, Gursky said.

The Panther Valley’s biggest hurdle may be identifying projects that are in the queue or marginal and need a little help, he said.

George Haleem, one developer working in the Panther Valley, specifically in Lansford, came along on the trip to Tunkhannock.

He and his business partner, Mike Klaips, are renovating the former St. Michael the Archangel Church, rectory and school into short-term rentals and an events venue.

Haleem and Klaips completed the first phase of the project, which included roof repairs and renovations of the rectory, which recently opened as a whole-house rental featured on Airbnb.

The partners are still working to transform the more than 100-year-old Gothic church into a performing arts center and special events venue as a second phase, and then want to renovate the former school into additional short-term rentals supporting the venue.

Team member Abbie Guardiani said there is also development happening in Nesquehoning, with Reading & Northern locating in the former Kovatch complex, and the new sports complex just across the highway.

Both are bringing more people to the area, and the railroad’s Matt Fisher, vice president of the passenger department, told the team they’d like to bring excursions into Nesquehoning, not just run them out of the regional station.

“We’ve got to feed them and we’ve got to house them,” Guardiani said. “They don’t necessarily want to eat at McDonald’s. Lansford has beautiful storefronts, property ready to go. We just need people with vision.”

Other team members mentioned more potential projects within their team’s footprint.

Guardiani keeps a quote from George Bernard Shaw on her phone, she said.

“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it,” she said, reading to the group.

Her team members agreed.