Proposed 33-Story Tower In Allentown Draws Mixed Reaction

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s hard to imagine: a tall, pencil-like building that would jut into the Allentown sky, permanently altering the city’s landscape.

Lehigh Valley Developer Bruce Loch’s proposal to transform a 4,000-square-foot grassy plot in the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone into a 33-story high-rise is so unusual it has spurred conversation across the region.

For many, it’s an exciting prospect — a sign that developers have faith in Allentown’s urban core. Others have questions about the proposal, such as how a footprint so small could support a structure that would eclipse the Lehigh Valley’s tallest buildings by at least 20 feet.

Amy Hawley, an Allentown commercial and industrial real estate broker, commended Loch for wanting to build downtown, but questioned whether local businesses are ready for such a radical change in floor plan.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-landmark-tower-office-space-20130328,0,5118434.story

Allentown’s Seventh Street Is Experiencing A Quiet Rebirth

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Winston Barnes sits at a table overlooking Seventh Street, the harmonious smell of cinnamon, scallions and allspice enveloping his Jamaican restaurant.

On this winter night, when other city restaurants are deserted, customers will go to Winston’s for its signature hot jerk chicken, curry goat and other savory Caribbean favorites — a sign of the subtle renaissance that is taking place on what was once one of Allentown‘s most problematic streets.

A cold blast of air floods the store as two customers emerge from the night, bundled in jackets.

“Hey! How you doing, man?” Barnes says loudly, his tired eyes coming to life as he recognizes the federal workers who stand before him.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-seventh-street-evolution-20130316,0,326378,full.story

Easton Inks First Lease For Proposed Intermodal Project

English: Skyline of Easton, PA from Lafayette College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At least one tenant for Easton’s proposed intermodal center is signed for what passes for perpetuity these days — 99 years.

City Council approved a master lease Wednesday night for the yet-to-be-built intermodal, inking the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority to a long-term deal in return for an upfront payment of $7.2 million. The lease with LANTA is through the city’s parking authority, which in turn will operate the 370-space parking deck and bus terminal portion of the project.

LANTA’s cash payment, derived from a federal transportation grant, is a major source of funding for the $26 million intermodal. Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. hopes to couple the LANTA money with grants obtained by the city to cut the amount the city must borrow to no more than $13 million.

Site work for the project started last year after the city demolished a Perkins restaurant and a movie theater on S. Third St. Construction could begin this summer.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-council-approved-bus-terminal-lease-20130227,0,4743558.story

Callahan Announces Tech Hub Plans For Former Bethlehem Steel Annex

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan announced Thursday the city and Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem are in discussions to turn a five-story former Bethlehem Steel building into a technology hub.

The $30 million project, known as Tau, would provide office space for as many as 450 employees working for several companies in an annex building of the Steel General Offices on E. Third Street.

The 125,000-square-foot annex, built in 1952 and the home for Steel’s main frame computers, has been vacant for years and was last used in the 1990s as a temporary classroom for elementary students.

“Tau will recast the former Bethlehem Steel General Office Building East Annex as a fully integrated technology center which attracts companies in every stage,” Callahan said.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-bethlehem-callahan-state-of-the-city-20130214,0,1613020.story

South Bethlehem’s ‘Front Door’ To Get Makeover

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan announced Thursday the design of several grant-funded projects aimed at sprucing up the “front door” to southeast Bethlehem.

Those projects will include building a gathering space at the popular SkatePlaza, an economic analysis of how to redevelop properties, wayfinding signs and connections from the rails-to-trails park to neighborhoods.

The profiles of the neighborhoods near E. Fourth Street and Daley Avenue are quickly rising as the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem continues to draw visitors and Route 412 expands to accommodate more traffic.

“With changes that have taken place here, the eastern gateway is the new front door of Bethlehem,” Mayor John Callahan said at a news conference at the Forte Building.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-bethlehem-south-side-projects-20130124,0,701344.story

Center City Allentown Construction To Bring 900 Jobs

English: City of Allentown (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The concrete foundation of Allentown‘s $272 million arena complex has begun to rise at Seventh and Hamilton streets, along with the number of yellow-vested construction workers.

It is a welcome sight to an army of local tradesmen whose livelihoods took a beating in the Great Recession.

For ironworker Carl Graves, 33, of Easton, the arena project didn’t just put him back to work in a tough construction market, it gave him his family back.

With construction in the Lehigh Valley at a near halt the past four years, Graves has had to accept jobs as far as 100 miles away. During his six months working on a job at New York University Medical Center last year, the four-hour round-trip commute left him little time to spend with his wife and sons, ages 5 and 1.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-arena-union-jobs-20130119,0,4563413,full.story

Majestic Developer Plans 1.75 Million-Square-Foot Warehouse At Former Bethlehem Steel Site

California billionaire Ed Roski Jr.’s company plans to build what could become the Lehigh Valley‘s largest warehousing facility on a remote part of the former Bethlehem Steel plant.

Plans scheduled to go before the Bethlehem Planning Commission next week show a 1.75 million-square-foot warehouse and manufacturing facility at 3215 Commerce Center Blvd.

That’s nearly 50 percent bigger than the 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse Liberty Property Trust built last year on another portion of the former plant, and nearly twice as big as the Nestle warehouse off Interstate 78 in Lehigh County.

Pete Reinke, vice president of business development at Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp., said he knew of no other warehouse in the Valley bigger than what Majestic is proposing.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-bethlehem-majestic-big-warehouse-20130104,0,5448712.story

Macungie To Revisit Downtown Improvement Plan

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lehigh County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tom Bartholomew took a bold step when he decided to move his insurance agency from a Lower Macungie strip mall to downtown Macungie, a relocation that is costing him a “substantial” amount of money.

“The [Macungie] building makes a statement,” Bartholomew said. “It’s a 200-year-old building that has stood the test of time. It kind of makes a statement to your clients if you have an investment in your own business.”

Bartholomew and other Macungie business owners are hoping borough officials are willing to make a similar statement. They’ve asked Borough Council to revive its discussion of a downtown “streetscape” plan that has generated little steam since 2008, when a downtown study was completed.

Council decided recently to revisit the streetscape plan and hold a related workshop in March.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/eastpenn/mc-macungie-downtown-improvement-plan-20121226,0,3418106.story

Lehigh County Lands In Economic Growth Top 10

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lehigh County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A national economic development firm says Lehigh County is poised for rapid future economic growth and investment.

The Pittsburgh-based company, Fourth Economy, ranked the county seventh in the U.S. among “large-sized” counties with populations between 150,000 and 499,999.

The company ranked counties based on investment, talent, sustainability, place and diversity, and looked at wage and employment growth, education levels, drive times, home values, minority business ownership, agricultural and manufacturing capacity and population density.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pa-lehigh-county-growth-20121217,0,492217.story

Allentown Waterfront Development Plans Unveiled For $250M In Construction

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Developers on Tuesday unveiled a $250 million plan to convert Allentown’s long-deteriorating riverfront into a complex of office and residential buildings, a project funded by the one-of-a-kind tax zone that’s powering the downtown hockey arena.

The gritty industrial mish-mash along the west bank of the Lehigh River from Allen Street past the Tilghman Street Bridge would be replaced by The Waterfront, a strip of 12 glass-and-steel office buildings, walking trails and apartments.

Waterfront Redevelopment Partners presented the quarter-billion-dollar plan to the city’s Planning Commission, proposing 610,000 square feet of offices, 130,000 square feet of retail and 172 apartments on a 26-acre property that was home to Lehigh Structural Steel, once an anchor of city industry.

The Waterfront would be linked to Route 22 by the soon-to-be built American Parkway bridge, and expands what city officials hoped would be the companion piece of the Neighborhood Improvement Zone, the financing tool behind downtown revitalization around Seventh and Hamilton streets, site of the arena now under construction.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-allentown-waterfront-development-lehigh-river-20121211,0,1830155.story