ALLENTOWN, Pa. – As the Allentown Art Museum makes plans to move from its current location on 5th Street, museum officials are hoping being in the Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) will be part of that plan.
“We’re hoping that we can get permission to enter into the NIZ to benefit from some of the state taxes that return to the NIZ,” said Allentown Art Museum President Max Weintraub.
Right now, the museum gets around 60,000 visitors a year.
Weintraub says the new location at 10th and Hamilton could bring in 100,000 people who will eat and shop downtown.
Demolition on the police substation will begin in the fall. Northstar Construction will handle the build.
And if you are wondering what the 55,000-square-foot, $55 million museum will look like, we have an exclusive first look at the preliminary design.
The architect for the new museum is the internationally acclaimed design firm Studios.
“They were most recently in the news this summer as winning the bid to renovate the Louvre in Paris, which is one of the preeminent institutions in the world,” said Weintraub.
Studios also designed The Archer on Hamilton, San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art and Nike Headquarters in New York City.
The New Allentown Art Museum is slated to be completed by 2029, but fundraising to help pay for the project is well underway.
The Gateway Campaign, named for the museum’s location on Hamilton Street, kicked off in April.
Just to give you some context, the Davinci Science Center is also in the NIZ.
Davinci’s building is bigger and cost roughly $75 million.
Davinci received a $5.5 million loan that wilk be paid off by the tax revenue the center generates.
Weintraub says funding for the museum will come from a variety of sources, but less than 50 percent will be public funds.
The ANIZDA board is expected to make a decision next week.
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