The site of a former restaurant in Allentown’s West End may get new life as a medical building.
Jaindl Land Co. presented a sketch plan for a two-story structure at 3995 Tilghman Street at Tuesday’s Allentown Planning Commission meeting.
It was the site of a Ruby Tuesday restaurant that closed in 2020.
John McRoberts, manager of land planning and development from The Pidcock Co., said the former restaurant would be demolished and be replaced with a 20,200-square-foot medical office building with some site improvements. It will have a single tenant.
Commission members had some suggestions, including building closer to the street, adding a second entrance closer to the sidewalk along Tilghman Street, adding bicycle racks and reducing impervious surfaces.
McRoberts said the applicant plans to seek relief to keep the setback at 110 feet (the restaurant building is at 70 feet) for safety reasons and to align the building with a neighboring strip mall that shares the street entrance.
He added that a second building entrance for a building that size wouldn’t work and that security and operational requirements dictate having one main entrance. There was agreement on the racks and having a smaller parking lot while retaining much of the trees.
Jaindl will return at a later date with revised plans.