The firm tasked with conducting a community and economic impact assessment for Bethlehem’s historic district was introduced Tuesday at the Hotel Bethlehem as Musikfest attendees were taking in a concert just outside on Main Street.
“We’re just in awe,” said Donovan Rypkema, principal of PlaceEconomics, a Washington-based real estate and economic development-consulting firm that has been hired by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites to put together the study which will examine how tourism-related improvements could impact the historic district.
The introduction of the PlaceEconomics team was part of a kickoff to year-long process to come up with a master plan to create a world-class visitor experience in Bethlehem, whose Moravian Church Settlements received its UNESCO World Heritage Site inscription last year.
Capitalizing on recent accolades, such as the Hotel Bethlehem being named the No. 1 historic hotel in the U.S. and Bethlehem’s Main Street also receiving a top ranking, the goal is to build a world-class, multi-dimensional historic destination.
Rypkema said he’s on the road more than 220 nights a year and had never been in Bethlehem before. He said it was certainly a unique first impression as he and his colleagues walked among the Musikfest crowd.
However, he said, they’re not tourism experts. Rather, their job is measuring the impact of historic preservation.
“Our job is going to be to look at the incremental additional impact that we often call the ‘heritage halo effect’ or the ‘preservation premium’ — the incremental impact that the draw of the 20 sites in 20 acres here will have on jobs, labor income, local taxes on the community.”
Here are four things to know about the project.
It will focus on what makes Bethlehem unique
PlaceEconomics has evaluated places around the world that have been named UNESCO World Heritage sites, such as Willensted, Curacao, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and Melaka, Malaysia.
However, Rypkema emphasized that Bethlehem’s success comes from what makes it distinctive from other places in the world.
“Being competitive is not being like competitors; it’s being different from your competitors,” he said. “The economic premium comes from product differentiation.”
Earning the World Heritage Site designation is just the start.
“I have a caveat,” Rypkema said, “and that is, being a World Heritage Site doesn’t in and of itself generate the change. It has to be accompanied by marketing, by fundamental strategic decisions.”
PlaceEconomics will investigate how different historical sites can be better connected and more inviting for travelers. It will consider how Bethlehem could implement ideas from other historic destinations, especially those that have World Heritage designations.
It will provide baseline economic data and model three future economic scenarios. Once a master plan is drafted, PlaceEconomics will return to estimate the economic return on specific proposed physical improvements.
It will be a (large) group effort
To get community members involved in the process, HBMS has put together a Master Planning Initiative Advisory Council consisting of almost two-dozen civic organizations, businesses and government officials.
The council will hold its first meeting in September.
“We’ve invited more than two dozen leaders from across the Lehigh Valley,” said Pat Witmer, an HBMS board member and master planning advisory committee co-chair. “We want to make sure that we have the opportunity to get their unique perspectives to help us shape the scope and the direction of the master plan.”
Witmer, who is also a vice president at B. Braun Medical, said it is important to create “community ownership and civic pride and realize what we can accomplish together.”
The timeline
Larry Eighmy, another master planning co-chair for HBMS and board member, said activity will pick up in the fall. Along with the meetings, there will be outreach to neighborhood associations along with public input.
The goal is to create a community-oriented masterplan that balances long-term visions with near-team actionable steps.
The economic impact findings will be shared with the advisory board in the fall, while community workshops and planning sessions will pick up next spring.
Finalization of the plan is scheduled for summer 2027, along with requests for proposals from planning and design firms.
Some goals
Eighmy, who is also managing principal at Stone House Group, said tourists who visit historic Bethlehem want to “be oriented” beyond a “one-dimensional” attraction.
“We want to understand what we’re looking at, we want it to be interpreted for us, so we can take more away,” he said. “If you’ve ever been to sound and light in Rome or the Acropolis, you begin to think about how it springs to life, because of the interpretation of the history. Without doing that, I feel like we’re in one dimension, and we risk inviting people to Bethlehem and it not being a world-class experience.”
Ways to implement that include a centralized visitors center that features orientation facilities along with better parking.
Connecting the historic sites is another consideration. Potential transportation options include enhanced walking trails and a funicular — a cable-driven railway system designed to travel up and down steep slopes — from the Colonial Industrial Quarter along Monocacy Creek up to Main Street.
LoriAnn Wukitsch, HBMS president and CEO, said the plan is an extension of the efforts started 60 years ago by a group of concerned citizens, led by Ralph Grayson Schwarz, to preserve Bethlehem’s history.
“Musikfest starts right down here in the Colonial Industrial Quarter in the heart of the historic district,” she said. “I can only imagine what Ralph Grayson Schwarz is thinking right now as his vision of turning a junkyard into one of the most bucolic places in the heart of our historic district.
“Sixty years ago, that came to fruition, and we want to think about the next 60 years to come. It is so exciting to see the community rally around our historic preservation projects.”
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.