BETHLEHEM TWP., Pa. – Real estate fever continues in Bethlehem Township, where another $1 million per acre sale was recently rung up on an Easton Avenue property.
The small retail strip anchored by Dunkin’ Donuts, across the street from the Blue Grillhouse, changed hands for $1.6 million on June 5, according to Northampton County property records. The official address is 4460-70 Falmer Drive but the property has frontage on Easton Avenue.
The retail strip is also home to a Happy Wok Chinese restaurant, Sicily pizza and pasta, and a car wash. Green Pond Commons, as the center is dubbed, cover 1.6 acres, so the recent sale values it at $1 million per acre.
Jeff Ward | WFMZ-TV
County records list the buyer as PCAP Bethlehem Holdings, a limited liability corporation with an address in Philadelphia. The seller was T&B Associates.
The last sale of the property was in 2002 at $360,000, a price that may not reflect improvements to the property. County records say two buildings went up at the site in 2005.
As of Tuesday, no plan had been submitted to Bethlehem Township for changes at the site.
Dunkin’ Donuts changed its name to Dunkin’ in 2019, but the sign outside the Falmer Drive location still says Dunkin’ Donuts.
Easton Avenue and Freemansburg Avenue remain hot corridors in the township. The owners of Blue have proposed 60 apartments and a Wawa on the eastern edge of that property, and apartments and medical offices are in the works.
To the east of the Dunkin’ strip, the Zippy’s Car wash property was sold last month for $1 million. Zippy’s remains open for business and shortly after the date of the sale, the township had not received any plans for that site.
The Easton Avenue/William Penn Highway corridor has drawn millions in investment in the past few years. Starting on the City of Bethlehem side of Easton Avenue, 54 apartments will go up on vacant land across from the strip mall anchored by a Giant grocery store. Further east, 220 apartments are being built at the old Bethlehem Drive-In.
Further east is the Blue proposal for Wawa and apartments, so far not approved. Another 96 apartments in two buildings are approved for 4406 Easton Avenue and a St. Luke’s University Health Network office building is going up at the site of an old concrete plant.
On Freemansburg Avenue, a convenience store has been proposed, along with an 866,350-square-foot warehouse.