ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A new K-8 academy is coming to the Allentown School District.
School officials gave people the chance to share their thoughts during a public hearing held at Community Services for Children Monday night.
The project calls for a two-story, 208,000-square-foot building for at the site of the former Allentown State Hospital, located at 1600 Hanover Ave. The facility, which will serve roughly 1,200 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, will be known as the K-8 Allentown Academy.
Offered by City Center Investment Corp., the school building is part of the Northridge development project. The 195 acres that comprise the former state hospital site have long been vacant and are located between Hanover Avenue and River Drive in the Rittersville neighborhood of East Allentown, near the City of Bethlehem’s border.
The psychiatric hospital closed in 2010, and the building was demolished in 2020. The 195-acre property has since undergone remediation to facilitate a master planned development.
The school will be located at Hanover Avenue and the future Northridge Drive corner. Northridge Drive is scheduled to be the main road into the complex. Existing paving and sidewalks are expected to be demolished and replaced with a new access drive connecting to Hanover Avenue. The plan includes dedicated play areas, academic courtyard and an athletic field.
Monday night’s Act 34 hearing reviewed the building’s planning, design, construction and furnishing. The facility will cost taxpayers $136 million. Scott Shearer, with PFM Financial Advisors, indicated ASD selected to issue general obligation bonds to pay for the endeavor over three other alternatives. Shearer said the general obligation option would offer ASD lower interest rates and more favorable refunding provisions, and it would keep more control with the school board. The district’s annual average payment would rest at 4.5% for 20 years.
The multimillion-dollar project on the city’s east side is one that some parents say is long overdue.
“This is where they’re going to learn and, as stated many times, this is long overdue,” said one parent.
The state-of-the-art facility will have around 800 students in kindergarten through fifth grade on one side, and 400 students in sixth to eighth grades on the other.
At Monday’s public hearing, renderings were provided. Two, three-story academic wings will accommodate separate facilities for elementary and middle school students. The wings will have a central collaboration zone on all floors to foster creative learning opportunities, according to ASD. A main street will act as a lobby space at each end and connect the building to all shared-use facilities.
The shared-use wing will house a multipurpose room auxiliary gymnasium, a full stage, band and choral rooms, a dance studio, the dining hall, a library and innovation labs. The academic and shared-use wings enclose a sheltered outdoor courtyard that contains a wellness path, physical education space, a learning pavilion, an urban garden and an elementary playground.
Other site amenities include a combination regulation football/soccer field with a baseball overlay. This will be a synthetic turf facility with a dedicated entrance adjacent to Hanover Avenue.
Superintendent Carol Birks said the facility was “a long time in coming.” She added the facility would prove “exceptional” and would stand as a cornerstone of ASD’s commitment to students, parents and community.
Those in attendance expressed their support.
“It’ll be a great, great asset, not only for the neighborhood but for the city and Lehigh County in general,” said one community member.
However, there were some concerns.
“It’s great that we can walk — a lot of people will be able to walk to the school, and that’s a great, great thing —but I can just see backing up traffic in certain areas,” said a community member.
Doors are expected to open during the 2027-28 school year.