A warehouse development that Bethlehem Township tried to block is getting underway with a bang in 2026.
Township officials and a local fire company both took to Facebook to announce blasting operations as part of the project at 1600 block of Freemansburg Avenue.
The Freemansburg Industrial development is at the site of a former Bethlehem Steel Corp. limestone quarry, on the border between Bethlehem Township and Freemansburg Borough.
While Freemansburg officials approved the 866,350-square-foot building described as a warehouse, the township board of commissioners in January 2024 rejected approval. Officials raised objections that included concerns about traffic generated as part of the development.
Developer Trammell Crow Co. appealed the denial the following month in the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas and won, according to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and township Manager Doug Bruce.
“We are currently conducting sitework operations on the property to prepare for the building’s construction,” Trammell Crow Principal John Pollock told lehighvalleylive.com in a statement Tuesday.
Pollock said there is no anticipated opening date, and the developer did not immediately respond to additional questions that included who will occupy the new building.
The township’s Nancy Run Fire Co. and Bethlehem Township Government and Emergency Management Facebook pages both shared alerts about the blasting operations set to start Monday, Jan. 5, as part of the project.
Main Drilling & Blasting along with Liberty Excavators will be conducting blasting operations intermittently, according to the township officials.
“Residents may notice loud noises or vibrations, which are normal parts of these blasting events,” Bethlehem Township Government and Emergency Management posted Tuesday. “Blasting will be seismically monitored to confirm the blast induced ground vibration levels are within regulatory limits. All blasting operations will be done in strict accordance with all local, state, and federal laws and safety regulations.”
Trammell Crow is a wholly owned subsidiary of CBRE Group Inc., a publicly traded Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Trammell Crow in December announced it was once again named the No. 1 development firm in the United States, topping Commercial Property Executive’s 2025 list of U.S. development firms for the 12th year in a row.
From 2022 through 2024, the company delivered just over 56 million square feet of development projects, valued at over $18 billion, in predominantly office and industrial space. It currently has more than 53 million square feet of new projects under construction.