Bethlehem continues to see steady development activity, with increasing private investment across a range of projects, said Laura Collins, the city’s director of community and economic development.
That’s on top of the previous five years, when the city issued permits for more than $1.4 billion of construction, Collins said. In 2025, projects receiving construction permits reflected more than $250 million in development investment, she said.
“There are dozens of projects in various stages, from early planning proposals, to under review for city permits and approvals, to active construction,” she said in a statement.
For 2026, new development expected to be completed or near completion covers the arts, housing, business, manufacturing and medicine.
Here is an updated list some of the major projects being planned.
Started in 2025, opening in 2026
ArtsQuest Creative Factory will replace the former Banana Factory, which was demolished in early 2025, in south Bethlehem. The $32 million arts and cultural center at 25 W. Third St. will have a theater, classrooms and studios, and a recording studio. The fifth floor will feature a roof deck event space with views of the nearby SteelStacks campus. It’s expected to open near the end of the year.
Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg is doubling its emergency department with 83 emergency beds, bays for assessment and treatment of critically injured or ill patients, and a helipad at the facility on Schoenersville Road.
Bosch Rexroth is embarking on a $20 million, 50,000-square-foot expansion at its 2300 City Line Road facility. The project will provide modern, state-of-the-art space designed to support Bosch Rexroth’s operations.
The Gatehouse in the 400 block of East Third Street on the South Side includes 44 multifamily units and 5,600 square feet of retail and restaurant space adjacent to the Polk Street parking garage.
Phoenix Tube, a stainless-stee tubing manufacturer, is building a 75,000-square-foot addition to its site at 925 Bethlehem Drive.
Update on Five10 Flats fire
Repairs are expected to be completed soon after a fire May 2, 2025, at the Five10 Flats apartment and commercial complex on East Third Street in south Bethlehem. Started by a discarded cigarette butt on the building’s roof, the fire spread due to high winds and caused extensive damage, officials said.
John Callahan, business development manager for owner Peron Development, said officials plan to resume renting apartments Feb. 1, with a goal to have the entire building completed around April 30 for residential occupancy.
Of the first-floor commercial spaces, only Mexican restaurant El Jefe’s Taqueria has reopened, in late August. Callahan said Mr. Lee’s Noodles could open early in 2026. A new coffee shop is expected to replace the Starbucks, Callahan said, with plans also to add a food place at the former HandHeldz, which closed in 2024.
More than 100 residents were displaced, and the five-story building, which opened in 2018, had to be shut down due to extensive water damage.
Work starting in 2026
Other upcoming projects, according to Collins, include Gateway on Fourth, Bethlehem’s first large-scale affordable housing rental project in more than a decade. More than two-thirds of the units pegged along East Fourth Street will be affordable to households earning at or below 60% of the area median income, while the remainder will be market rate.
Phase 1 of the project will see construction of 60 units, consisting of a 44-unit mid-rise building at East Fourth and William streets anchored by a health clinic operated by Neighborhood Health Centers of the Lehigh Valley, and a 16-unit townhome building along East Fifth Street.
The total 120-unit development came together with a public-private partnership involving the city, Lehigh Valley Industrial Park Inc. and Pennrose, a leading affordable housing developer.
High Hotels Ltd. will be breaking ground in early 2026 on a Tempo by Hilton in the first block of East Third Street, across from the ArtsQuest Cultural Center. A blighted structure will be demolished to make way for the seven-story hotel with 140 guest rooms, a restaurant/bar, fitness center, lobby suite shop and large meeting room. A rooftop bar, to be separately branded, will be available to the public. Anticipated opening is late 2026.
ArtsQuest is repurposing the 26,000-square-foot, 150-year-old former Bethlehem Steel Turn and Grind Shop behind the Bethlehem Visitors Center near SteelStacks. It will become an exhibition hall with plans that include arts programming, festivals and event space. Environmental remediation is expected to begin in early 2026, followed by construction, with a proposed opening in mid-2027. ArtsQuest received a $1 million state grant to help in the transformation.
Cigar Page will build a 40,000-square-foot office, retail store, tavern and warehouse facility at 1010 Harvard Ave., in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII off Route 412. The project will include Cigar Page’s first physical store, humidor, bar and restaurant, with up to 225 seats, and a mezzanine lounge.
Notable 2025 projects
Several notable projects were either completed or nearly completed in 2025, according to Collins.
They include Walnut Street Garage, which opened Nov. 20 at 33 W. Walnut St., near Broad and New streets. The six-story garage has 517 parking spaces, with commercial spaces expected to be occupied in early 2016 by Oasis Community Wellbeing Hub and the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation.
Two LVHN/Jefferson Health medical office facilities at Tower Place opened in July in two new buildings at the former Bethlehem Steel’s headquarters, Martin Tower on Eighth Avenue. The Women’s Health Center at Tower Place and Health Center at Tower Place have a combined footprint of 100,000 square feet.
August saw the opening of Marshall Valley housing in the 100 block of East Fourth Street. The seven-story building has about 75 apartments and ground-floor commercial space. A fast-casual food chain, The Juice Pod, also opened there.
Contact Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone at asalamone@mcall.com.