ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Allentown Zoning Hearing Board approved an appeal to construct a high-rise mixed-use building Monday night at city hall.
The proposal, known as the Peregrine Tower and offered by Umran Global Investment, calls for a 37-story mixed-use apartment building at 90 S. Ninth St.
The project has created an insufficient sight triangle clearance vested under the city’s previous zoning ordinance by way of an active land development application.
Umran’s sight triangle issue would require a change to the building’s footprint. This created a hardship the developer could not address and served as the basis for their appeal.
The project has been before the city’s planning commission previously with various revisions and owners over the last decade-plus. A revised plan, which unofficially resembles a pencil tower, was submitted last year and considered an official resubmission. Umran Global purchased the property in 2023.
Peregrine’s first and fourth floors contain retail space, office space on second, third and fourth floors and residential from the sixth on up, according to the most recent proposal. Testimony Monday night said the mixture for the project now has about 70% for residential, with the remaining 30% allocated for office and commercial.
Officials said Monday night the building would contain 208 apartments.
If completed, the tower would be the city’s tallest.
Roberto Clemente School
Zoners granted a special use application for a charter school.
The request calls for Roberto Clemente Charter School to establish an elementary school with a use permitted by special exception.
The project would move Roberto Clemente’s elementary school from its current 850 N. Fifth St. location to the property at 2268 N. 12th St., according to testimony offered Monday night by Alyssa Mace, the school’s chief executive officer.
The proposed lot is 2.2 acres and the existing building registers 44,000 square feet. A total of 370 students and 50 staff members are expected to occupy the new facility. The plan before the zoning hearing board offered 173 parking spaces.
Mace said the move would allow Roberto Clemente to remove students from a crowded environment at the current location. She added the use would offer no adverse impact on the nearby neighborhood.
An attorney in attendance for the Allentown School District said the proposal would negatively impact the district’s busing responsibility. The board disagreed, indicating the school met the criteria required for the special exception.
The school opened in 2000 and was Allentown’s first charter school.