ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 A parking lot in the shadow of the PPL Center soon could be the site of major redevelopment in Center City.<\/p>\n
Allentown Parking Authority, state Sen. Nick Miller, city officials and City Center Group are seeking proposals to reimagine a swath of mostly vacant properties in the first block of North Seventh Street.<\/p>\n
Those partners are looking to secure a developer who will build a mixed-use space, which likely means a building with ground-floor commercial units along Linden and Seventh streets, some of the city\u2019s main corridors, with housing on upper floors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next step in the evolution of the city is creeping off of Hamilton Street right now.”<\/p>\n
Mayor Matt Tuerk<\/p>\n
The property\u2019s current tenant, a 7-Eleven convenience store built almost a half-century ago, could lease a unit to remain or relocate, according to officials.<\/p>\n
Developers must present plans for both scenarios, and the chosen developer must build parking infrastructure to support its project.<\/p>\n
Hamilton Street has long been viewed as Allentown\u2019s Main Street, but Seventh Street is no longer far behind, according to Mayor Matt Tuerk.<\/p>\n
A developer can be \u201cone block off of that epicenter of activity\u201d and \u201cparticipate in all the good stuff that\u2019s happening \u2026 downtown by building on a site like this,\u201d Tuerk said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next step in the evolution of the city is creeping off of Hamilton Street right now,\u201d he said, highlighting what he sees as a \u201cnewer kind of center of exciting activity\u201d on Seventh Street.<\/p>\n
‘Space-challenged’ city<\/p>\n
Tuerk welcomed the prospect of development on what he called \u201ca bummer piece of property that holds real promise for an exciting future.\u201d<\/p>\n
A surface parking lot, like the one that covers much of the bundled properties up for sale, creates a heat island and \u201chas a way of killing a neighborhood” because it\u2019s underutilized space.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a great use of space in a city that is space-challenged,\u201d Tuerk told LehighValleyNews.com. He said the 100 block of North Seventh Street is \u201ckind of a desert.\u201d<\/p>\n
A convenience store at the corner of a major downtown intersection also is \u201csuboptimal\u201d for \u201cthe city that we live in now,\u201d Tuerk said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo redevelop it, to build something on that site, presents an opportunity to just continue, building out the city, our downtown. … There\u2019s a chance to build something for the current and future Allentown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Matt Tuerk<\/p>\n
A successful redevelopment project would help \u201cbridge the gap\u201d between two of the city\u2019s major business corridors, the mayor said.<\/p>\n
About 63,000 vehicles drive past the project site along Seventh Street each day, according to the parking authority.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo redevelop it, to build something on that site, presents an opportunity to just continue, building out the city, our downtown,\u201d Tuerk said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a chance to build something for the current and future Allentown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allentown Parking Authority Executive Director Jon Haney said the partnership between his agency, city officials, Sen. Miller\u2019s office and City Center is \u201ca statement about what\u2019s possible when everyone at the table is focused on progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parking authority Chairman Ted Zeller said the project \u201cis an example of what a functioning government and community look like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Developers must submit proposals by 4 p.m. Feb. 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 A parking lot in the shadow of the PPL Center soon could be the site…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,50937,9931,3154,50936,121,120,4677,3553],"class_list":{"0":"post-105402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-business","10":"tag-allentown-city-center","11":"tag-allentown-development","12":"tag-allentown-hamilton-street","13":"tag-allentown-headlines","14":"tag-allentown-news","15":"tag-allentown-parking-authority","16":"tag-mayor-matt-tuerk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}