{"id":117981,"date":"2026-02-19T12:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/117981\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T12:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:21:06","slug":"bethlehem-council-oks-7-story-apartment-complex-at-walnut-street-garage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/117981\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem Council OKs 7-story apartment complex at Walnut Street garage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bethlehem City Council has approved plans for a seven-story apartment building near the heart of the city\u2019s downtown, at the site of the former Walnut Street garage.<\/p>\n

Council members, by a 5-1 vote, approved the plans for Ironside Lofts, a 108-unit residential building.<\/p>\n

The property is located in the city\u2019s Northside Historic District, which is why the construction requires City Council\u2019s approval. The city\u2019s Historic Architecture Review Board recommended the plans this month.<\/p>\n

Developers Larken Associates first applied for historic district approval in August; board members praised the building\u2019s proposed architectural details but raised concerns about the building\u2019s height.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The first five stories of Ironside Lofts would have a brick facade with large windows, with gray vertical fiber cement panels on the sixth and seventh floors, which Stuart Johnson, principal architect with Minno Wasko, who represented Larken Associates, said at the time is designed to minimize the perceived height of the building. The seventh floor would be set back 8 to 10 feet, which also would minimize the building\u2019s perceived height.<\/p>\n

The building would contain 108 apartments \u2014 including 60 one-bedroom and 48 two-bedroom units \u2014 as well as storefronts on the first floor for retail or restaurants and a \u201cboutique hotel-style lobby\u201d for residents. It would be constructed in a U-shape, creating a private courtyard for the building\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n

To appease the historic board\u2019s concerns, developers proposed further setting back the top two floors of the building to minimize its perceived height.<\/p>\n

The building would neighbor the new Walnut Street parking garage, which completed construction last year.<\/p>\n

Construction of the new garage was controversial<\/a> \u2014 council members opted to override a recommendation from the architecture review board, which asked them to deny the building\u2019s certificate of approval based on concerns that it is too tall for the historic district.<\/p>\n

Council members who voted in favor of Ironside Lofts said the new building\u2019s architecture would match that of the surrounding district, and lauded the developers for responding to feedback from HARB members as well as the community.<\/p>\n

Developers met with neighbors and owners of businesses adjacent to the property to gather feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a great example, in the mayor\u2019s office, of a public-private relationship, and seeing what happens when a private entity like Larken Associates and the city get together, and the HARB, and seeing something that will be a really great project that looks great and fits downtown,\u201d Council member Justin Amann said.<\/p>\n

The city issued a request for proposals asking developers to submit plans for the remaining land not covered by the new Walnut Street garage, and selected Larken Associates following a competitive bidding process.<\/p>\n

Critics of the plan, which included several members of the public who spoke during public comment, said they believe the building is still too tall for the historic district, despite efforts to minimize its perceived height.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake about it, a seven-story apartment building immediately behind Main Street businesses will irrevocably detract from the Main Street ambiance,\u201d Bethlehem resident Bill Scheirer said.<\/p>\n

Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethlehem City Council has approved plans for a seven-story apartment building near the heart of the city\u2019s downtown,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1391,60,182,139,434,28,1081,432],"class_list":["post-117981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-area","tag-business","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-real-estate","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117981","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=117981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}