{"id":12915,"date":"2025-10-23T21:28:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/12915\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T21:28:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:28:18","slug":"developer-officials-break-ground-on-downtown-allentown-housing-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/12915\/","title":{"rendered":"Developer, officials break ground on downtown Allentown housing project"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Lehigh Valley officials are backing a new residential development in downtown Allentown to \u201cset the standard\u201d for future housing projects in the region.<\/p>\n

Developer City Center Chief Executive Officer J.B. Reilly was joined Tuesday morning by city leaders including Mayor Matt Tuerk, as well as state Sen. Nick Miller and state Rep. Josh Siegel, as they broke ground on The Standard.<\/p>\n

The four-story, 257-unit building is set to replace the old Morning Call property at Sixth and Turner streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis commitment to attainable housing will ensure that the Lehigh Valley and Allentown isn\u2019t just a luxury good and that, ultimately, everybody has the privilege and ability to call downtown home.”<\/p>\n

State Rep. Josh Siegel<\/p>\n

The Standard will help Allentown cut into the high demand for \u201cmore attainabl[y] priced housing,\u201d Reilly said.<\/p>\n

And attainable downtown housing makes the region accessible to more people, Siegel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis commitment to attainable housing will ensure that the Lehigh Valley and Allentown isn\u2019t just a luxury good and that, ultimately, everybody has the privilege and ability to call downtown home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttainable\u201d housing is targeted toward households that earn 80-120% of the area\u2019s median income \u2014 about $55,000 to $82,000, according to the state Department of Human Services.<\/p>\n

‘All-of-the-above strategy’ needed<\/p>\n

The region\u2019s housing crisis is \u201cno secret,\u201d Siegel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a supply-and-demand imbalance here in the Lehigh Valley: 10,000 units,\u201d he said. \u201cThat number grows every year, and the best thing we can do is treat everyone as an ally and not an antagonist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Siegel called for an \u201call-of-the-above strategy\u201d to chip away at that shortage that would include cutting red tape and speeding up construction to reduce costs and \u201cdeliver inventory at a reasonable price point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever there’s an investment in 250-plus housing units, it means that things are about to get a little more affordable in the city of Allentown.”<\/p>\n

Mayor Matt Tuerk<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 housing units are under construction in Allentown, with Tuesday\u2019s groundbreaking adding 257 units to the till, Tuerk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever there’s an investment in 250-plus housing units, it means that things are about to get a little more affordable in the city of Allentown,\u201d he told LehighValleyNews.com.<\/p>\n

Allentown is \u201cone of the fastest-growing markets in the country,\u201d which \u201cshows that people want to be here,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as people want to be here, we have to find a way to welcome them in the door,\u201d Tuerk said.<\/p>\n

City Center has more than 1,500 housing units across 14 other buildings in Allentown.<\/p>\n

‘Attainability by design’<\/p>\n

Officials about three years ago approved the developer\u2019s plans to build a five-story complex with 230 apartments.<\/p>\n

But the company recently \u201cretooled\u201d its proposals and quickly re-earned approvals<\/a>, Reilly said, crediting Tuerk for issuing an executive order that directs city employees to prioritize large housing projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s most prominent developer also paid tribute to Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and its executive director, Becky Bradley, for promoting \u201cattainability by design.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon’t build too big, too much, so that you can’t afford to price things right,\u201d Reilly said of the philosophy.<\/p>\n

\"TheStandardAllentown3.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Jason Addy<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

LehighValleyNews.com<\/p>\n

Crews work Tuesday, July 29, on the foundation of The Standard, a 257-unit building where The Morning Call once stood. <\/p>\n

The project honors the Lehigh Valley\u2019s legacy as a \u201cworking-class community where our bedrock has always been working-class folks, whether it was Mack Truck workers or Bethlehem Steel employees,\u201d Seigel said.<\/p>\n

Miller lauded the project for helping to build \u201cdepth off Hamilton [Street] as we continue to revitalize downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Lehigh Valley officials are backing a new residential development in downtown Allentown to \u201cset the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,9931,281,9932,121,282,120,9933,9936,3553,9937,9934,9935],"class_list":["post-12915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-city-center","tag-allentown-construction","tag-allentown-developer","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-housing","tag-allentown-news","tag-jb-reilly","tag-lehigh-valley-apartments","tag-mayor-matt-tuerk","tag-morning-call-site-construction","tag-the-morning-call-building","tag-the-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12915","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=12915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}