for accepting their criticisms and improving the project throughout the long process<\/a>, which kicked off in June 2023.<\/p>\nMakhoul initially proposed putting 180 apartments across four larger buildings on the vacant Rittersville property along Turner Street.<\/p>\n
Plans now show five 2 1\/2-story buildings with 30 apartments each and one with 20 units. A three-story building would feature 10 apartments and a sales office.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long evolution for this. It started really rough, and now, it\u2019s \u2026 in a really great spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lead project engineer Joseph Rentko<\/p>\n
Makhoul agreed to many requests from commission, including wider sidewalks, bike-lane \u201csharrows,\u201d a warmer color scheme and recreation space for future residents.<\/p>\n
‘Pedal to the metal’<\/p>\n
The developer faced criticism for chopping down swaths of trees on the property without approval; he now is working with the city\u2019s Shade Tree Commission on an internal landscaping plan for his planned apartment complex.<\/p>\n
Lead project engineer Joseph Rentko of Black Forest Engineering has said the plan would include almost 250 new trees to atone \u201cfor the sins of cutting down the forest that was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also credited the protracted approval process for helping create a better project.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long evolution for this,\u201d Rentko said Tuesday. \u201cIt started really rough, and now, it\u2019s \u2026 in a really great spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he will work \u201cpedal to the metal\u201d over the next few months to finalize plans and secure permits, with construction on the approved apartment complex expected to start in spring.<\/p>\n
Former Allentown zoning official Alan Salinger in 2023 said he immediately identified the site as a potential place for redevelopment when he was hired to work for the city in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
But it has remained an empty lot for decades.<\/p>\n
Makhoul, who was born and raised on Allentown\u2019s East Side and lived there for most of his life, said he often played basketball at his aunt\u2019s house \u2014 which neighbored the site of the proposed complex \u2014 when he was young.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 More than two years after proposing an apartment complex on an East Side property where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[62434,62435,62436,119,121,120,62437,62438,62439],"class_list":["post-135446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-180-unit-apartment-complex-east-side-allentown","tag-630-e-turner-st-allentown","tag-7-building-apartment-complex-east-side-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-apartment-complex-630-e-turner-st","tag-manny-makhoul-allentown","tag-what-is-happening-at-630-e-turner-st-allentown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135446","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=135446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}