{"id":55145,"date":"2025-12-08T12:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T12:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/55145\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T12:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T12:27:08","slug":"proposal-for-37-story-pencil-tower-returns-to-allentown-planners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/55145\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposal for 37-story ‘pencil tower’ returns to Allentown planners"},"content":{"rendered":"

After receiving mostly positive feedback from the Allentown Planning Commission in June<\/a>, the developer of a proposed 37-story \u201cpencil tower\u201d is scheduled to make a return appearance before the board Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The agenda for the meeting, which is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. in City Council chambers, includes the Peregrine Tower, the current name of the project at 90 S. Ninth St. that has been through several delays since it was proposed in 2013.<\/p>\n

Brian Ring, who is representing owner Umran Global Investment LLC of Hanover Township, Northampton County, is listed to give a presentation for preliminary\/final approval from the board.<\/p>\n

Commissioners will have a few other noted projects to look over Tuesday. Also on the agenda is a proposed apartment complex on Turner Street in East Allentown and a proposed warehouse and office building on the site of the former Merchants Square Mall on South 12th Street.<\/p>\n

If built, the Peregrine Tower would become the Lehigh Valley\u2019s tallest building, eclipsing the nearby PPL Building. The mixed-use building would have 250,140 square feet of space with 208 apartments. Umran\u2019s original plan to have a restaurant on the 37th floor was changed; it will have apartments instead. The first through fifth floors have retail and office space.<\/p>\n

At June\u2019s meeting, commissioners had some minor concerns about the project and voted to table it until the developer returned with some revisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather see a bunch of these than a few big, wide, medium-sized towers,\u201d Board Chair Christian Brown said at that meeting. \u201cI really think that there\u2019s something unique about this, that you\u2019re starting to see these as infill towers in Philadelphia and New York City. I think instead of being an infill tower, this could be sort of the model moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

First proposed by developer Bruce Loch as a 33-story structure in 2013, and given the go-ahead in 2015, it received five extensions by city planners. The 5,200-square-foot plot was purchased by Umran from Ascot Circle Realty in December 2023 for $1.2 million, according to Lehigh County property records.<\/p>\n

Also on the agenda for final approval is a 181-unit apartment complex at 730 E. Turner St. in the city\u2019s East Side. Developer Manny Makhoul\u2019s plan received preliminary approval at September\u2019s meeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 129,450-square-foot warehouse with 3,600 square feet of office space is being planned for the Merchants Square Mall site at 1901 S. 12th St. Applicant Matthew Hainzl is asking for an extension as the approval timeline expires Dec. 13.<\/p>\n

The 8.49-acre property was purchased by Woodmont Industrial Partners<\/a> for $5.275 million in March 2024. The mall closed in March 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After receiving mostly positive feedback from the Allentown Planning Commission in June, the developer of a proposed 37-story…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,433,182,139,28,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-55145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-lehigh-county","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pennsylvania","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55145","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=55145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}