The Allentown Planning Commission granted final land development approval for an apartment complex proposal for the city’s East Side on Tuesday afternoon at city hall.<\/p>\n
The project, slated between 620-750 E. Turner St., calls for the construction of seven buildings with 180 total apartment units by applicant East Side Land Development on a 16.5-acre parcel. The project is offered by developer Manny Makhoul.<\/p>\n
Peregrine Tower<\/p>\n
A preliminary\/final land development plan review of a high rise apartment building was postponed.<\/p>\n
The proposal, known as the Peregrine Tower and offered by Umran Global Investment, calls for a 37-story mixed-use apartment building at 90 S. Ninth St. The project has been before the planning commission previously with various revisions and owners over the last decade plus. A revised plan, which unofficially resembles a pencil tower, was submitted earlier this year and considered an official resubmission. Umran Global purchased the property in 2023.<\/p>\n
City planning officials said previously the plan was not in character with the neighborhood, however planners indicated their enthusiasm for it.<\/p>\n
“I’m not scared of the height or density,” Chairman Christian Brown said at the planning commission’s June 11 meeting. “It’s going to do a lot of very interesting things to our skyline. I really think there is something unique about this…We potentially have a winner here.”<\/p>\n
However, Brown added the building’s podium or base should be more compatible to the neighborhood. One planner agreed.<\/p>\n
“The five stories down to the ground are the most important,” Planner Craig Beavers said.<\/p>\n
A project representative said the current proposal was “designed in a more modern fashion” which if approved would bring Allentown “into a more modern era.”<\/p>\n
Residential units will now occupy the 37th floor whereas previously a restaurant was planned.<\/p>\n
Tuesday afternoon’s postponement was at the applicant’s request. No date was provided when the case would be heard.<\/p>\n
Extension Request<\/p>\n
The commission granted a 12-month extension for conditional approval for a proposed 129,450 square-foot warehouse located at 1901 S. 12th St. On Tuesday afternoon the planning commission was asked to “reconsider the conditional approval” for the proposed warehouse, which was granted Dec. 10, 2022.<\/p>\n
That plan featured 31 loading docks and 95 employee parking spaces on an 8.6-acre property. The proposal provides also for a sidewalk configuration at the property’s back and includes American with Disabilities Act compliance along with sidewalk frontage. One long-running discussion topic has been nearby train traffic on property which is owned by Norfolk Southern. A condition imposed at the Dec. 10, 2022 meeting was to obtain crosswalk approval from Norfolk Southern right-of-way for a crossing across the railroad.<\/p>\n
Tuesday afternoon’s action extends the plan approval for one additional year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Allentown Planning Commission granted final land development approval for an apartment complex proposal for the city’s East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,2983,2978,2980,2988,553,554,555,31214,2971,1184,28,2987,73,2982,2981,560,4678,31215,2989],"class_list":{"0":"post-56505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-allentown-planning-commission","12":"tag-chairman","13":"tag-christian-brown","14":"tag-craig-beavers","15":"tag-hamilton-street","16":"tag-keystone-symbol","17":"tag-liberty-bell","18":"tag-manny-makhoul","19":"tag-mayors-of-allentown","20":"tag-norfolk-southern","21":"tag-pennsylvania","22":"tag-peregrine-tower","23":"tag-pittsburgh","24":"tag-planner","25":"tag-project-representative","26":"tag-puerto-rican-diaspora","27":"tag-sports-in-allentown","28":"tag-umran-global","29":"tag-umran-global-investment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56505","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=56505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}