{"id":59524,"date":"2025-12-12T21:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/59524\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T21:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:33:09","slug":"bethlehem-bank-building-eyed-for-apartments-experience-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/59524\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem bank building eyed for apartments, &#8216;experience center&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bethlehem planning commissioners unanimously approved plans to turn a historic bank building in downtown Bethlehem into a 61-unit apartment building with space for a restaurant and an \u201cexperience center\u201d on the ground floor.<\/p>\n<p>Monocacy Builders, owned by prolific Bethlehem developer Plamen Ayvazov, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2025\/04\/03\/the-closed-wells-fargo-bank-branch-in-downtown-bethlehem-has-new-owner-after-million-dollar-sale\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bought the building at 46-52 W Broad St. earlier this year, after Wells Fargo closed its branch there in 2024.<\/a> The facade of the existing building will remain intact under the new plans.<\/p>\n<p>At a Thursday planning commission meeting, Ayvazov, architects and engineers representing the project presented plans to build a five-story addition on top of the stone building, adding 61 apartments. Developers also will construct an additional building on a vacant area next to the existing bank, which will become a restaurant, Ayvazov said.<\/p>\n<p>There are no concrete plans for a tenant to occupy the first floor, which was once home to Wells Fargo, but Ayvazov said he hopes to come to an agreement with a tenant that would operate an \u201cexperience center.\u201d He hopes to provide some kind of child-oriented entertainment space, which he said is lacking in downtown Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere that came from was, I was sitting on the Downtown Bethlehem Association Board, and a lot of the comments we get back from people visiting the city [are] there was not much to do in downtown, or there is nothing for kids,\u201d Ayvazov said.<\/p>\n<p>The top floor apartment addition will be constructed mostly with glass and metal framing. Ayvazov said he would use \u201cbird-safe glass\u201d on the apartments, which makes the windows more visible to birds who are prone to flying into them.<\/p>\n<p>More than 3 million birds die every year from flying into buildings, according to Muhlenberg ornithology professor Daniel Klem, who testified at the meeting in support of bird-safe glass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis being a new construction project, I would encourage, if it all possible, the use of bird-safe glass, which is available from a small but growing number of manufacturers,\u201d Klem said.<\/p>\n<p>Ayvazov also said he is in talks with the Bethlehem Parking Authority to provide parking to prospective tenants at one of the public garages nearby.<\/p>\n<p>Monocacy Builders also developed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2024\/10\/30\/a-look-at-dream-boyd-theatre-apartments-in-bethlehem-photos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dream Boyd Theater<\/a>, an apartment building next to the bank building that opened its doors earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethlehem planning commissioners unanimously approved plans to turn a historic bank building in downtown Bethlehem into a 61-unit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1391,60,61,182,139,434,28,1081,436,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-59524","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-bethlehem-area","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-northampton-county","17":"tag-pennsylvania","18":"tag-real-estate","19":"tag-retail","20":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59524","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=59524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}