Plans For $100 Million Allentown Building Move Forward

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the newest major office buildings planned by developer J.B. Reilly moved forward another step tonight.

The $100 million Five City Center received conditional approval, one of several steps in the early stages of the City Center Lehigh Valley project. Plans for the building were announced in March.

No tenant has yet been identified for the 250,000-square-foot building, but construction could begin as early as mid-2015, City Center spokesman Jeff Vaughansaid. The building could be as many as seven floors tall.

Planned for Walnut Street between Seventh and Eighth streets, the building could serve up to 1,000 workers and will include a 1,078-space parking deck, which will include some underground parking.

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/allentown/index.ssf/2014/05/plans_for_100_million_allentow.html

Fiber Optics Headquarters To Occupy New 10-Story Building In Allentown

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

York-based United Fiber & Data will occupy a new 10-story building behind the Butz Corporate Center in the 800 block of Hamilton Street in Allentown.

The building will rise behind the existing Butz structures, and have three floors of parking garage and four stories of office space topped by three stories of apartments and condominiums.  It’s a long-planned third phase of the Butz headquarters, located across 9th Street from the PPL tower.

Details are being announced this morning.

From its new Allentown headquarters, United Fiber & Data will run a new 300-mile fiber optics network serving clients from New York to Virginia.  The company will occupy a just-completed Butz building on Hamilton until Butz completes the new structure in spring 2015.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-allentown-niz-butz-fiber-optic-20130517,0,5580943.story

Allentown’s Bond Rating Downgraded To A3 With A Negative Outlook

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Allentown‘s bond rating has been downgraded from A2 to A3 with a negative outlook, Moody’s Investors Service announced this week.

According to Moody’s, the new rating reflects the city’s approximately $120.3 million debt as well as “four consecutive operating deficits which have largely been driven by aggressive budgeting of city revenues and reserve appropriations to balance the budget.”

Investors use credit ratings such as Moody’s to determine the risk of a municipality’s defaulting on debt payments. A lower rating can force municipalities to pay higher interest rates to compensate for the risk, increasing the cost of borrowing.

Allentown’s weak socioeconomic profile — a sizable and mature urban tax base with below-average “socioeconomic indices” — and limited financial flexibility are challenges to the city, according to Moody’s.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-pa-bond-rating-downgrade-moodys-20121012,0,5203322.story

Legal Stalemate Over, Allentown Racing To Build Hockey Arena

The PPL Building (seen here in the distance) is the tallest building in Allentown, Pennsylvania. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With suburban communities poised to withdraw the lawsuits that have halted Allentown‘s $220 million arena project, the city appears to be left with one big question: Can it build the arena fast enough?

The project is months behind schedule and city officials are scrambling to find ways to make up lost time, including the option of starting the 2013-14 season with a two-month road trip.

Still, the most important job is getting the suburban townships to officially drop their lawsuits.

“When that is formalized, it will allow us to move forward,” said Rep. Jennifer Mann, D-Lehigh. “The biggest piece is ramping up, getting the construction schedule going full throttle. That is the one that hurts us the most. One commodity you can’t get back is time. We have lost at least 90 days in this process.”

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-pa-arena-construction-20120702,0,2846794.story