Allentown Residents Benefiting From Hockey Arena Area Job Growth

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

When Oliver Velasquez arrived for a job fair earlier this summer at the new Allentown hockey arena, he was shocked by the number of attendees.

“I didn’t expect to see that many people; there must have been thousands,” the 26-year-old Allentown resident said. “The line actually wrapped around the block a couple of times.”

Velasquez waited in that line, and it paid off for him. He is now the PPL Center’s new suites and catering manager, providing banquets for catered events and overseeing food in the arena’s private suites.

He is one of more than 300 city residents to find employment as part of an effort by community activists and city officials to ensure people living in Allentown get a fair shot at the jobs being created by downtown redevelopment.

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/allentown/index.ssf/2014/09/allentown_residents_benefittin.html

A Tale Of Two Improvement Zones

ALLENTOWN, PA — In the center of this city’s downtown is a Civil War monument complete with a sailor, artilleryman, infantryman and a cavalry soldier.

It is very similar to the one in Lancaster’s Penn Square, but larger.

That’s fitting for a city with twice the population and twice the land area as Lancaster.

And for a city that has experienced proportionally larger swings of fortune.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/a-tale-of-two-improvement-zones/article_f8de6fa0-f277-11e3-8f19-0017a43b2370.html

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

Lower Pottsgrove Faces 500 Units As Housing Market Picks Up

Location of Lower Pottsgrove Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LOWER POTTSGROVE — Two large developments being proposed in the township and totally more than 500 units may be part of a regional uptick in the housing market.

One proposal, still in its early stages, would site as many as 300 housing units, a hotel, bank and day care center on 42 acres between South park and Evergreen roads at the Sanatoga interchange with Route 422.

The second is a redux of a 2005 proposal to develop 140 acres on the west side of North Pleasant View Road that would add 265 more units to the mix.

“I can tell you absolutely I am seeing more (housing) going on,” said Trappe attorney Robert Brant, who is representing MasterHouse, the developer that plans to present the Sanatoga interchange proposal at a May 6 meeting of the board of commissioners.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130329/NEWS01/130329177/lower-pottsgrove-faces-500-units-as-housing-market-picks-up#full_story

Building Boom Resumes In Towamencin Township

Location of Towamencin Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the curved pedestrian bridge Towamencin Township built over the crossroads village of Kulpsville, you can see the next suburban boomtown rising.

It’s taken long enough, says Robert Nicoletti, 82, who bought ground there in 1958.

From the bridge, against a backdrop of the behind-schedule Pennsylvania Turnpike widening at the nearby Lansdale exit, you can watch crews build the four-story Bridgeview apartment complex, which will start renting next month; the thick concrete core of a six-story Courtyard by Marriott hotel, due in the fall;, and the Culinary Arts Institute of Montgomery County Community College, which will enroll its first students in the spring.  Farther north stands ball-bearing maker SKF Corp.’s U.S. headquarters, certified “platinum” by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The apartments, hotel, cooking school, and corporate headquarters all are the work of Nicoletti’s Philadelphia Suburban Development Corp., better known in the city as a major landlord of parole and welfare offices and other state agencies, as well as a South Philly site proposed by Penn National Corp. for a casino.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20130311_Building_boom_resumes_in_Towamencin.html#ixzz2NF5kBdso
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