Bethlehem’s CRIZ Not Living Up To ‘Shovel-Ready’ Billing; Officials Explain Why

Bethlehem received a coveted City Revitalization and Improvement Zone because its application for the state economic development tool was chock-full of shovel-ready projects.

The incentive was expected to allow for plans for a Bass Pro Shops, convention center and second hotel at Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem to be approved by the middle of last year. Plans for the long-stalled redevelopment of Martin Tower also were supposed to be completed by mid-2014.

But now 16 months after Bethlehem’z CRIZ designation was awarded, most of the projects the incentive was supposed to springboard are still stalled.

Officials say anticipated redevelopment has been slowed by having to start a new city authority, getting answers from the state and by the fact that the CRIZ economic development benefits pale compared to Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone.

Read more:

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2015/04/bethlehems_criz_so_far_not_liv.html

Officials Further Hopeful About International Rail Port In Bethlehem

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials were in Bethlehem last week to further discuss opening a local international rail port and local officials left the meeting feeling very hopeful.

“They’re very interested in the site, they’re very interested in the Lehigh Valley,” said Bethlehem Mayor Bob Donchez, who attended the Sept. 12 meeting with Port Authority officials at Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. President and CEO Don Cunningham also said the Port Authority is very interested in opening an inland port in Bethlehem. He said the main unknown is whether the owner of the Bethlehem Intermodal rail yard can get funding to expand.

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2014/09/officials_further_hopeful_abou.html

Five Years After Opening, Crime From Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem Isn’t The Factor Some Feared

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio remembers the critics.

Debates raged about whether Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem would be a benefit or detriment to the city and its surrounding communities. DiLuzio, then a police lieutenant, gave in to his detective spirit and researched the subject.

Much of what he found indicated casinos were not a hotbed of criminal activity.

Five years later, DiLuzio is now chief of police — and he’s happy to report that he was right.

Read more:  http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/breaking-news/index.ssf/2014/05/crime_not_a_major_factor_five.html

Developers Hope To Attract Grocery Store To Former Bethlehem Steel Site

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Developers are seeking to attract a grocery store to the former Bethlehem Steel Corp. site on Bethlehem’s South Side.

Former Mayor John Callahan, now director of development for one of the site landowners, said Thursday that they’re looking to get a grocery store into the former Steel General Office building, or in a new building planned across East Third Street from the former Steel headquarters.

“I certainly have heard about the idea of putting a grocery store in part of the SGO project and I also believe that potential use would be a good fit for across the street,” said Callahan, who now works for attorney Michael Perrucci, part owner of Steel site co-owner BethWorks Now. “I think there’s only a need for one and it’s just a matter of trying to figure out where best to put it.”

At an unrelated news conference Thursday, ArtsQuest officials displayed a map that showed a future grocery store planned along with apartments and parking at the 13-story Steel General Office building. ArtsQuest President Jeff Parks said he got approval from Sands BethWorks officials to include the plans on the map.

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2014/03/developers_seeking_to_attract.html

Bass Pro Shops Angling For Store At Old Bethlehem Steel Plant

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Outdoors retailer Bass Pro Shops could help jump-start major redevelopment projects, including a possible hotel and convention center, at the former Bethlehem Steel plant.

Developers have been in talks with city officials over the last four or five months about introducing the company’s second store to Pennsylvania near the Sands casino in south Bethlehem, a source familiar with the project said.

Mayor John Callahan acknowledged Bass Pro was one of several retailers that have expressed interest in a site in or near the cavernous No. 2 Machine Shop near Sands’ Luxury Outlets.  He said such a retailer would attract customers from well beyond the Lehigh Valley.

He said he did “a little reconnaissance” at the closest Bass Pro store he could find — near Harrisburg.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-bethlehem-sands-bass-pro-shop-20130815,0,5894889.story#ixzz2c9MnWQyN
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Sands Casino In Bethlehem Is For Sale

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem is on the selling block, a source familiar with company thinking told The Morning Call.

Las Vegas Sands, the world’s largest casino company, is asking as much as $1 billion for the Bethlehem casino.  But the source cautioned it’s part of company policy to gauge outside interest on every company property in the United States.

In other words, while Las Vegas Sands’ highly lucrative Macau properties are off-limits, every Sands casino in the U.S.— even the Venetian — theoretically could be had, for the right price.

Some analysts theorize that with Sands Bethlehem revenues riding high, and potential gambling competition brewing in New York state, the time is right for Las Vegas Sands to sell Bethlehem — its only U.S. casino outside Las Vegas.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-bethlehem-sands-sale-20130117,0,5249878.story

Massachusetts Looks To The Lehigh Valley For Inspiration

It’s a river city with quaint Victorian architecture once known for its pioneering manufacturing processes that gave America the industrial might to fight its wars.

But now, it’s re-imagining itself as a “knowledge corridor,” thanks to nearby colleges, and possibly as an entertainment center as gaming companies circle for a place to put a new casino.

That might sound a lot like Bethlehem.

But it’s Springfield, the biggest city in western Massachusetts.

As leaders there begin to dive into the details of reinventing the greater Springfield area, they are looking at Bethlehem as it enters its fourth year hosting a casino and the rest of the Lehigh Valley for advice and inspiration.

Read more:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-bethlehem-springfield-gaming-20121129,0,5144006.story

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem Table Games Boom Benefits Easton

English: Skyline of Easton, PA from Lafayette College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Great to see this money benefit the taxpayers of Pennsylvania!

The city was left out of the local share of taxes on the casino’s thousands of slot machines, but came away with a 25 percent cut of local table gaming taxes. The games — poker, blackjack and more than a dozen other options — remain a fraction of the tens of millions poured into Sands’ slot machines, but the casino’s tables are the most popular in the state and show no sign of slowing down.

The city budgeted $560,000 in table games money this year, a slight uptick from 2011’s $530,000 haul, yet Easton could see more than $700,000 if the boom in south Bethlehem continues. Through the first two quarters this year, Sands shunted $336,000 into Easton’s coffers and the table games at Sands remain the state’s highest grossing.

“We are definitely getting more than we expected,” Easton Finance Director Chris Heagele said.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-sees-windfall-table-games-revenue-20120824,0,5728945.story

Sands Bethlehem Leads The Way As Pa. Slot Machine Revenue Up In May

English: Slot machines at Wookey Hole Caves (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PHILADELPHIA. PA  (AP) — Pennsylvania’s gross slot machine revenue was up 3.4 percent in May over the year before, boosted by the second full month of play at Valley Forge Casino Resort in suburban Philadelphia. Existing casinos, meanwhile, saw a modest rise after they registered just the third such monthly decline in April.

The state’s 11 casinos — including Valley Forge, which opened March 31 — collected $212.5 million in gross slots revenue in May, an increase over $205.5 million from the same period the year before, according to revenue figures released Monday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The 10 existing casinos that were open in both May 2011 and May 2012 saw an increase of 1.5 percent, a month after their gross slots revenue had dipped .6 percent.

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem showed the most growth in May, pulling in $25.1 million in gross slots revenue, an increase of 11.2 percent over May 2011. The state’s second-newest facility, Sugarhouse Casino in Philadelphia, wasn’t far behind: It reported $16.4 million in gross revenue, an increase of just less than 10 percent.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pennsylvania-casino-revenue-060412-20120604,0,4866675.story

Yes Is Coming To The Sands Bethlehem Event Center

A groundbreaking English progressive rock band that over the past 40 years has produced 13 gold and platinum albums and a half-dozen Top 40 hits will play at Sands Bethlehem Event Center in July, it was just announced.

Yes, which had the triple-platinum album “90125” and No. 1 song “Owner of a Lonely Heart” in 1983, will play at the event enter July 18, the venue has announced.

Tickets, at $49.50, $65 and $85, will go on sale at 10 a.m. April 20 at www. sandseventcenter.com or www.livenation.com, by calling 800-745-3000 or at the event center box office at the Shoppes at the Sands mall at Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

Read more: http://blogs.mcall.com/lehighvalleymusic/2012/04/groundbreaking-prog-rockers-to-play-sands-bethlehem-event-center.html

Sands Bethlehem Event Center’s First Acts: Beach Boys Reunion, Blink 182, Incubus And Alan Jackson

The Beach Boys’50^th anniversary reunion tour, pop-punkers blink 182 and country megastar Alan Jackson lead a hefty lineup of acts that will play the new Sands Bethlehem Event Center in its first months.

They’re names that officials think will draw big enough crowds to help put the center in the Top 10 venues its size in the world.

Representatives from builders Vision Entertainment, the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem and promoter Live Nation announced the lineups at a news conference Friday, then offered media tours of the construction.

Incubus, one of the most popular alternative rock bands of the 2000s, will perform the arena’s first concert on May 16.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/music/mc-sands-bethlehem-events-concerts-20120210,0,3724048.story

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem To Build Events Center

The Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem‘s newest addition is to open next May as a destination aiming to attract large-scale conventions, boxing matches, comedians and concerts with “Mariah Carey-level” acts that usual bypass the Lehigh Valley on tour at the big stadiums…

Read the rest of this article from the Morning Call here: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-bethlehem-sands-casino-live-nation-20110906,0,1033622.story