$1 billion investment could be coming to the Allentown State Hospital grounds
The long-vacant Allentown State Hospital could soon see signs of life.
At a meeting Saturday morning at the East Side Youth Center, City Center developers presented plans for Northridge, a “masterplanned community” with retail, residential and medical uses, as well as extensive biking and walking trails.
According to J.B. Reilly, City Center founder and CEO, the plans are “conceptual,” as City Center has not yet gone through the city planning process to get zoning approvals, which can take upwards of a year.
But based on feedback from city officials and neighborhood residents, developers have put together plans for what could come to the nearly 200-acre site, which include housing, medical offices, recreation centers and retail businesses.
“We’ve met with lots of people, we’ve done a lot of surveys, we’ve done a lot of analysis in trying to understand, what do we really need, what does the community really need?” Reilly said. “There’s definitely a need for certain services like health care … even things like dry cleaners and basic services, neighborhood services are not being met in some cases, so we think there’s an opportunity to provide those kinds of important services.”
The name Northridge is an homage to the site’s location at the northern edge of the Lehigh River, Reilly said.
The land at 1600 Hanover Ave. is the former home of the psychiatric hospital, which has been a vacant plot of land since the hospital building was demolished in 2020. The East Side property is seen by city and real estate officials as one of the biggest redevelopment opportunities for several generations in Allentown. It was sold directly to City Center in early 2023 for $5.5 million after a failed competitive bidding process.
One of the hallmarks of the project, Reilly said, will be the variety of housing types provided. While developers have no plans to construct traditional affordable housing — which means rent is determined by the area median income — Reilly said Northridge would help fill a critical need for “middle-income” market rate housing.
Without providing details on the number of units — City Center officials said it is too early to determine those kinds of specifics — Northridge would provide types of housing that are lacking in Allentown, including townhomes, duplexes and home ownership opportunities. It is modelled off similar walkable mixed-use master planned developments including the King of Prussia Town Center in Montgomery County.
Developers are also touting the $10 million in annual city taxes Northridge will generate — both residential and income tax of residents — as well as 385 permanent jobs and more than 2,000 construction jobs.
But building on the land will be a challenge. The area has several steep slopes that can’t be developed, environmental remediation issues, subsurface rock and lack of existing utilities that could complicate construction. Asked if those issues could delay the project, Reilly said City Center has studied the risks and believes they can develop the site in spite of them.
“There are a lot of challenges and we’ve been studying those challenges, and we feel like we can overcome them, but they’re not simple,” Reilly said.
Northridge will cost upward of $1 billion, and developers are hoping to obtain the zoning clearances they need to break ground before the end of the year. The land is currently zoned as “institutional and governmental,” which has limited opportunities for commercial development, so City Center will seek a “zoning overlay” that will allow them to go forward with plans.
Construction could begin as soon as mid-2024, with the first phase of building complete in 2025.