Riverfront development can proceed after rezoning approval
Manhattan Building Co. has cleared the first major regulatory hurdle to its vision of transforming a number of significant properties on or near Allentown’s riverfront.
City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the request of developers Alex Wright and John Palumbo to rezone a broad swath of properties for “urban commercial” development, and loosen restrictions on housing development in this zoning district.
Councilman Daryl Hendricks said he began his career with the Allentown Police Department patrolling the 1st and 6th wards at a time when the industrial corridor along North Front Street was still thriving. In the more than 40 years since, the corridor has become blighted. He expressed hope that the rezoning would enable MBC and other developers to capitalize on the area’s potential.
“I’m excited about this project, and I think it’s important for us to get moving on it,” he said.
Council’s vote followed a cautious thumbs-up from the city planning commission last week.
Until now, multifamily residential buildings in the urban commercial zoning district could not exceed 50 feet in height; under the revised guidelines, they can max out at 80 feet, if parking is integrated. Developers also can provide fewer parking spaces, and buildings could more closely abut streets. Lots must be at least 24,000 square feet to qualify for such development, and each building must offer at least 20 residential units.
East of North Front Street, the former Neuweiler Brewery and American Atelier sites, and the 11-acre Iron Mountain warehouse site behind the old brewery, have been rezoned from industrial to allow for mixed-use residential development around Bucky Boyle Park. The properties are all in the tax-subsidized
Neighborhood Improvement Zone, and MBC plans to submit a two-building proposal for the Atelier site in the near future. The company has obtained options to redevelop the Iron Mountain site and to complete the second phase of the Neuweiler redevelopment project.
It will develop a conceptual plan encompassing those sites’ redevelopment, and work with the city to turn the 8-acre Bucky Boyle into a world-class riverfront park.
On the other side of Front Street, the city agreed to rezone a primarily residential block between Liberty and Allen streets, bound to the west by the Immaculate Conception Church cemetery. MBC is working with the Allentown Parking Authority on a 50-unit apartment building at Allen and Railroad streets, next door to the recently completed 22-unit Riverview Lofts project.
MBC previously helped revitalize blighted industrial neighborhoods in Hoboken and
Jersey City, New Jersey. Wright, who started Urban Residential Properties here a decade ago and initially worked at MBC as a laborer, persuaded the bigger company that Allentown’s riverfront holds great potential.
Urban Residential Properties has launched an on-site job training program for minority youth to learn the building trades and pursue entrepreneurship. Additionally, Palumbo vowed to City Council that the company will hire local contractors to the greatest degree possible. MBC has also committed to relocating its headquarters to an office space in the mixed-use complex planned at the former American
Atelier site.
Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach said she worried about the longterm effects of gentrification on the area, but commended Wright and Palumbo for their community outreach and expressed hope that they would live up to their promises.
Resident Cheryl A. Haughney said she was concerned that ownership of recent multifamily residential projects in Center City was “concentrated in the hands of a very few.” (City Center Investment Corp. is responsible for most residential development downtown over the past decade.) She urged MBC to consider condominium housing, where apartments are individually owned.
Council did not discuss the concerns city and regional planners had earlier raised about the rezoning. They worried allowing 80-foot residential buildings among row homes west of Front Street, as well as the reduced parking requirements in an already cramped area, could alter community character and result in other unintended consequences.
After years of promise, development activity is picking up in the area. The Waterfront Development Co. issued more than $60 million in bonds in January to start vertical construction of the first office building in the long-planned redevelopment of the former Lehigh Structural Steel site. Mark and Zachary Jaindl expect to begin building the 26-acre project’s first apartment complex and parking deck this year, with construction of another office building starting in 2022, according to project records.
Brewers Hill Development Group is also beginning to convert a former Neuweiler bottling shop into a three-story, 42,000-square-foot office building.