Developer proposes apartment building in Allentown
A 12-story building with nearly 200 new apartments, a new campus for a local community college and a rooftop restaurant could come to the corner of 10th and Hamilton streets in Allentown.
But first, developers with Blackstone Structures will need the OK from the city on the land development plan and several zoning variances.
At a city planning commission meeting Tuesday members delayed a final vote on plans for Edison Lofts West, which is what developers are calling the proposed structures. Some voiced concerns about parking and student drop-offs and the building’s height, which is taller than most others on the western end of Hamilton Street.
According to architect Bryan Taylor with Taylor Architecture and Design, the developer has a tentative agreement with a local community college to open a new campus facility on the first and second floors.
Jeff Glazier suggested developers work with the city parking authority to authorize five-minute parking spaces near the building for use as a student drop-off space. He called traffic backups as a result of drop-offs around the existing Lehigh Carbon Community College building on Seventh Street an “issue.”
“This isn’t a parking issue; this is more that moms (are) dropping college freshmen or whoever off on their way to work,” Glazier said.
Some members also voiced concerns about the building’s
height and the demolition of three existing buildings at the site. Developers will have to consolidate three separate lots — 960, 962 and 966 Hamilton Street — and demolish the existing buildings there to make way for the new 12-story buildings.
Commission Chair Christian
Brown asked the developer to consider either preserving or incorporating the facade of 962 Hamilton Street, which features Italianate architecture.
“Being the historic preservation guy that I am, I sort of lament over the demolition of the middle building,” Brown, also chair of the old
Allentown Historic Preservation Association, said.
“Of course it’s the middle building that has to be the one worth saving.”
The building, if approved, will bring 190 market-rate apartments, mostly studios and one-bedrooms, to the Allentown neighborhood.
Developers also plan to include a top-floor restaurant.
Members were split on the building’s height. Member Kelli Holzman said the building is out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood, which features mostly two- to five-story buildings, while others said they saw no problem with the building’s 12 stories.
“I think it’s probably a personal preference to some degree,” Holzman said. “When I walk down Hamilton Street for example, I think ADP building (on 8th and Hamilton) looks kind of crazy. It’s so big, it just doesn’t fit. And to me, that’s what this one looks like.”
The building is zoned in a central business district, which means there are no legal limits on building height. But it is also located in a traditional neighborhood overlay district, a non-binding set of guidelines that calls for new buildings to be roughly similar in scale to the rest of the neighborhood.
Commission members suggested a “setback” on the fifth or sixth floor that would make the building appear more to scale with the rest of the neighborhood.
Blackstone Structures, led by developer Gary Newman, will appear later this month before the Zoning Hearing Board for a demolition approval and zoning variances that will allow the project to move forward. The same developer is also looking to build a five-story mixed-use building at 926 and 930 Hamilton Street, the latter of which is Allentown industrialist Harry Trexler’s former home.