What’s next for these Lehigh Valley structures?

BETHLEHEM – After lingering vacant for years, three landmark buildings — the Allentown State Hospital, Martin Tower and the Boyd Theatre — may be demolished to make way for new development.

Officials telegraphed that future after years of trying to find a viable reuse of the properties but ultimately deciding the economics didn’t work.

Here are other Lehigh Valley buildings that have languished for years, some for decades:

For more than half a century the Bethlehem Steel General Office Building was a symbol of power and dominance.

Commonly known as the SGO, the structure was built in 1916 from brick and steel with an innovative beam design pioneered by Bethlehem Steel. It served as headquarters to the world’s second-largest steelmaker until 1972, when Bethlehem Steel moved its white-collar workers into Martin Tower.

The building has been closed since the mid-1990s, when steelmaking ended in Bethlehem. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2001, and the 126-acre property was bought by Las Vegas Sands, which spent $800 million to build the Sands casino, a hotel, outlet mall and concert venue in the former Steel ore pit.

In the past, it has been proposed for various reuses, such as apartments, but none of those plans got off the ground. preservation ordinance. The law provides incentives through flexible planning rules so developers are motivated to adapt history-rich structures rather than demolishing them.

Patel tweaked his plan to incorporate the building as office space in the development, which will include a hotel and bank. Work had been delayed by what Patel has called drainage and sewage issues, but it now appears that progress on the site has begun.