Cup-maker to create 71 jobs in Bethlehem building
The Lehigh Valley’s cup isn’t exactly overflowing with available small industrial space, but an announcement Thursday shows the demand is there.
Continental Cup Co., a startup that will make high-end graphic paper cups, signed a lease for a 40,000-square-foot building at 1920 Spillman Drive in south Bethlehem’s Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII, Gov. Tom Wolf said in a news release.
Continental Cup is expected to invest at least $9.5 million in the project, which is forecast to create 71 full-time jobs over the next three years.
For the project, the company received a funding proposal from the state Department of Community and Economic Development comprised of a $155,000 Pennsylvania First grant, $142,000 in Job Creation Tax Credits and up to $31,950 in grants for workforce training and development.
But perhaps more enticing was the availability of a small manufacturing space, buildings in the ballpark of 40,000 to 80,000 square feet that have been in short supply in recent years as the Lehigh Valley has exploded as a distribution and e-commerce hub. That surge has inflated land costs and crowded out development of smaller, but in-demand, industrial flex spaces needed to support growing manufacturers.
But following a yearslong campaign by the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. and others, some developers are starting to meet the shortage. For example, the building that Continental Cup will operate in was developed by Lehigh Valley Industrial Park Inc., which noted in its annual report that the project helps the “unmet demand for Class A industrial space dedicated toward small manufacturers.”
“Before they even broke ground, we had a tenant for it,” said Don Cunningham, president and CEO of LVEDC.
At any given time in the last 18 months, Cunningham said, LVEDC has had five or six prospects similar to Continental Cup that were considering the Lehigh Valley market. It makes LVEDC’s job much easier when the organization can point to a speculative building already rising instead of having to tell a prospect, which is often exploring multiple states, that the space they desire won’t be available for two or more years.
“You got to make hay while the sun is shining,” Cunningham said. “Right now, the sun is shining, and there’s huge demand for manufacturing in the Lehigh Valley market.”
Another example of that came about a month ago, when Wolf announced IQ Fibers, a startup cellulose fiber manufacturer, had chosen a 45,000-squarefoot building in West Easton to launch its operation and create 43 jobs.
“This is manufacturing today,” Cunningham said. “For the most part, it’s taking place in buildings less than 100,000 square feet, highly automated and anywhere from 20 to 100 employees. The days of one large employer with thousands of employees and huge footprint buildings are pretty much over, except in a few select industries.”
Some developers are starting to realize that, jumping in to build industrial flex space. Specifically, Cunningham pointed to J.G. Petrucci Co. Inc., which is developing the 105,000-squarefoot Forks Flex Center and late last year bought a 32,000square-foot flex building on Avenue C in Bethlehem — right across the road from LVEDC’s offices.
In addition, J.G. Petrucci has approvals in place for a 43,680square-foot building on Jacobsburg Road in Bushkill Township and is in the process of getting approvals for a 55,000square-foot structure in Forks Township, said Joe Correia, the company’s executive vice president.
“We continue to look at other locations in the Lehigh Valley to accommodate industrial flex space,” he said in an email.
To land more companies such as Continental Cup, which plans to serve the theater industry, quick-service restaurants and conveniences stores, LVEDC wouldn’t mind if additional developers joined in.
Morning Call reporter Jon Harris can be reached at 610-820-6779 or at jon.harris@mcall.com.