Dec. 07–City Center Investment Corp. Wednesday received initial approval to redevelop the existing Holiday Inn and a nearby vacant tract in the 900 block of Hamilton Street.
The Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority gave plan use approvals to City Center as well as to the Waterfront Development Co.'s proposed mixed-use project north of the Tilghman Street Bridge along the Lehigh River, effectively starting the redevelopment of two parts of the Neighborhood Improvement Zone that had yet to see new building.
Matt Assad
Allentown's long-struggling Holiday Inn is slated for a $16.6 million makeover designed to give the 224-room hotel a new look, a new flag and a new place in the city's blossoming downtown economy.
A consultant for the nine-story hotel at 902 W. Hamilton St. appeared Tuesday before the Allentown…
Allentown's long-struggling Holiday Inn is slated for a $16.6 million makeover designed to give the 224-room hotel a new look, a new flag and a new place in the city's blossoming downtown economy.
A consultant for the nine-story hotel at 902 W. Hamilton St. appeared Tuesday before the Allentown…
(Matt Assad)
City Center President and CEO J.B. Reilly told the ANIZDA board that City Center intends to close on the sale of the Holiday Inn at Ninth and Hamilton streets later this month.
In City Center's plan, the building would be recast as a 100-room hotel with expanded meeting rooms, topped by about 30,000 square feet of office space. Reilly said the hotel needs replacing because it "doesn't suit the demand" for urban travelers.
"We think that's a real drag on the city," he said.
Additionally, City Center plans call for redeveloping the former Gallery on the Mall site about 100 feet west of the hotel. That site, now razed, would be home to a mixed-use retail and residential building with 95 apartment units on seven floors.
Jane Heft, vice president and director of project design and corporate branding, said City Center wants to build on the popularity of the three Strata apartment buildings nearby, which have been snapped up by renters as quickly as the units become available. It would be "like Strata, but different" in design, she said.
City Center hopes the planned developments in the 900 block "will be a catalyst for other developers" to bring more housing, offices and retail to the block, Reilly said.
"We hope to move on this in 2018," he said.
The ANIZDA board on Wednesday also started the process by which City Center could borrow up to $235 million through the tax-exempt authority to help finance its planned projects in the 700 and 900 blocks of Hamilton. The funding would be deployed over a number of years, Reilly said, and would not affect the payments already committed for the bonds to pay off the PPL Center at Seventh and Hamilton streets.
In addition, City Center received project use approval for the 18-story, 350,000-square foot office tower across the street from the arena. City Center's plans call for the facade of the existing Wells Fargo bank to be preserved.
Also receiving project use approval was Phase 2 of the Waterfront Development Corp.'s mixed-use plans for the Lehigh Riverfront area immediately north of the Tilghman Street Bridge.
Developer Zachary Jaindl said construction of parts of Phase 1, just south of the bridge, would begin in the spring. Work on Phase 2, he said, would occur as demand grows for waterfront office, retail and residential.
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