From The Morning Call

Slots gambling will pay, Bethlehem is told

Developer offers to preserve history and build a mall.

By Matt Assad
Of The Morning Call

September 9, 2005

If they are granted a gambling license, developers will build a $350 million slots parlor and hotel, preserve more than half the vacant Bethlehem Steel buildings and build an upscale mall nearly the size of the Lehigh Valley Mall — and they're willing to put that in writing.

As Bethlehem City Council approaches a crucial Sept. 20 vote on whether to ban gambling from south Bethlehem, developers are trying to present the city with an offer it simply can't refuse, BethWorks Now principal Michael Perrucci told South Side business owners Thursday.

That offer — one Perrucci said he's willing to agree to by contract — includes everything from preserving the hulking blast furnaces to hiring local labor to building a $200 million mall.

''We're going to save Bethlehem Steel's legacy, we're going to create jobs, we're going to buy local goods and we're going to make room for local business people,'' Perrucci said, during a meeting with nearly two dozen business leaders at the Comfort Suites Hotel.

The offer is designed to alleviate the fears of city leaders worried that BethWorks Now and its partner, Las Vegas Sands of Nevada, will build the casino and hotel, but leave the rest of the property to rot.

The offer also piqued the interest of one of the project's most formidable opponents.

''Very impressive, very interesting,'' said Councilman Joseph Leeson Jr., one of two council members who supports a zoning change to ban gambling from the Steel land. ''I'm not ready to change my view, but I'm interested in hearing more.''

That will come over the next two weeks, said Perrucci, who discussed the general agreement, but said he wanted City Council members to get the first look at the details.

Perrucci said he expects the state's 14 gambling licenses to be issued by June, and if one is approved for the project in Bethlehem, construction would begin immediately on a $350 million complex that would include 3,000 slot machines, a hotel, bars and restaurants. A few months later, mall developer Mills Corp., of Arlington, Va., would begin construction of an 800,000-square-foot upscale shopping mall.

Other parts of what Perrucci labeled a ''developer's agreement'' would contain commitments to preserve several Bethlehem Steel structures on the 126-acre tract, including the iron foundry, the former headquarters, the annex, the elevated rail ore-moving system, the blast furnaces, the ore bridge, the high house, the gas blowing engine house and portions of the massive No. 2 machine shop.

Developers also would agree to partner with Northampton Community College for job training, implement a diversity hiring program, and allocate room for a concert arena to be built by ArtsQuest, and for a National Museum of Industrial History to be built by a nonprofit group that has been working on the project for nearly a decade, Perrucci said.

Finally, the deal would include an agreement to buy local products and create a rent-controlled section of the development for local merchants who probably could not afford space in the Mills Corp. mall.

Some parts of the plan will not be part of the deal, but the agreement probably will cover two-thirds of the $879 million master plan developed for the property earlier this year, Perrucci said.

Perrucci's commitment won praise from most of his audience Thursday, but most were on board long before he began making promises.

''This project is a no-brainer,'' said John Saraceno, a South Side design firm owner. ''There isn't enough money in the city of Bethlehem to fix that site. The jobs, the money, it's all good.''

But not everyone is buying the project or the commitment. Lucy Lennon, owner of the Dancing Fish restaurant, wants to see Perrucci's name on the dotted line, and even then she's going to be skeptical.

Lennon pointed to a flier, inviting business owners to the meeting, that incorrectly stated the project is endorsed by the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has not taken a position on the project, and Perrucci corrected the mistake during the meeting, but that was too late for Lennon, who said she ''won't believe anything they tell me.''

''We've all worked very hard to build our businesses,'' she said. ''Now they want to build this big glitzy complex that's going to take away our customers. I don't see how this can be good for us.''

Perrucci said he hopes to have a draft of the agreement ready in the next two weeks.