BETHLEHEM -- The BethWorks Now developers are eyeing the former Steel General Office building for the first of what could become several residential uses on abandoned Bethlehem Steel land.
The proposed homes are part of a wave of residential development in the city. Bethlehem's planning and development department counts 1,344 apartments, twin and single homes, condominiums and townhouses planned or under construction citywide, excluding the BethWorks proposal.
The BethWorks plan, part of an estimated $879 million redevelopment of Steel's old Bethlehem Works along the Lehigh River, is to retrofit the 13-story office building at 701 E. Third St. into about 200 apartments, BethWorks principal Michael Perrucci said.
To do so, Perrucci and his partner, Newmark & Company Real Estate Inc., need the approval of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. A third partner, Venetian casinos owner Las Vegas Sands Inc., hopes to build a state-licensed slots parlor that would fuel the rest of the plans.
DEP officials are reviewing a BethWorks Now application to upgrade the Steel General Office's clearance for redevelopment from a nonresidential to residential classification. The classifications fall under Pennsylvania's brownfields law, called the Land Recycling and Environmental Standards Act, also known as Act 2.
DEP spokesman Mark Carmon said the change to the more stringent standard would likely require additional decontamination and sampling of soil and groundwater beyond the work done during the late 1990s by the former Bethlehem Steel Corp.
Bethlehem Steel hauled away a ton of soil for each of the Bethlehem Works' 160 acres between the Fahy Bridge to just east of the Minsi Trail Bridge. BethWorks Now owns 135 of those acres.
In attaining nonresidential standards, Bethlehem Steel also agreed to place deed restrictions on the land prohibiting groundwater wells and requiring that all existing building foundations remain in place or be replaced with similar structures.
The Bethlehem Works was part of Bethlehem Steel's processing of raw materials into finished iron and steel since the early 1900s. Industrial manufacturing on the land began in the mid-1800s.
Carmon said state environmental officials are reviewing BethWorks Now's recent submissions of what are called a Notice of Intent to Remediate and a Final Report for Soils and Groundwater for the former Steel General Office building.
"At this point, we're not sure whether it's complete or not," Carmon said Friday. "If it's not complete, we're going to send it back."
BethWorks Now principal Barry Gosin, vice chairman of Newmark, said he believes the DEP would decide the building is ready for residential reuse without further remediation.
"There really is no environmental issue on the SGO building," Gosin said Friday. "There is no indication that there is anything on this site."
Gosin said if the BethWorks Now team decides to add more homes to Bethlehem Works, more submissions would be made to the DEP for Act 2 residential approval. Perrucci told a Feb. 7 public meeting on the Bethlehem Works development that the team is eyeing 1,000 to 1,200 homes on the land.
Mayor John Callahan said the housing projects further along than the BethWorks Now proposal account for $76 million of residential development and $81 million in residential-institutional, such as the Moravian Village project on East Market Street. Moravian Village's 105 cottages, 152 apartments, 60 personal care units and 60 health care units are nearing completion.
"These real estate developers, they know their market," Callahan said. "Basically the market forces determine that. And I think you have to leave that to the private sector.
"What I see in this is while other cities struggle to maintain their population and try to get people to stay in their downtown, in their city, we've got the very positive situation of people wanting to move into the city."
Tony Hanna, Bethlehem's director of community and economic development, said the city offers amenities and a lifestyle attractive to active adults and young professionals looking to rent or buy homes in an urban setting.
"You can't get it in a suburban garden rental complex," Hanna said.
Callahan said those new city residents will help the city's businesses thrive.
"You can only get so far with visitors or with tourists," Callahan said. "Your real base are the residents and the people that live in the city that are going to be there every day shopping and just spending money in the course of their lives."
Reporter Kurt Bresswein can be reached at 610-867-5000 or by e-mail at kbresswein@express-times.com .