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| A GRASSROOTS EFFORT TO PRESERVE BETHLEHEM'S PAST WHILE ENSURING ITS ECONOMIC FUTURE | ||
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SOS In The NewsFrom The Morning Call
BethWorks Now boss details $879.4 million designDevelopment deal thought to be Valley's biggest includes space for industrial museum, slots parlor, hotel, apartments.By Josh Drobnykand Matt Assad Of The Morning Call January 26, 2005 The investment group that wants to build a huge gambling, entertainment and residential complex in south Bethlehem made its first public sales pitch Tuesday, giving two dozen residents and city officials a glimpse of plans that include a $350 million slots parlor, up to 1,200 apartments and a hotel with as many as 1,000 rooms. At the Forte Building on the South Side, BethWorks Now partner Michael Perrucci gave a 45-minute presentation he'll probably repeat countless times the next year in Harrisburg and the Lehigh Valley as the investment group vies for a slots license. He unveiled what's believed to be the largest single development ever proposed for the Valley — 124 acres where $879.4 million would be spent to build a small community employing 5,500 people. He also publicly committed to providing space for a National Museum of Industrial History, the linchpin of the Bethlehem Works plan first proposed by Bethlehem Steel in 1997. ''We didn't want to build out a community without having people live there,'' Perrucci said. ''It's important to us that this doesn't become a ghost town after 5 p.m.'' His presentation drew rave reviews, prompting words such as ''gorgeous'' and ''perfect.'' ''We're trying to get community input, and we're trying to let the community know what we're doing as we go forward,'' said Perrucci, who plans to address a larger public gathering at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity. Before the small gathering in a nondescript meeting room, Perrucci rolled out a 6-foot map and took them on a tour of his plans for the site. Just east of the Minsi Trail Bridge, beneath the giant ore bridge left behind by Bethlehem Steel, would be a $350 million slots parlor and a hotel with 500 to 1,000 rooms. To the west would be a section of national retail stores and a 10- to 12-screen cinema. At the center of the property would be retail shops, loft apartments and museum space built into the former No. 2 Machine Shop. Perrucci said four different designs have been done for the massive building, including one with a road running through the center. He said the amount of space given to the proposed museum remains a ''moving target.'' Bethlehem Steel's original vision for the museum was a $250 million project linked to the Smithsonian Institution to display artifacts and commemorate the Industrial Revolution. Much of the Bethlehem Works project will reuse former Steel buildings, but even the new structures, such as the slots parlor, would be designed to look like early 20th-century industrial buildings. Perrucci said the museum might not be the 300,000 square feet originally envisioned, but he pledged to provide ample space to commemorate Bethlehem Steel's role in building and defending the nation. ''We'll afford them as much space as they need,'' Perrucci said. ''That [Machine Shop No. 2] is a massive structure. I'd like to see the project that can fill that building.'' Included in the museum area would be the blast furnaces — painted, preserved and lit — a 5,000-seat concert hall that could be used by the Musikfest arts and entertainment festival, and a $77 million arts park of performance stages and areas for programs run by ArtsQuest, the Bethlehem nonprofit that runs Musikfest and Christkindlmarkt. Farther west would be more apartments, an open-air market in Steel's former Iron Foundry and a section of shop space dedicated to local retail shops. Mixed into the plan are at least 12,500 parking spaces in at least four parking decks, most of them tucked away near the Lehigh River. On vacant gravel lots on the south side of Third Street, retail shops and apartments would be built to create a new streetscape in an area now used primarily for parking. But Perrucci said it all hinges on a slots parlor that would attract 3.7 million gamblers a year who would pump an estimated $230 million into the slot machines. Pennsylvania legislators last year approved placing up to 61,000 slot machines at 14 facilities statewide to generate money to reduce property taxes. If Bethlehem Works is to reach its potential, one of those 14 facilities must go in south Bethlehem. ''I couldn't care less about gaming, but what I do care about is the gaming piece here would basically drive a five-year build-out of everything you see here,'' Perrucci said. ''In order to subsidize the ArtsQuest piece … the museum … and to preserve the architecture and not knock down some of these very beautiful buildings, we need the revenue source in order to justify the economic model so it works.'' That source, Perrucci said, would come with a slots license. Without it, he warned, redevelopment of the site would take 15 to 20 years and look much different. ''You are going to have seven, eight, nine applications at the end of the day applying for this one license that the Lehigh Valley will get,'' he said. ''It is going to be highly competitive.'' Several residents asked Perrucci specifics about the plan, including whether the group had considered an open-air farmers market for the Iron Foundry building and where the slew of buses carrying visitors would park. Though Perrucci assured the group that the plans are still very preliminary, his answers appeared to draw positive responses from the crowd. An open-air market is being considered, he said, and the buses would probably park near the slots parlor in the northeast corner of the site. Ellen Larmer, a project director with the Community Action Development Corp. of Bethlehem, which promotes small business in south Bethlehem, said she was ''excited'' by the plans and impressed by the developer's interest in getting community input. Roger Hudak, chairman of the Mayor's South Side Task Force, didn't need Tuesday's presentation to persuade him to support what he called a ''gorgeous'' plan. ''BethWorks Now is going to change the face of Bethlehem forever,'' Hudak said as he introduced Perrucci. ''It could happen very quickly [if we support this plan]. Otherwise it could take 25 years.'' josh.drobnyk@mcall.com 610-861-3619 Copyright © 2005, The Morning Call
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