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SOS In The News
Bethlehem getting $7.5 million in grants
Redevelopment projects on South Side cash in.
By Chuck Ayers
From The Morning Call -- July 15, 2004
Gov. Ed Rendell said Wednesday that Bethlehem will get $7.5 million in grants for two
anchor redevelopment projects on the South Side.
Rendell, who was in the city to hand over money for a technology business partnership with
Lehigh University, said he will deliver $2.5 million for the Lehigh Riverport retail and
residential mall and $5 million for a new Northampton Community College campus.
The two projects would lead the way for development of Bethlehem Works, the planned $450
million retail, entertainment and residential district envisioned eight years ago to occupy
former Bethlehem Steel land.
Riverport, on former Steel property just outside the Bethlehem Works site, would put
hundreds of new residents into the retail and residential mix on the western end of the
site. NCC would fill its building at the east end with thousands of students and faculty.
''Obviously we want to see money in the state coffers, so we're going to go predominantly
where the growth potential is greatest,'' Rendell said. ''Lehigh Riverport is ready to go.''
Rendell said he plans to deliver the money for both projects in August. The money for
Riverport will clear the way for construction of a parking garage for the $24 million
residential and retail complex on the southern end of the Fahy Bridge.
The Bethlehem Parking Authority is expected to contribute at least $1.5 million toward the
garage, which Ashley Development Corp. would build and sell to the authority. Northampton
County has committed $1 million for the 412-space garage.
Ashley Development's president, Lou Pektor, said that without the money from the state and
Parking Authority, redevelopment of the former Johnson Machine Shop into a 192-unit
apartment complex and retail center would not happen.
''That money is what we need to trigger our financing to allow our reconstruction to
start,'' Pektor said. ''We've been anxiously awaiting this.''
Riverport would contain a 5,000-square-foot theme restaurant and a 15,000-square-foot health
club. The apartment building would include two courtyards, one of which would feature a game
area.
Pektor said work could be under way by fall and the building could be occupied by fall 2005.
The timetable for the Northampton Community College Southside Campus at the Bethlehem Annex
could move even faster, according to college President Arthur Scott. The building was the
office annex to the former Steel headquarters.
''Our plan is to renovate a floor at a time and have one floor done very quickly and move
our Literacy Center classes from the Farr building over there,'' Scott said. ''If everything
fell into place very quickly, we could be there by January.'' Farr is at Broad and New
streets.
Scott said the college is negotiating to buy the building from BethWorks Now, the group led
by local attorney Michael Perrucci that has the building site and the rest of the 120-acre
Bethlehem Works land under agreement of sale.
The community college will spend $5 million, on top of the $5 million from the state, to
renovate the building into a multiuse facility.
''Our vision is to get in there with some partners,'' Scott said. ''You would come in the
front door and turn right and go to a dental clinic operated by our dental hygiene students,
make a left to drop off your children at day care, go upstairs to take an English class and
downstairs to take a welding class.''
When the 150,000-square-foot building is renovated, Scott said, ''I could see easily 3,000
to 4,000 students and up to 50 full-time employees there.''
Mayor John Callahan said NCC's presence on the South Side is within the Keystone Innovation
Zone, the business technology partnership with Lehigh University.
NCC's plans would dovetail with Lehigh's, Callahan said. ''Lehigh will be working on
developing technology-based businesses, and NCC will be training workers to work in what is
developed by Lehigh.''
Copyright © 2004, The Morning Call
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