From The Morning Call

Swank mall for Bethlehem Works?

Powerhouse developer in running to build lifestyle center for casino project.

By Spencer Soper
and Nicole Radzievich Of The Morning Call

August 24, 2005

The heavyweight company building a $1.3 billion shopping and entertainment mecca at the revamped Meadowlands sports complex in New Jersey is in negotiations to develop the retail end of BethWorks Now's proposed $300 million slots parlor complex in south Bethlehem.

The Mills Corp. of Arlington, Va., a publicly traded company that owns 42 shopping malls and entertainment centers from Los Angeles to Philadelphia to Madrid, is interested in building 800,000 square feet of retail space in partnership with BethWorks, the investment group that owns the former Bethlehem Steel land.

''There are intense discussions going on,'' said Richard Fischbein, a New York City attorney and BethWorks partner.

Mills would develop a so-called lifestyle center, an open-air mall with extensive landscaping, designs that mimic old-fashioned town centers and a class of distinctive stores absent from the Lehigh Valley, such as Williams-Sonoma or Coldwater Creek.

The proposed lifestyle center would rival the region's biggest retail center, the 959,638-square-foot Lehigh Valley Mall in Whitehall Township.

Mills spokesman David Douglass said he could not comment on the matter.

Getting Mills as a partner would be the second big score for BethWorks, which has joined with Las Vegas Sands Corp., one of the country's top gambling companies and owner of the Venetian Casino and Resort, to build a slots parlor just east of the Minsi Trail Bridge.

Andy Abboud, a spokesman for Las Vegas Sands, said Mills is one of three potential partners for the retail component of the Bethlehem project. Selecting a retail partner would be a joint decision by BethWorks and Sands, Abboud said. He would not identify the other companies in the running.

Mills has made headlines with its planned 4.8-million-square-foot Meadowlands Xanadu, which would include shops, entertainment, hotels, offices and a ''snow dome for indoor skiing,'' according to its Web site.

Disclosure of Mills' interest comes on the eve of a critical meeting for the BethWorks project. The city Planning Commission today will consider a proposed zoning change that could prevent a slots parlor from being built in Bethlehem.

The Sands is considered a front-runner for one of two available licenses for free-standing slots parlors the state will award. But the prospect of slot machines becoming a prominent part of the city's economy has divided the community and City Council.

BethWorks partner Michael Perrucci announced Tuesday at a South Side Task Force meeting that his company was negotiating with ''one of the largest shopping mall companies in America,'' but he did not name it during the public meeting.

Mills is not worried about competing mall proposals for Upper Saucon and Bethlehem townships because neither is part of a gaming complex, Perrucci said.

He said slot machines would be the ''economic engine'' that makes possible other parts of the Bethlehem Works project — the shopping district, 1,200 loft apartments and a proposed museum of industrial history that would showcase the old blast furnaces and some of the historic buildings on the 126-acre site.

''If gaming comes, they are not worried about what's going on in Bethlehem Township,'' Perrucci said.

Mayor John Callahan said discussions between BethWorks and Mills have been going on ''for some time.'' The talks have centered on creating a shopping mall that allows patrons to experience the products they can purchase. For instance, people shopping for ovens would have a chance to use them in a cooking class offered at the mall, he said.

''I think it's a very exciting way to market a product, which would make the BethWorks site stand out from other retail sites in the Valley,'' Callahan said. ''It would take a unique site and make it that much more exciting.''