From The Morning Call

Builder looks to future from past

BethWorks Now plans $900 million project in south Bethlehem.

By Matt Assad
Of The Morning Call

July 1, 2005

Perfectly tanned and wearing a designer suit as he spoke Thursday before Lehigh Valley business leaders, Barry Gosin looked every bit the part of the multibillion-dollar investor who has developed the now-trendy New York neighborhoods of Soho, TriBeCa and Dumbo.

Yet there he was, oozing passion about a bunch of vacant buildings just a few blocks from the Zoellner Arts Center auditorium where he spoke, and proclaiming his legacy would be left not in Manhattan, Greenwich Village or Brooklyn, but south Bethlehem.

Gosin, a principal of the investment group that wants to redevelop the former Bethlehem Steel land, broke little new ground as he appeared during the midyear meeting of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. But he gave 150 of the Valley's most influential people a sense that he's in this for more than the money.

''The first time I walked the site, I was overcome by emotion. I could envision men in front of those blast furnaces moving steel,'' Gosin said shortly after his speech. ''I want to someday be able to bring my granddaughter there and say, 'I did this.' I want this to be my legacy.''

It's not as though Gosin doesn't have anything else on which to hang a legacy tag. Newmark & Co. is one of the nation's largest developers and commercial property managers. Run by Gosin and his partners, Newmark helped turn a collection of worn-out Brooklyn factories into a trendy neighborhood of loft apartments, office and shops, known as Dumbo, for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Newmark performed a similar transformation with vacant factories and warehouses in SoHo, short for South of Houston Street, and in TriBeCa, which refers to the Triangle Below Canal Street neighborhood.

Now those same Newmark principals are part of BethWorks Now, which is teaming up with Las Vegas Sands Corp., owner of the Venetian hotel and casino, to make a similar transformation in south Bethlehem.

The plan there includes a casino, a hotel, a lifestyle mall complex and as many as 1,200 apartments wrapped around a collection of restored former Bethlehem Steel buildings that would serve almost as a museum of the Industrial Revolution.

Though Gosin has developed millions of square feet of office, residential loft and shop space in what is now some of the nation's priciest neighborhoods, he said none of them has the potential of Bethlehem.

''I own parking lots and shopping malls, and I'm not particularly proud of it,'' Gosin said. ''This is something I can take pride in. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.''

Gosin said the proposed slots parlor that Venetian would operate would provide the money and the consumer draw to help him redevelop what could be nearly $900 million in development in three to five years.

''But even if there's no gaming, we're going to be here long after Venetian is gone,'' Gosin said.

Gosin's enthusiasm surprised many of the dark-suited business officials in the crowd, but not Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, who has had several conversations with him since last July when Gosin toured the Bethlehem Works site.

''He has an understanding of a building's history, and he has a passion for structures that have a sense of place,'' Callahan said.