City Center gets $50M to expand into buildings five and six

Artist rendering shows what Six City Center will look like when complete.

Millions more dollars in Downtown Allentown development are on the way.

At its regular board meeting Wednesday, the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority approved a request from City Center Investment Corp. to increase its credit line by $50 million so it can build two additional office complexes in the downtown.

The five City Center projects already announced total about $294 million, and with the agreement Wednesday, City Center now plans to invest about $344 million in development projects, said Jim Harbaugh, executive vice president and chief operating officer for City Center Lehigh Valley.

Five City Center is at 940 Hamilton St., and Six City Center is at Seventh and Walnut streets.

The company is determining what tenants will be going into both buildings and has not established building heights. Harbaugh cited strong demand that could change plans.

"It depends on what we wind up building; we can always adjust that," he said. "We let the market tell us what it needs."

He cited Three City Center as an example, saying the original plan started with a five-story building but demand from tenants increased the size to seven stories.

"It's a very positive sign for the whole Lehigh Valley," Harbaugh said. "The demand stays pretty darn strong. With preliminary leasing going so well on Three City Center, we know that when that building is filled, we will move onto the next building."

Harbaugh said he did not know exactly when construction would start on either Five or Six City Center, but said Five City Center would likely be next with the new financing in place.

The agreement reached at the ANIZDA meeting permits City Center Investment Corp. to put another $50 million into ANIZDA financing, a function of City Center's lending agreements that National Penn is leading, Harbaugh said.

"What we are doing is we're getting ready to continue to be successful," Harbaugh said.

The previously announced projects include Two City Center (National Penn Bank's recently completed new headquarters) a Renaissance Hotel by Marriott, One City Center (Lehigh Valley Health Network's sports medicine facility), Three City Center and Four City Center.

Source: LVB.com