A half-decade long plummet in building permits in the Lehigh
Valley has been reversed over the past few years.
And a big rise in industrial development is fueling that
turnaround, Becky Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning
Commission, told business professionals at a Thursday luncheon hosted by the
Whitehall Chamber of Commerce.
Before the spurt, she said, building permits fell by 78
percent from 2005-11.
“Of the total nonresidential development in the region, 68.8
percent has been industrial and has accounted for over 5 million square feet of
space,” Bradley said at the Fellowship Community Zentz Center in Whitehall.
The boom in commercial space, in turn, means more jobs and
more people, she said.
“Almost every sector in our region is projected to have
growth in jobs in the coming years,” Bradley said.
The Lehigh Valley has been growing in size at 1 percent each
year, and has been for the past 30 years.
More people have been relocating to the region as the
Valley’s economy continues to strengthen and more businesses open in the area,
she said.
“A lot of people are moving to the Lehigh Valley, and most
of them are coming from New Jersey and New York,” Bradley said.
Source: LVB.com
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