Developer proposes new apartments/office space in 10-story Bethlehem building

An Allentown developer is looking to transform an underused 10-story office building in Bethlehem into fresh apartment and office space, according to the city’s bureau of planning and zoning.

Borko Milosev, principal of Post Road Management LLC in Allentown, is the developer for the project.

The developer is looking to retain four floors as office space and is seeking a variance that would allow for 48 residential units on floors five through 10, according to Suzanne Borzak, the city’s zoning officer.

Post Road Management will appear before the zoning board at its next meeting March 25, she said.

The building – one of the tallest in Bethlehem – is at 65 E. Elizabeth Ave. near Moravian College. Lehigh Valley Business is on the seventh floor of the building, which was built in 1967.

The property is about 45 percent leased, said Philip Schenkel, vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle, the commercial real estate firm marketing the property.

According to Northampton County property records, 65 Elizabeth LLC bought the building in December 2014 for $2.7 million.

The connection, if any, between Milosev or Post Road Management and 65 Elizabeth LLC is not known. Milosev did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In 2013, Milosev tried to redevelop the Adelaide Mills property, a vacant silk mill in Allentown. He planned to transform the site, across from the Trans-Bridge bus station near Linden and Race streets, into apartments and retail/office space.

Ultimately, the deal to transform the mill did not go through since Lehigh County Commissioners voted down a proposal to approve the property as a Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone, which would have generated tax revenue and aided redevelopment efforts. A KOZ would exempt property owners, residents and businesses on the site from paying many taxes for 10 years.

In Easton, Post Road Management is renovating two historic buildings on Northampton Street to transform them into spaces with high-end apartments above and commercial space below.

Source: LVB.com