Valley center could get a new downtown

A catalyst for Catasauqua.

A long-dormant industrial site could be a springboard for creating a new downtown in the Lehigh County borough, spurring future investment in a region that’s strategically located yet often overlooked.

Known as Iron Works, the 13-acre site of a former factory between the Pine Street Bridge and Willow Street abuts the Lehigh Canal and the Delaware and Lehigh River Trail. It could offer prime space for an economic rebirth, with the property’s central Lehigh Valley location and walkable amenities.

The borough owns the site, having bought it two years ago from FLSmidth, an engineering company that was the last occupant and had moved to Allentown in 2006. Now, Catasauqua officials are full-speed ahead in efforts to lure developers for what would be a massive mixed-use project.

Simply, Catasauqua wants to bring back an economically productive use to a site that’s been empty for nearly a decade. Iron Works could include residential units, apartments or townhouses, and about 30,000 square feet of retail or commercial space.

“What we are looking for is a mixed-use project,” said Vincent Smith, council president for Catasauqua. “We feel it’s going to be the most sustainable to our community. We have the density to pull it off.”

At one square mile and with a population of about 6,400, the borough should be a place where people can walk to buy groceries or work at retail shops, Smith said.

“We want to have goods and services in our municipality,” he said.

Spillman Farmer Architects of Bethlehem created a master plan for Catasauqua that included the relocation of its municipal facilities on the former FLSmidth property.

To anchor the site and attract development, the borough seeks a 38,000-square-foot complex for a fire station, police station and municipal office.

This portion would serve as the gateway to the Iron Works project, which would be developed next door.

“We are in the final stages of the municipal complex,” Smith said about design and permitting. “… We will need about two acres for our municipal property.”

Since buying the Iron Works property in 2013, the borough has seen interest.

“I’ve had two developers approach me personally,” Smith said. “We are looking forward to getting the parcel established.”

The borough obtained 440 Front St. by eminent domain and plans to demolish that building, Smith said.

The buildings on-site that are to the south of the 13 acres can be adaptively reused, Smith said. The borough would not do any demolition or abatement at that portion of the site. The buyer could reuse or demolish the buildings, he said.

Smith expects the borough to break ground on the municipal project in the spring and begin marketing Iron Works to developers.

The borough selected Whiting-Turner, which has an office in South Whitehall Township, as construction manager for the municipal complex, Smith said.

“For the rest of the site, we want to get rid of it, we want to sell it, and we want to sell it for a development we would like,” said Eugene Goldfeder, borough manager. Catasauqua bought the Iron Works property for about $750,000, he added.

The property must be sold to the highest bidder, but Goldfeder said by changing the zoning ordinance to restrict the types of uses, Catasauqua could sell with conditions on uses for the land. The property is zoned town-centered downtown commercial.

The preferred uses would be smaller, and in some instances different, than the existing zoning, he said.

“The zoning is going to be changed so that by early spring we can begin marketing it …,” Goldfeder said. “The developer can still be creative in how he designs it.”

Though a grocery store would be ideal, particularly one that could offer delivery service, retail may not be the main focus at Iron Works, Goldfeder said.

“We are not going to try to compete with the malls,” he said. “We want a commercial environment.”

This desired use could take the form of professional offices, such as those for a doctor, lawyer or dentist, and service businesses such as a barbershop or hair salon.

Once the site of an anthracite coal-fueled factory, the Iron Works site today is better suited for nonindustrial use, according to officials.

Partners on the project include Benesch, an engineering firm with an office in Allentown, the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.

The creation of an economic development zone for abandoned and underused sites in Whitehall, Catasauqua and Coplay could further spur redevelopment of the FLSmidth site.

In 2013, the Whitehall Catasauqua Coplay City Revitalization and Improvement Zone Committee applied to the state for an inter-municipal CRIZ designation but was denied. The inter-municipal plan would have created a zone similar to the Neighborhood Improvement Zone in Allentown.

The CRIZ allows certain state and local taxes generated by businesses in the zone to be used to finance construction and development of projects. In 2016, communities have another shot at achieving a CRIZ designation.

“It’s just another opportunity that we thought we had to look at,” Smith said.

The borough is not abandoning its efforts to establish an inter-municipal CRIZ.

“We are trying real hard to get authorization in the legislation that says our type of application is eligible,” Goldfeder said. “Once we are eligible to apply, we have to fight for our funding.”

However, redevelopment of the site would move forward regardless of gaining the incentive.

“The borough owns the property, so they control the entire transaction,” said Howard Lieberman, executive director for the Whitehall Township Industrial and Commercial Development Authority. “I would say 100 percent it’s moving forward.”

Source: LVB