Demolition begins on $20M South Bethlehem Gateway project

Demolition is underway at Third and New streets in Bethlehem to make way for a $20M office complex.

Demolition is underway to clear the path for a six-story office building with retail space on the ground floor at a strategic entry point to South Bethlehem.

Workers are razing the vacant buildings at the corner of Third and New streets to make way for Bethlehem developer Dennis Benner’s Gateway at Greenway Park building, the first of several developments he is planning in this portion of the city.

St. Luke’s and Lehigh University will become the major office tenants of the Gateway at Greenway Park building, which will include an attached parking deck.

St. Luke’s will have a mixed-use floor of clinical, teaching and administrative space. Lehigh University plans to move 140 employees in its Office of Advancement into the building.

The $20-million, 125,000-square-foot building will include retail space on the first floor and office space on the second through sixth floors. Howard Kulp Architects of Allentown is the architect for the project, and Jim Eck, president of Quadratus Construction Management Inc., based in Whitehall, is the construction manager.

The project should be complete, with occupancy expected in the third quarter of 2017, Eck said.

Situated at the South Side entrance to the Fahy Bridge, which is under reconstruction, the Benner project will dramatically change the view that leads into the South Side. The bridge links New Street to the north and south side of the city. J.D. Eckman of Atglen, Chester County, is the construction manager on the $23.4 million project.

The rehabilitation of the Fahy Bridge should be complete by November 2017, said Ron Young, spokesman for Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Work on the structurally deficient bridge includes repairing the structure and substructure, replacing the deck and sidewalk and other construction.

Source: LVB