ALLENTOWN, PA-The city made famous or perhaps infamous by singer/songwriter Billy Joel is attempting to reverse its fiscal fortunes by relocating a hockey arena and building more than a million square feet of office, retail and apartments in the downtown district.
Coined the Allentown project, the development calls for an office building already leased to a health-care system, a residential and retail complex, a 180-room Marriott Renaissance Hotel and an arena for the minor league hockey affiliate (the Phantoms) of the Philadelphia Flyers, according to the Wall Street Journal. City leaders are hopeful the project will lift the city's depressed property values.
About $500 million of the $1-billion initiative is currently under construction. The other $500 million is in the planning phase. Christopher Leinberger, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says the Allentown is one of the largest planned development projects among small to medium-sized cities across the country. See story in the Wall Street Journal.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.