- Allentown Zoning Hearing Board approved a developer’s request to demolish three buildings on the 900 block of West Hamilton Street
- Blackstone Structures plans to build a 12-story apartment complex with 189 apartments
- The complex also could feature an educational center and a rooftop restaurant
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Three buildings that once were deemed historic are set to come down in Allentown to make way for a large apartment complex.
Allentown Zoning Hearing Board on Monday approved Blackstone Structures' request to demolish structures at 960, 962 and 966 W. Hamilton St., paving the way for the project to soon take shape.
The developer plans to build a 12-story complex with more than a quarter-million square feet of space. The building would feature 189 market-rate apartments, with an educational center on the first two floors.
Ninety of those units would be studios, with 63 one-bedroom apartments and 36 two-bedroom apartments.
Demolition is slated to start in January, with first residents scheduled to move in during the summer of 2025, Blackstone Structures developer Gary Newman said.
“It’s just not feasible to do anything but demolish."Robert Knauer, Zoning Hearing Board chair
Blackstone Structures also is eyeing a rooftop restaurant at its complex, which will be known as Edison Lofts West.
The developer’s Edison Lofts project is set to go up on the eastern side of the same block, where Allentown magnate Gen. Harry Trexler lived for 30 years.
Plans for that complex show 70 apartments across two buildings at 926-930 W. Hamilton St.
‘Not unique’
The developer needed zoners' approval to demolish the three buildings at the southeast corner of 10th and Hamilton streets because they are in the city’s Historic Building Demolition Overlay district.
The city Historical Architectural Review Board, which previously reviewed the demolition request, had little concern about plans to knock down the buildings at 960 and 966 W. Hamilton St.
But they felt the structure at 962 W. Hamilton St. — the center building — had some historic value, Newman said Monday night.
Newman said he considered refurbishing or moving the buildings in lieu of knocking them down, but the costs were too high.
“My observation is that [962 W. Hamilton St.] is not unique. ... It’s not the last of its kind or even close.”Robert Knauer, Zoning Hearing Board chair
Restoring those three buildings would cost about $1.7 million, he said.
A project to move just the most-historic structure from 962 W. Hamilton St. to another property in the city would cost about $350,000, Newman said.
Bringing it back into working condition, where a business could operate and people could live, would cost at least $1 million more, he said.
Zoning Hearing Board Chairman Robert Knauer said he felt Blackstone Structures “exceeded” requirements for razing a historic building, though he questioned whether the building is historic at all.
“My observation is that it’s not unique,” Knauer said, noting there are many like it throughout the city.
“It’s not the last of its kind or even close.”
Knauer said he agreed with the developer that the middle building of the three “can’t be moved.”
“It’s just not feasible to do anything but demolish,” he said.
Zoners also granted Blackstone Structures a “de minimis” variance for property-size shortfall.
City zoning ordinances require the building to sit on a property with at least 20,000 square feet, but the 960-966 W. Hamilton St. property, once consolidated, would have just over 19,200 square feet.
That total is less than 4% short of the requirement, Knauer said, calling it “unimportant.”
