ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An Allentown developer will add more units to two of his planned apartment complexes after convincing city zoning officials to reconsider their previous resistance.
The Allentown Zoning Hearing Board on Monday approved Nat Hyman’s application to put 10 more units into the so-called Washington Tower, taking the development to a total of 46 apartments.
- Allentown zoners approved developer Nat Hyman's plans to add more units to two apartment complexes
- Hyman previously received zoning approval for his Washington Tower and Cigar Factory properties
- Hyman said in May he expected zoners to deny his expanded application, and he was ready to appeal in court
Zoners also signed off on five more units at a project Hyman is calling the Cigar Factory Allentown.
Those approvals ended the prospect of litigation.
Washington Tower
The zoning hearing board in 2020 approved Hyman’s plans to put 36 units in the former silk mill and warehouse at 938 Washington St.
Those plans included parking spaces for tenants on the building’s ground floor, with apartments on the top four floors.
Hyman, CEO of the Hyman Group, said he then considered expanding his project plans to 50 units before withdrawing that proposal and seeking approval for 48 units. Zoners unanimously rejected that last summer.
The developer again sought permission this year to expand his project from 36 units, though slightly scaled back from the previously rejected plan’s scope.
Legal fight avoided
After tabling his proposal for 46 units during the zoning hearing board’s May 9 meeting, Hyman told LehighValleyNews.com he expected officials would later deny it, and he was prepared to appeal that decision in court.
Hyman said he would have fought the board's denial of his 48-unit proposal but legal deadlines lapsed after his attorney died.
Allentown’s zoning ordinances were at the root of the potential legal fight.
They require the Allentown Zoning Hearing Board to grant “only the least modification [to the ordinances] necessary to provide relief.”
The board’s approval of 36 units represented the “minimum relief necessary” to redevelop the building, members said in May, signaling they were unlikely to approve plans for more apartments.
Hyman said he wanted to put more units into the building after paying “a ridiculously exorbitant price” to secure dozens of parking spaces in garages close to the property.
Each unit will receive a parking space, eliminating the need for parking on the building’s first floor, Hyman argued. He told zoning officials he only proposed first-floor parking as a “last-ditch” attempt to redevelop the property.
The developer said it made sense “from a logical perspective” to replace the parking area with more apartments in “a city that desperately needs them.”
Hyman’s attorney, Eric Schoch, successfully argued Monday that the board should include the off-site parking spots when considering the proposal’s average square footage per unit.
The average size of a unit jumps from just over 300 square feet to 519 square feet when including parking on nearby properties, Schoch said. That would put the proposal in line with the city’s 500-square-foot minimum for studios and one-bedroom apartments.
Hyman said he was “elated” that zoners granted approval for his expansion plans before any legal fight started.
Construction is underway on the Washington Tower project, with Hyman planning to have all windows installed by the winter. The developer said he hopes to have residents move in during the first quarter of 2024.
Cigar Factory proposal
Allentown zoners on Monday granted Hyman’s request to add five units to his property in the 400 block of North 15th Street. That’s the third time Hyman has received approval from zoning officials for the property since 2016.
“This is still bittersweet to me, to only get 21 units out of this” after having approval for 69 apartments.Developer Nat Hyman
The developer was set to turn two warehouses on the site into 69 units before a fire ripped through the larger structure in October 2018.
The four-alarm blaze was “probably one of the largest fires of my 24 years here in the city,” then Allentown Fire Chief James Wehr told council members that month.
The blaze heavily damaged the larger building, which was torn down several days later. That eliminated all but 14 units from the project.
The fire “was one of the worst experiences I've had in my career,” Hyman said, adding he “lost a 70,000-square-foot building (in) one of the bigger fires in Allentown’s history.”
Hyman said the inferno broke out “a few days before we were going to start construction.”
“This is still bittersweet to me, to only get 21 units out of this” after having approval for 69 apartments, he said.
Monday’s approval means Hyman can turn five garages behind the property’s main structure into apartments.
