ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Waterfront, an ambitious redevelopment project along the Lehigh River in Allentown, could have its first residents in a few years.
That’s according to project manager David Lear, who on Tuesday earned the Allentown City Planning Commission’s final approval for a five-story building with more than 200 residential units, ground-floor shops and a restaurant.
Waterfront Development Co. — headed by Mark and Zachary Jaindl — must now secure permits before starting construction, which should last about two years, Lear, of Lehigh Engineering, told LehighValleyNews.com.
The complex — to be known as the River House — will be the first building at The Waterfront with housing options.
“If the demand was (there) for everything in that masterplan, we would be building it."Project manager David Lear of Lehigh Engineering
Plans show it will feature 49 apartments with two bedrooms, 133 with one bedroom and 19 studio units.
Waterfront Development is prioritizing its River House plans after opening its first office building — 615 Waterfront — in October 2023.
That opening came more than a decade after the company announced plans to overhaul the old Lehigh Structural Steel property.
The six-story building has about 100,000 square feet of class A office space across five floors, as well as ground-floor retail businesses. It’s the first of five “luxury” office buildings slated for the sprawling property.
But plans to build more offices at the Waterfront are on hold “due to the economics of office-space availabilities and demand right now,” Lear told the commission.
“If the demand was (there) for everything in that masterplan, we would be building it,” Lear said.
The developer hopes and expects the residential River House will help kick-start the project.
“We’re trying to … get something started. This is the way that we can do it,” Lear said.
Developer has broad flexibility
Crews already are working on the foundation for the future River House, Lear said, as plans for the structure were approved years ago by the planning commission.
The commission approved the first phase of the Waterfront project in 2013 and signed off on the second phase in 2019, officials said Tuesday.
Commissioners on Tuesday approved a reconfiguration that calls for a parking lot rather than a parking deck at the corner and makes other minor changes to the previously approved plan.
The commission approved the developer’s plans mostly as presented. Members voiced concerns about several portions, but the Allentown City Planning Commission granted the developer a lot of flexibility when it first approved the project long ago.
Commission Chairman Christian Brown told Lear he would have asked the developer for revisions to the plans presented Tuesday if the body’s hands weren’t tied by that prior approval.
Member Damien Brown told LehighValleyNews.com he also would’ve liked to see changes to the plan but understood the developer’s desire to move forward.
“In a vacuum, we would have loved to have seen a slightly larger building (and) structured parking,” Brown said. “But given the amount of time that has passed, the challenges that the developers face … simply for market dynamics, at this point, we preferred to see something happen.”
Renderings for the River House were not immediately available Tuesday.
Residents and reporters must now file a Right-to-Know request to obtain documents related to the proposals in front of the Allentown City Planning Commission, after a recent change in city procedure.
Those documents were accessible by request through city personnel for viewing until earlier this month.
